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jenbsbooks's review against another edition
adventurous
2.5
2.5 stars? Hmmmm -- how to rate this. 3* means "I liked it" (not as much as 4* or 5* of course) and 2* generally has something that bugged me/didn't like (more for a 1*). Here ... there was nothing I was critical of; the writing was fine, the story was okay ... I just really never got pulled in. It didn't keep my interest, I finished it, but it was a bit of a push and I don't think I'll remember it. Not going to go on to the sequel.
After some realistic/contemporary/historical I really WANTED something different and sought this out (looking for fantasy included in KU w/audio). This turned out to be more sci-fi than fantasy though, and with the "empire" and "imperial" and "The Senate" and the bad guy who ends up half-machine and the boy/girl twins who are the heirs (not Skywalker, but "Scourwind" even has the S....W...) but too many parallels to Star Wars for me.
I don't give recaps in my reviews ... probs a good thing, as I don't think I absorbed enough of the story (was there enough of a story?) to write one up. It started right off with the action (prologue ... I often wonder why some things are a "prologue" and not just the first chapter ... I had that though here) - a train through a snowy mountain, an "enhanced" character Mira (would have liked to learn a little more about that, felt like it was mentioned a couple times but not really explored). I liked Mira. Then there were the twins, Kayle and Lydia. The bad guy. So basically the story was Mira helping the twins take back the empire from the bad guy.
Everything was 3rd person/past tense - staying chronological.
I went with the audio, although I turned to the Kindle text at times (very rarely a book will capture me in text if it didn't in audio ... unfortunately not the case here). One thing I've been tracking ... is the f-bomb in it. Again, have to say yes, even though it was just once.
After some realistic/contemporary/historical I really WANTED something different and sought this out (looking for fantasy included in KU w/audio). This turned out to be more sci-fi than fantasy though, and with the "empire" and "imperial" and "The Senate" and the bad guy who ends up half-machine and the boy/girl twins who are the heirs (not Skywalker, but "Scourwind" even has the S....W...) but too many parallels to Star Wars for me.
I don't give recaps in my reviews ... probs a good thing, as I don't think I absorbed enough of the story (was there enough of a story?) to write one up. It started right off with the action (prologue ... I often wonder why some things are a "prologue" and not just the first chapter ... I had that though here) - a train through a snowy mountain, an "enhanced" character Mira (would have liked to learn a little more about that, felt like it was mentioned a couple times but not really explored). I liked Mira. Then there were the twins, Kayle and Lydia. The bad guy. So basically the story was Mira helping the twins take back the empire from the bad guy.
Everything was 3rd person/past tense - staying chronological.
I went with the audio, although I turned to the Kindle text at times (very rarely a book will capture me in text if it didn't in audio ... unfortunately not the case here). One thing I've been tracking ... is the f-bomb in it. Again, have to say yes, even though it was just once.
diaryofthebookdragon's review against another edition
4.0
Likes:
+ Interesting idea. A mix of fantasy and sf. There are castles, nobles, empire in peril. But there is futuristic technology also. Reminded me of 'Star Wars'.
+ Twin siblings. Loved how they develop from spoiled royalties to survivors and how they used all 'stupid' things the teachers thought them to stay alive.
+ Awesome tech.
+ Musings about what it takes to be a leader.
+ Perfect ending
+ I have a huge girl-crush on Mira Desol. She dominated my heart as surely as that awesome book cover. I loved her daring and how she broke the rules when fighting. I'm sorry the whole book is not about her.
Dislikes:
- Too many characters and POVs. I felt disconnected from the story.
- Sometimes there are too many unnecessary descriptions. For example: what is happening to human body when hit by some high tech bullets.
This was fun. Now I want to re-watch Star Wars! Recommended.
+ Interesting idea. A mix of fantasy and sf. There are castles, nobles, empire in peril. But there is futuristic technology also. Reminded me of 'Star Wars'.
+ Twin siblings. Loved how they develop from spoiled royalties to survivors and how they used all 'stupid' things the teachers thought them to stay alive.
