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jayeless's reviews
337 reviews
Storm at Dawn by Cheryl Lawson
4.0
Storm at Dawn is the follow-up to the hard sci-fi thriller, [b:We Are Mars|39948264|We Are Mars (The Rubicon Saga #1)|Cheryl Lawson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1525719179l/39948264._SY75_.jpg|61849275], that I read and really enjoyed earlier this year. Here, the people of the run-down Martian settlement, Rubicon, have to face off against further efforts to shut down and dismantle their home. Joining them are a fair few characters from Earth, who've been catapaulted in to play various roles in the conflict, but have to decide for themselves which side they want to stand on.
The book is slower-paced than its predecessor, but still an interesting read. It has a pretty large cast of characters but it's one of the rare indie books that does it well: the characters are introduced progressively and all have clear, distinct roles in the story. The characters' various interpersonal relationships (and conflicts) provide for a fair bit of depth in the storyline. I do think some of it is written a little clumsily (like in the first book, there's a lot of “telling” us what different characters are like and how they feel), but the rest of the setting and story is interesting enough that this is easily overlooked. Like the first book, it ends on something of a cliffhanger as one threat is eliminated only for a new and more formidable one to emerge.
This is probably a 3½ star book for me, and since Goodreads doesn't allow half-stars I've rounded up. I find it really stimulating to read this kind of tale about the challenges humanity will realistically face if we try to settle other worlds. There's no faster-than-light travel or Earth-like temperate climates here, just hardship and life-sustaining engineering that's barely holding together and the disinterest of an Earth that's got bored of its Martian experiment. And yet, at the same time, Cheryl Lawson does a wonderful job conveying the passion and general affection the residents of Rubicon have for their planet – the way they look out onto the hostile landscape and see beauty and “home”, and are so resolved not to let corrupt politicians on Earth rip that away from them. Looking forward to the next instalment!
The book is slower-paced than its predecessor, but still an interesting read. It has a pretty large cast of characters but it's one of the rare indie books that does it well: the characters are introduced progressively and all have clear, distinct roles in the story. The characters' various interpersonal relationships (and conflicts) provide for a fair bit of depth in the storyline. I do think some of it is written a little clumsily (like in the first book, there's a lot of “telling” us what different characters are like and how they feel), but the rest of the setting and story is interesting enough that this is easily overlooked. Like the first book, it ends on something of a cliffhanger as one threat is eliminated only for a new and more formidable one to emerge.
This is probably a 3½ star book for me, and since Goodreads doesn't allow half-stars I've rounded up. I find it really stimulating to read this kind of tale about the challenges humanity will realistically face if we try to settle other worlds. There's no faster-than-light travel or Earth-like temperate climates here, just hardship and life-sustaining engineering that's barely holding together and the disinterest of an Earth that's got bored of its Martian experiment. And yet, at the same time, Cheryl Lawson does a wonderful job conveying the passion and general affection the residents of Rubicon have for their planet – the way they look out onto the hostile landscape and see beauty and “home”, and are so resolved not to let corrupt politicians on Earth rip that away from them. Looking forward to the next instalment!
Slow Wanes the Night by Catherine Labadie
adventurous
emotional
slow-paced
4.0
I was wiping away tears by the end of this book, it moved me that much. I had to have a bit of a giggle when I got to the acknowledgements and it said something about how flattering it was that one of the early readers cried at the ending, because it was like, “Hey! Me too!” This is definitely one of those books that got me invested emotionally – which shouldn't be that surprising, because the first one, Long Grows the Dark, completely sucked me in with the tension between its four main characters.
