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Time to Orbit: Unknown #2
The Antarctica Conspiracy
It hasn't been easy, but under the careful hand of its makeshift crew, the starship Courageous limps towards its destination. With every passing day, the promise of ground under their feet and a new, safe home looms closer. But Aspen and the crew have only begun to untangle the knotted web of conspiracies and experiments that doomed their predecessors, and what awaits them at their destination is something that nobody expects.
You can run pretty far, in space. But sometimes, what you're running from is a whole lot less important than what you're inadvertently running to.
You can run pretty far, in space. But sometimes, what you're running from is a whole lot less important than what you're inadvertently running to.
716 pages, ebook
Published August 31, 2024
16 people are currently reading
77 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
December 1, 2024
Cannot believe it's over. What a story.
Part two is slightly less mystery focused than part one, especially in the last half, but still has plenty of unexpected twists to keep you on your toes. A few I expected but most I never would have guessed. What an insane ending. I already explained most of what makes this story great reviewing part one, so to put it simply: A great ride from start to finish (which over a whopping 1,298 pages is no small feat!)
Part two is slightly less mystery focused than part one, especially in the last half, but still has plenty of unexpected twists to keep you on your toes. A few I expected but most I never would have guessed. What an insane ending. I already explained most of what makes this story great reviewing part one, so to put it simply: A great ride from start to finish (which over a whopping 1,298 pages is no small feat!)
December 23, 2024
Wonderfully satisfying ending to a wild ride.
December 19, 2025
This was such an enjoyable book. I can usually spot at least a few things coming but not this time. For two reasons, 1) I was so immersed in the world my brain wasn’t working up solutions just to stay focused and 2) the turns happened unexpectedly. A lot of times books lead you without end and then it’s a surprise TWIST! This one wasn’t like that, plans just changed and you flowed along with it like a smooth river.
October 18, 2025
As the story here is long enough to split into two books, so is my review. In the first one, I talked about the duology's structure, flaws, and about Aspen as a character. This one will talk about the way this book handles unexpected and evolving challenges, and on the very difficult themes it handles. The tl;dr remains unchanged: get on the normal spaceship, nothing bad will happen, you will not regret losing the next few days to a time warp.
Ready to pick up your pack and keep going? Let's do that.
The second half of the TTOU story is a great deal more socially-focused than the first half, and after an explosive start, it becomes slower and more contemplative, which occasionally throws people for a loop. To me, that was a delight--the crew was due a reprieve, and you cannot spend five years in a constant crisis, no matter how bad things get. People get used to everything, and to me, the truly interesting thing is what happens when the dust settles.
And what happens is life. Few are the books that let the people they follow grow, settle, evolve. Fall into relationships and fall out of them. Grow closer and grow farther apart, grow into each other, yet choose to go their separate ways when it matters. The moments that hit hardest for me in the second half of the story weren't usually the big revelations or the big dramatic moments (save for one, near the end. If you've read the story, you probably thought of the same one.) It was the way in which, in full keeping with a sociologist protagonist, the book examines the daily life built by the Courageous crew. All jokes about the normal spaceship aside, the recognition of how exceptional circumstances slowly, unnoticeably become normal is possibly one of the best sociological themes one could want in a story, and it is a theme that I do not see handled often, much less in a way that I continuously enjoyed, whether the story itself was going slowly or quickly, or even as it took unexpected turns that quickly challenged the fragile new norm.
And speaking of unexpected turns. The second half of the book occasionally gets ragged on for switching gears or lacking foreshadowing from the first half. I'm someone who tends to make their work too symmetric and considers that a personal weakness, so watching someone do the exact opposite was a distinct pleasure. Notably, Edala doesn't do this for a lack of skill, but as a philosophical point. Life is hard to predict, and while we can try to prepare for the challenges we will face, the reality is that usually they are all but impossible to even imagine in advance. Some of the transitions in this book could have perhaps been handled with more grace, but it is rare one sees an author state this so loudly and clearly. It was jarring the first time I'd read it, but it has since come to be one of my favorite things about the way the story is structured.
As for what actually happens in the book... I keep trying to write about the story's events in the same way I wrote about Aspen in the first review, hoping to both get my point across but avoid serious spoilers, but it is proving a challenge! Let's try like this: the cross-cultural clashes our protagonists wind up having to solve are very different than the ones which they imagined, but they were no less compelling to me. To what extent this was because of my own history and to what extent this was because of Edala's craft is difficult to differentiate. I can only say that reading the descriptions alongside with Aspen, slowly putting together the details, and then quietly going, "Ah. My grandparents lived through that. I have family dead because of the same kind of thing that's happening here" was a gut punch, and that the topic was handled gracefully.
