A review by mj_james_writes
Amber Sky by Amy Braun

adventurous slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No
Amber Sky is the first story, chronologically, in the Dark Sky series by Amy Braun. The story is an independently published Novella that was written after the first books in the series. It is my first Amy Braun book, and my entrance to the Dark Sky world.

The novella follows Nash as he escapes from one of the last gangs in a post apocalyptic world. It was hard to get a complete sense of the world from the novella, I imagine there is more world building in the first books. From what I understand there was some storm that killed a lot of people. There are also aliens that hunt people. So, most humans live underground.

The story is interesting enough for me to continue on. I want to see how Braun writes a full length novel. I am hopeful that the characters and world will be a bit more flushed out. The novella wasn’t great, but it was good. I was interested nobly the world and wanted to see what happens. More so, I am interested to see how things developed.

Unfortunately, the formatting of the ebook (Kobo edition) was not great. I am not a fan of the spacing between paragraphs instead of indenting, especially since sentences were disconnected from paragraphs to, presumably, add emphasis. In addition, the font would randomly italicize until you were reading whole pages that way. It is not the most comfortable experience. Thankfully it would reset at the next chapter u til it happened again.

There were also noticeable grammar errors. Sentences were missing whole words. I understand the occasional errors. However, these were ones a read through should have picked up. There were also a lot of incomplete sentences. This seemed to be a choice, which I do not understand. You can add emphasis and still follow grammar rules. 

The other area of concern is the depiction of women in the story. There is only one female character, and the mention of other females. The one female character is around for the pleasure of men. She is a pretty face that needs Nash to rescue her. The other women are called wh***s and are talked about them being knocked around. There is no positive female representation. This is even more disappointing coming from a female author. 

With that being said, I do plan to continue. The books have great reviews, and I think this novella may have been a bit rushed and not as indicative of the major works. Even still, it was still an enjoyable read.
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