So ordinarily I wouldn't dream of rating a book that got me to cry any less than five stars, but Slow Wanes the Night did have one flaw, which was that the first half felt so slow. Like, so slow. I suppose it was purposeful, dwelling as it did on the loneliness of the main characters after the bittersweet ending of the last book, making it incredibly exciting when the barriers between them started falling away in the second half. And it's not like nothing was happening, either. Things happen. Everleigh was battling to gain respect as Starford's new ruler, and also investigate some supernatural menace; Gwendoline and Niles were trying to search for four lords of the land, while the emotional distance between them grows to become a yawning crevasse. There was good stuff there, it was just a bit too slow to hold my attention reliably.
Thankfully, like I say, everything switched gears in the second half. The main characters have to actually start dealing with some of the fears and resentments keeping them apart, as their enemies become much clearer and more threatening. The atmosphere electrifies! There's a skin-crawling scene where the “baddies” reveal themselves, and then an incredible sex scene shortly after. The climax (which takes up the last fifth of the book) is all so tense and unpredictable, it had me glued to my screen for the hour and a half it took to read it. And then, yes, the epilogue reduced me to tears. I'd hesitate to call it “bittersweet”, but there was a real note of sadness to the happy ending that I found very moving.
Overall, this is a worthy follow-up to Long Grows the Dark, even if the first half demanded a little persistence from me. The ending is just brilliant, making this a must-read if you enjoyed the first book.
So ordinarily I wouldn't dream of rating a book that got me to cry any less than five stars, but Slow Wanes the Night did have one flaw, which was that the first half felt so slow. Like, so slow. I suppose it was purposeful, dwelling as it did on the loneliness of the main characters after the bittersweet ending of the last book, making it incredibly exciting when the barriers between them started falling away in the second half. And it's not like nothing was happening, either. Things happen. Everleigh was battling to gain respect as Starford's new ruler, and also investigate some supernatural menace; Gwendoline and Niles were trying to search for four lords of the land, while the emotional distance between them grows to become a yawning crevasse. There was good stuff there, it was just a bit too slow to hold my attention reliably.
Thankfully, like I say, everything switched gears in the second half. The main characters have to actually start dealing with some of the fears and resentments keeping them apart, as their enemies become much clearer and more threatening. The atmosphere electrifies! There's a skin-crawling scene where the “baddies” reveal themselves, and then an incredible sex scene shortly after. The climax (which takes up the last fifth of the book) is all so tense and unpredictable, it had me glued to my screen for the hour and a half it took to read it. And then, yes, the epilogue reduced me to tears. I'd hesitate to call it “bittersweet”, but there was a real note of sadness to the happy ending that I found very moving.
Overall, this is a worthy follow-up to Long Grows the Dark, even if the first half demanded a little persistence from me. The ending is just brilliant, making this a must-read if you enjoyed the first book.
Autumn Sonata by Noreen Riols
3.0
This book surprised me. It is horribly cheesy and melodramatic. The entire romance between Fleur and Hugh was so overwrought and read like bad fanfiction, and left me embarrassed to read this book on the train in case someone looked at the screen and noticed how turgid the prose was. It is also the worst-edited book I have ever read; it was so bad that I had to do a little investigation into the publisher, which seemed to me little more than a vanity publisher (if only for agented) books. They do not edit. It's obvious. In this book, ellipses are never limited to a mere three dots and there are serious issues with quotation marks. The punctuation is atrocious.
And yet in spite of all of that, unbelievably, I found myself completely unable to put down the second half of this book. I don't know how it happened. Maybe the author cast a magic spell. Who knows. But instead of rating this one star like I'd initially intended to, I have to give it three because I can't remember the last time I was so enthralled by a book (although this might be because I've been reading less this year). It was so suspenseful!And the ending, while initially unexpected for me, was very befitting of the book. $1.50 not too badly spent...
And yet in spite of all of that, unbelievably, I found myself completely unable to put down the second half of this book. I don't know how it happened. Maybe the author cast a magic spell. Who knows. But instead of rating this one star like I'd initially intended to, I have to give it three because I can't remember the last time I was so enthralled by a book (although this might be because I've been reading less this year). It was so suspenseful!