Charlie Jane Anders

This is an unusual book. I didn't mind that it was a blend of fantasy - witches and talking birds etc - and science fiction - interdimensional gateways, wormholes etc - but it does have a rather kitchen sink approach. The initial part where the two main characters are schoolchildren is more interesting although the dysfunctional parents of both veer very much into cartoon territory with their totally messed up approach to parenting and lack of support to kids who are obviously being bullied at school (and in Patricia's case by her older sister). But it jumps ahead to when they are grown up and have each gone on divergent paths - Patricia having finally managed to get into witch/wizard school and Laurence becoming part of a huge science project to save a fraction of humanity from a climate change and political meltdown which is worse than today's - and deals with their troubled relationship from then on.

A lot of the characters in this are very much paper cut-outs such as Laurence's erstwhile girlfriend. There is a lot of 'clever' writing in the later part of the book which comes across as slick and shallow. Patricia transforms into rather a Mary Sue character: she is so beautiful, wise etc etc and the only non Mary Sue part of the trope is that her fellow witches have a huge downer on her rather than worshipping the ground she walks on. The female characters are usually shown with an emphasis on physical appearance and attractiveness to men. And there are a few rather icky sex scenes or descriptions of attraction between the main characters which come across as purple prose. It's rather a shame that something which started off interestingly unravels by the rushed ending. So I can't really give this more than an OK 2 stars.… (lisätietoja)

Representation: Side Black and Asian characters
Trigger warnings: Death of a friend, gun violence, explosions

5.5/10, this book is getting boring, the plot drags so much and all the characters felt so flat, might be because there were so many characters there wasn't enough pages to make them develop. It felt like Tina and Marrant were the only main characters in the book, and the rest of the characters were just side characters. Elza was acting very preachily, since she was talking about Black culture erasure, which has no place in this book, and she isn't even on Earth! The romance felt very flat as well, and Tina's thoughts felt a bit giddy and dorky, while Elza was this annoying brat who used her trauma as excuse for her behaviour. There has been a lot of death as well, five side characters in this book were targeted and killed by Marrant, but I couldn't care less about them. At least the action develops after 300 pages, but interestingly, there was action at the start as well. I highly doubt that I would pick this one up again but I might read the next two books in the series which look interesting to me by the way. The cycle time system was confusing, why not just use the normal time system used on Earth?… (lisätietoja)

https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/hugos-2023-lodestar-award-for-best-ya-book/

This sequel seemed to me independently enjoyable even if you haven’t read (or can’t remember) last year’s Victories Greater than Death. Six teens turn out to be vital to the future of humanity, and must confront various potentially fatal challenges for high stakes while dealing with the usual agonies of relationships and (interestingly) creativity.… (lisätietoja)