+ Awesome tech.
+ Musings about what it takes to be a leader.
+ Perfect ending
+ I have a huge girl-crush on Mira Desol. She dominated my heart as surely as that awesome book cover. I loved her daring and how she broke the rules when fighting. I'm sorry the whole book is not about her.
Mira by then had a predatory look on her face. "Oh, and you might want to tell the crew to secure for maneuvering."
"Yes, my lady," he answered dutifully, reaching for the ship's blower.
"Gas." Mira's voice caused him to pause and glance back.
"Yes?"
"Make sure they're really secure."
Oh hell. Gaston groaned. It was going to be one of those days.
Dislikes:
- Too many characters and POVs. I felt disconnected from the story.
- Sometimes there are too many unnecessary descriptions. For example: what is happening to human body when hit by some high tech bullets.
This was fun. Now I want to re-watch Star Wars! Recommended.
pjonsson's review against another edition
5.0
This is a sci-fi adventure that, primarily due to the setting, is somewhat different from the usual stories out there. At least from the ones I usually read. I found it very good. It is filled with action, has an interesting setting, good characters and is well written.
The setting is somewhat different. It is clear fairly early that the world where the story plays itself out is a remnant of something much older, much bigger and much more advanced and powerful. The present day inhabitants have lost much of their history and what remains is shrouded in legends and mysteries. They live in a world were the sun never sets and seeing the stars at knight is a unknown concept.
The inhabitants of the known part of their world is ruled by an emperor and his rule is about to suffer a serious setback to say the least. The book pretty much jumps straight into the action and introduces the two main characters. One of them being the lady hero of the story. I have to say that I immediately took a liking to this character. A liking which continued throughout the book. Not that there are a lack of likable, and dislikeable, characters around though.
The technology is a mixture of advanced tech and less advanced ditto. Like trains running on “quantum-locked rails” mixed up with “sail boats” roaming the skies and mentally bonded near magical weapons that are remnants from the past and cannot be reproduced by the technology possessed by the current inhabitants of this strange world.
Throughout the book we get hints as to what this world really is and for the habitual science fiction reader it is soon fairly clear what we are talking about even though the origins and why the current inhabitants seems to have lost the knowledge about their origins are still a mystery.
I found the book very entertaining to read. It has built a great universe for further adventures and I definitely hope that the author will make this into a book series with further books. There are some great possibilities here.
The setting is somewhat different. It is clear fairly early that the world where the story plays itself out is a remnant of something much older, much bigger and much more advanced and powerful. The present day inhabitants have lost much of their history and what remains is shrouded in legends and mysteries. They live in a world were the sun never sets and seeing the stars at knight is a unknown concept.
The inhabitants of the known part of their world is ruled by an emperor and his rule is about to suffer a serious setback to say the least. The book pretty much jumps straight into the action and introduces the two main characters. One of them being the lady hero of the story. I have to say that I immediately took a liking to this character. A liking which continued throughout the book. Not that there are a lack of likable, and dislikeable, characters around though.
The technology is a mixture of advanced tech and less advanced ditto. Like trains running on “quantum-locked rails” mixed up with “sail boats” roaming the skies and mentally bonded near magical weapons that are remnants from the past and cannot be reproduced by the technology possessed by the current inhabitants of this strange world.
Throughout the book we get hints as to what this world really is and for the habitual science fiction reader it is soon fairly clear what we are talking about even though the origins and why the current inhabitants seems to have lost the knowledge about their origins are still a mystery.
I found the book very entertaining to read. It has built a great universe for further adventures and I definitely hope that the author will make this into a book series with further books. There are some great possibilities here.
leetcat's review against another edition
5.0
I got this book from netgallery. I would say this is an amazing book. Evan does a great job bringing this new fantasy universe to life. The characters are very convincing, I love the first character that is brought into the book, Mira who is a strong female character who as a reader you immediately admire.
This seems like a very typical fight good vs bad. Where there are great battles and amazing scenes described, that really make his book enjoyable.
