Scan barcode
A review by divine529
Aeson: Blue by Vera Nazarian
This was a lot better than I expected, especially since I don't always get on well with novellas.
If you haven't read the entire The Atlantis Grail series, don't read this until you have, or you'll be a bit lost.
This is primarily a backstory for Aeson (as evidenced by the title) and follows him in his cadet years from the time he's 7 up through the Incident we learn about in TAG, but we also get to get some of the backstory in some of the other characters from TAG like Oalla, Xelio, Keruvat, Erita and Elikara.
The writing, as with the writing of the series, takes a bit of time to settle into. There's a lot of room for editing and refining, but I also didn't find it as bad as normal. Also as with all of the previous books, it was detail heavy for the first half and then time jump after time jump for the second half. The writing also has a tendency to be dramatic and over the top and the dialogue is written in a way pretty much no one speaks, but overall it was decent.
The setting/world is one we're familiar with since it takes place on Atlantida, and if you've read the other books, you'll understand the traditions, customs and historical references that are scattered throughout, along with the random Atlanteo words. And that was pretty consistent from the main series (besides the age thing, which we'll get to).
The plot was also fine. It follows Aeson in his time at cadet school and it's generally a more character centric story, since we already have previous knowledge of the classes from the main series.
Finally, I found Aeson's arc to be written very similarly to Gwen's from the main series, but I enjoyed getting his backstory a bit and learning how he met everyone and what their relationships were like before we meet them in TAG. Xelio's backstory is also tragic and I really liked seeing their relationship unfold. Some of the relationships could've been fleshed out more, so certain events had more of an emotional impact, but overall this was the most solid part of the story.
All in all, a solid addition to the world.
TW/CW: violence, grief, death, mention of suicide
If you haven't read the entire The Atlantis Grail series, don't read this until you have, or you'll be a bit lost.
This is primarily a backstory for Aeson (as evidenced by the title) and follows him in his cadet years from the time he's 7 up through the Incident we learn about in TAG, but we also get to get some of the backstory in some of the other characters from TAG like Oalla, Xelio, Keruvat, Erita and Elikara.
The writing, as with the writing of the series, takes a bit of time to settle into. There's a lot of room for editing and refining, but I also didn't find it as bad as normal. Also as with all of the previous books, it was detail heavy for the first half and then time jump after time jump for the second half. The writing also has a tendency to be dramatic and over the top and the dialogue is written in a way pretty much no one speaks, but overall it was decent.
The setting/world is one we're familiar with since it takes place on Atlantida, and if you've read the other books, you'll understand the traditions, customs and historical references that are scattered throughout, along with the random Atlanteo words. And that was pretty consistent from the main series (besides the age thing, which we'll get to).
The plot was also fine. It follows Aeson in his time at cadet school and it's generally a more character centric story, since we already have previous knowledge of the classes from the main series.
Finally, I found Aeson's arc to be written very similarly to Gwen's from the main series, but I enjoyed getting his backstory a bit and learning how he met everyone and what their relationships were like before we meet them in TAG. Xelio's backstory is also tragic and I really liked seeing their relationship unfold. Some of the relationships could've been fleshed out more, so certain events had more of an emotional impact, but overall this was the most solid part of the story.
All in all, a solid addition to the world.
TW/CW: violence, grief, death, mention of suicide