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A review by anthers
Unity by Elly Bangs
4.0
Unity follows Danae, a single fragment of a gestalt consciousness who has fled from the rest of herself after an incredible trauma. Now living in the underwater metropolis Bloom City as a tech servant indebted to its bloody rulers, she has decided it is time to go home. Enlisting the help of her lover Naoto and an enigmatic former mercenary named Alexi, she flees from the city across a ravaged landscape. Danae wants to become whole again. But doing so is incredibly dangerous, and in more ways than one…
A lot of the books that I like but want more of tend to fall into two categories. They have amazing plot and pacing, or they have amazing characters and character development, but not both. Unity manages to provide characters I am truly invested in and a fascinating plot that kept me turning pages out of sheer anticipation.
All three of the main characters are complex and richly portrayed. Not only are they made sympathetic, but they’re allowed to have flaws like jealousy, selfishness, and abrasiveness that aren’t excused. Instead it helps to drive home the message that we are all complex beings with good and bad aspects to ourselves. In my case it also helped me sympathize more with the characters because it was (in my opinion) a more accurate reflection of how most people outside of fiction act.
The worldbuilding was quite good as well, although I wish a little more time had been taken to explain how America fractured as it is in the setting of the books. What we get is not very detailed and mostly goes back into character development. This isn’t a make or break deal for me as a reader, but it got me curious!
Finally, the reason why this book is a 4-staar book and not 5-star book for me is the ending. Without going into spoilers, what has happened with Danae’s whole self while she was gone felt entirely too convenient and was used to do a sort of handwave explanation to several prior events in the book. It does make sense given the context of the story, and it is well-written in a technical sense, but it just didn’t leave me satiated.
Final rating: 4/5 stars.
A lot of the books that I like but want more of tend to fall into two categories. They have amazing plot and pacing, or they have amazing characters and character development, but not both. Unity manages to provide characters I am truly invested in and a fascinating plot that kept me turning pages out of sheer anticipation.
All three of the main characters are complex and richly portrayed. Not only are they made sympathetic, but they’re allowed to have flaws like jealousy, selfishness, and abrasiveness that aren’t excused. Instead it helps to drive home the message that we are all complex beings with good and bad aspects to ourselves. In my case it also helped me sympathize more with the characters because it was (in my opinion) a more accurate reflection of how most people outside of fiction act.
The worldbuilding was quite good as well, although I wish a little more time had been taken to explain how America fractured as it is in the setting of the books. What we get is not very detailed and mostly goes back into character development. This isn’t a make or break deal for me as a reader, but it got me curious!
Finally, the reason why this book is a 4-staar book and not 5-star book for me is the ending. Without going into spoilers, what has happened with Danae’s whole self while she was gone felt entirely too convenient and was used to do a sort of handwave explanation to several prior events in the book. It does make sense given the context of the story, and it is well-written in a technical sense, but it just didn’t leave me satiated.
Final rating: 4/5 stars.