This book does not follow any one character I would say it has about 5 main characters it follows through out the book. I would say this is very typical of Evans more recent work, and similar to many other books in the fantasy sections of amazon.com.
This seems like a very typical fight good vs bad. Where there are great battles and amazing scenes described, that really make his book enjoyable.
This book does not follow any one character I would say it has about 5 main characters it follows through out the book. I would say this is very typical of Evans more recent work, and similar to many other books in the fantasy sections of amazon.com.
bananatricky's review
4.0
I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in return for an honest review.
Wow!
I requested this from NetGalley a while back and had forgotten the blurb by the time I came to read it.
The book is set in a future on a strange world - I have lots of theories about that which I am sure other readers will also have but since that is part of the story I won't spoil anything.
The story opens with a rather special train racing across the desert at incredible speeds. Aboard the train are 100 soldiers, a knight and a member of the Cadre, oh and a very special prisoner - a traitor who plotted to overthrow Emperor Scourwind and killed thousands of people in the attempt who is being escorted to a high security prison in the desert. When the train is highjacked and the soldiers turn on the Knight and Mira Delsol to assist the prisoner, former General Corian it sets in train a series of events leading to the overthrow of the Emperor. Corian needs one of the Emperor's three children to act as a puppet until he can consolidate his power but the two youngest escape.
I think the hallmark of a good book is that it sets off resonances with other books - never a carbon-copy but just small similarities. For all that this is just one book it reminded me of so many different books/series.
The book just throws you into the middle of everything, part Star Wars with the Amaranti (think Jedi swords), futuristic with trains and skimmers which can travel at 15,000 miles an hour, part steam-punk with ships which fly at 30,000 feet using huge sails, but also part fantasy with Knights and Emperors.
I can't really think of a good way to describe this book without recounting the plot - it has space piracy, bratty twins who hold the Empire in their hands, skilled fighters with almost superhuman skills and semi-sentient technology.
Wow!
I requested this from NetGalley a while back and had forgotten the blurb by the time I came to read it.
The book is set in a future on a strange world - I have lots of theories about that which I am sure other readers will also have but since that is part of the story I won't spoil anything.
The story opens with a rather special train racing across the desert at incredible speeds. Aboard the train are 100 soldiers, a knight and a member of the Cadre, oh and a very special prisoner - a traitor who plotted to overthrow Emperor Scourwind and killed thousands of people in the attempt who is being escorted to a high security prison in the desert. When the train is highjacked and the soldiers turn on the Knight and Mira Delsol to assist the prisoner, former General Corian it sets in train a series of events leading to the overthrow of the Emperor. Corian needs one of the Emperor's three children to act as a puppet until he can consolidate his power but the two youngest escape.
I think the hallmark of a good book is that it sets off resonances with other books - never a carbon-copy but just small similarities. For all that this is just one book it reminded me of so many different books/series.
The book just throws you into the middle of everything, part Star Wars with the Amaranti (think Jedi swords), futuristic with trains and skimmers which can travel at 15,000 miles an hour, part steam-punk with ships which fly at 30,000 feet using huge sails, but also part fantasy with Knights and Emperors.
I can't really think of a good way to describe this book without recounting the plot - it has space piracy, bratty twins who hold the Empire in their hands, skilled fighters with almost superhuman skills and semi-sentient technology.
slc333's review against another edition
3.0
I received a copy of this from the publisher via Netgalley in return for an honest review. Unfortunately the copy I received was so riddled with formatting issues I was unable to complete it which is a crying shame because the little bit i was able to read seemed pretty darn good. I will definitely be looking out for a copy of this that doesn't suffer from editing and formatting issues.
**************UPDATED******************
As stated I started a review copy but was unable to read it due to a multitude of formatting issues so I was pleased to finally get my hands on a readable copy. And due to a recent spate of average, cliché books that I have struggled to finish this one stood out for its ability to grab and keep my attention. That is not to say it is without fault just that the story - while fairly standard with military coup, politics, lost heirs, reluctant ex-military hero and battles for the throne – was interesting and action packed. Now onto to our characters. There was no-one I hated, not even our villain Corian. Because he is a good villain – good in the sense that he is a bad guy without being caricature. He does some pretty bad stuff but he thinks he is in the right. I particularly like heir to the throne Lydia and felt she was the character I got the best understanding of. Mira was interesting and I liked what we saw of her. The problem is we don’t really get to know her that well. And that brings me to one of the problems I had – there was too much going on and too many character viewpoints. Yes these gave us a comprehensive view of the conflict from all different perspectives (including people who die in the same scene we meet them in) but it reduces the time spent with any one character to the point that I never really felt like I got on know any of them. I enjoy more than one POV but I prefer to at least have one main protagonist that I can follow through the majority of the story. In this case, from both the synopsis and the prologue I was expecting that person to be Mira and I would have been happy with that. However, it wasn’t really anyone. For those that got more than one scene from their POV we had Mira, William, Lydia, Bren, Corian and Kayle then we had a bunch of random individual POVs. The other issue I had was that I found myself quite confused by the world building and didn’t feel that it was explained very well. BUT that could have just been me as I was tired and unwell when reading it and I often struggle to get my head around this kind of stuff. I really liked the connection between the Cadre and the Armatis and I definitely would have liked more on that.
**************UPDATED******************
As stated I started a review copy but was unable to read it due to a multitude of formatting issues so I was pleased to finally get my hands on a readable copy. And due to a recent spate of average, cliché books that I have struggled to finish this one stood out for its ability to grab and keep my attention. That is not to say it is without fault just that the story - while fairly standard with military coup, politics, lost heirs, reluctant ex-military hero and battles for the throne – was interesting and action packed. Now onto to our characters. There was no-one I hated, not even our villain Corian. Because he is a good villain – good in the sense that he is a bad guy without being caricature. He does some pretty bad stuff but he thinks he is in the right. I particularly like heir to the throne Lydia and felt she was the character I got the best understanding of. Mira was interesting and I liked what we saw of her. The problem is we don’t really get to know her that well. And that brings me to one of the problems I had – there was too much going on and too many character viewpoints. Yes these gave us a comprehensive view of the conflict from all different perspectives (including people who die in the same scene we meet them in) but it reduces the time spent with any one character to the point that I never really felt like I got on know any of them. I enjoy more than one POV but I prefer to at least have one main protagonist that I can follow through the majority of the story. In this case, from both the synopsis and the prologue I was expecting that person to be Mira and I would have been happy with that. However, it wasn’t really anyone. For those that got more than one scene from their POV we had Mira, William, Lydia, Bren, Corian and Kayle then we had a bunch of random individual POVs. The other issue I had was that I found myself quite confused by the world building and didn’t feel that it was explained very well. BUT that could have just been me as I was tired and unwell when reading it and I often struggle to get my head around this kind of stuff. I really liked the connection between the Cadre and the Armatis and I definitely would have liked more on that.
mlejoy's review
4.0
This is my first Evan Currie book (and available free from the Kindle Lending Library) and I really enjoyed it. Constant action right from the first page, an interesting world, good characters. My main complaint is this is NOT a stand alone book. The entire story line in the book only gets vaguely resolved (it doesn't end on a cliff hanger, just lots of questions and one major thing that wasn't taken care of). I feel cheated that I read it without any indication that I'll have to wait for future books to get things cleared up. I have a pretty steadfast rule not to read any series that isn't finished. So - if it doesn't bother you to have to wait two years for answers - go for it :)
colossal's review against another edition
2.0
Interesting world-building let down by purple prose and mediocre story-telling.
On his way to a secure prison General Corian escapes due to the treachery of the troops escorting him there as they betray their leader Mira Delsol. He then leads a successful rebellion against Emperor, again aided by treacherous insiders. The Emperor's younger children, teenage twins escape and eventually meet up with Mira. Loyalist forces meet up with them and then attempt to retake the Empire.
The world building is the star here with the Empire existing as one square cell of what sounds an awful lot like an enormous artificial object, either a Niven Ring or a Dyson Sphere, although the people don't seem to realize this. There also seems to be aliens that have somehow interbred with the humans here and people with more alien blood have the ability to use certain alien technologies. This stuff is the redeeming parts of the book.
Unfortunately, the book itself is a completely pedestrian military SF with some incredibly purple prose. Seriously, this author has never met an adjective he doesn't like. Despite that, descriptions are few and far between, and some of the more fantastic technology, particularly of the sailcraft, need to be imagined rather than pictured. There's also lots of background that gets alluded to but never appropriately explored including the twin's issues with the Cadre (which stem from an incident never explained) and the Emperor's obvious preparation for a Cadre rebellion.
As to the plot? No twists. No turns. Everything I put in the paragraph above happens. No surprises. Yawn.
On his way to a secure prison General Corian escapes due to the treachery of the troops escorting him there as they betray their leader Mira Delsol. He then leads a successful rebellion against Emperor, again aided by treacherous insiders. The Emperor's younger children, teenage twins escape and eventually meet up with Mira. Loyalist forces meet up with them and then attempt to retake the Empire.
The world building is the star here with the Empire existing as one square cell of what sounds an awful lot like an enormous artificial object, either a Niven Ring or a Dyson Sphere, although the people don't seem to realize this. There also seems to be aliens that have somehow interbred with the humans here and people with more alien blood have the ability to use certain alien technologies. This stuff is the redeeming parts of the book.
Unfortunately, the book itself is a completely pedestrian military SF with some incredibly purple prose. Seriously, this author has never met an adjective he doesn't like. Despite that, descriptions are few and far between, and some of the more fantastic technology, particularly of the sailcraft, need to be imagined rather than pictured. There's also lots of background that gets alluded to but never appropriately explored including the twin's issues with the Cadre (which stem from an incident never explained) and the Emperor's obvious preparation for a Cadre rebellion.
As to the plot? No twists. No turns. Everything I put in the paragraph above happens. No surprises. Yawn.
chrisistrangerthanu's review against another edition
5.0
4.5 I really enjoyed this book, far more than I expected to for 99c of price. It was engaging, politically intense and all the characters had levels of complexity. Mira was set up from the first moment that we see her as a tough character, a bit sadistic and dealing with some serious bitterness after the prologue. Brennan and Lydia were great too, very different and it was evident that the author remembered that they were only 14, so they acted irrationally at times. They also suffered their own amount of trauma.
I liked the multiple perspectives of the book more than I thought I would. Because they were short segments, it kept the action flowing and allowed multiple perspectives of the same situation. I found Corian's, Mira's and Brennan's POV to be the most entertaining. I generally avoid books with no love story, but I didn't even notice the lack in this book, I was enjoying myself so much. The science jargon was well balanced too, informative without laying it on too thick. I loved the idea of the skimmers and the technology was easy to picture, which isn't always the case in the sci-fi genre.
My only issues with the story and the reasons I can't give it 5 stars are due to the fact I wanted more information, a lot of the story felt uncompleted such Brennan's connection to Bene and the history of the metal. It bugged me a bit too much, but if there is a sequel, then I may revise this opinion.
I liked the multiple perspectives of the book more than I thought I would. Because they were short segments, it kept the action flowing and allowed multiple perspectives of the same situation. I found Corian's, Mira's and Brennan's POV to be the most entertaining. I generally avoid books with no love story, but I didn't even notice the lack in this book, I was enjoying myself so much. The science jargon was well balanced too, informative without laying it on too thick. I loved the idea of the skimmers and the technology was easy to picture, which isn't always the case in the sci-fi genre.
My only issues with the story and the reasons I can't give it 5 stars are due to the fact I wanted more information, a lot of the story felt uncompleted such Brennan's connection to Bene and the history of the metal. It bugged me a bit too much, but if there is a sequel, then I may revise this opinion.