The other topic that packs a gut punch in this book is medical treatment as loss of autonomy, crossing into punitive psychiatry. This, too, was a topic I'd both done work on and had personal experience of, so again I have a hard time discerning what exactly picked me up and smashed me into a wall--the theme itself, or the way it was executed. Both, I think. This is the part of the story where our arguable deuteragonist's arc finds its resolution, and it is not a pleasant thing to read by any means--but the truthfulness of the story more than makes up for it. Off-handed, well-intentioned, accidental cruelty is a major theme in this book, both at its beginning and at its end, and to me, it is handled beautifully--including the way the survivors recover, as they do: slowly, in fits and starts, skirting around the pain at first, then growing around it over a matter of months and years. The sheer accuracy of the Edala's narrative here gutted me. I'd listened to stories like this one, read them, wrote about them, and in a much, much milder way than depicted--lived them. TTOU's depiction rang true. It is perhaps one of my favorite survival narratives in the world.
I will mention just one of my favorite elements of how Edala executes this story: the way Aspen's compassionate gaze pulls a veil over many elements other authors would linger on, while still giving us more than enough to feel the events' impact. On a Doylist level, it reads like a principled stand against misery porn; on a Watsonian one, it is a heartwrenching mix of both professional and personal compassion. Aspen's narrative always keeps the sensitive topics in view, but the way they do it is wonderful--out of the corner of their eye, just enough for us to understand, but firmly drawing the curtains where they need to. I am very grateful for this depiction. In this day and age of turning people's souls inside out in full public view, we could all stand to learn how to do this better, especially the professionals.
I won't say too much about the ending of the story, except that I found myself dropping my head into my hands and going, "Well, Aspen, best of luck with your freshly opened, absolutely normal can of worms! I can always count on you to find and/or make one. At least you're in good company, so chase the stars--and maybe I'll see you on the other side." It's a beginning more than an ending, and that feels very appropriate.
To conclude, this review, Time to Orbit: Unknown isn't a perfect story. It has its weak points, its dropped conflicts, its non-sequiturs and its moments of craft failure. But warts and all, the duology has become one of my favorite books, and a story I will likely remain in conversation with for a very long time. Give it a try. Perhaps it'll capture you, too.
Ready to pick up your pack and keep going? Let's do that.
The second half of the TTOU story is a great deal more socially-focused than the first half, and after an explosive start, it becomes slower and more contemplative, which occasionally throws people for a loop. To me, that was a delight--the crew was due a reprieve, and you cannot spend five years in a constant crisis, no matter how bad things get. People get used to everything, and to me, the truly interesting thing is what happens when the dust settles.
And what happens is life. Few are the books that let the people they follow grow, settle, evolve. Fall into relationships and fall out of them. Grow closer and grow farther apart, grow into each other, yet choose to go their separate ways when it matters. The moments that hit hardest for me in the second half of the story weren't usually the big revelations or the big dramatic moments (save for one, near the end. If you've read the story, you probably thought of the same one.) It was the way in which, in full keeping with a sociologist protagonist, the book examines the daily life built by the Courageous crew. All jokes about the normal spaceship aside, the recognition of how exceptional circumstances slowly, unnoticeably become normal is possibly one of the best sociological themes one could want in a story, and it is a theme that I do not see handled often, much less in a way that I continuously enjoyed, whether the story itself was going slowly or quickly, or even as it took unexpected turns that quickly challenged the fragile new norm.
And speaking of unexpected turns. The second half of the book occasionally gets ragged on for switching gears or lacking foreshadowing from the first half. I'm someone who tends to make their work too symmetric and considers that a personal weakness, so watching someone do the exact opposite was a distinct pleasure. Notably, Edala doesn't do this for a lack of skill, but as a philosophical point. Life is hard to predict, and while we can try to prepare for the challenges we will face, the reality is that usually they are all but impossible to even imagine in advance. Some of the transitions in this book could have perhaps been handled with more grace, but it is rare one sees an author state this so loudly and clearly. It was jarring the first time I'd read it, but it has since come to be one of my favorite things about the way the story is structured.
As for what actually happens in the book... I keep trying to write about the story's events in the same way I wrote about Aspen in the first review, hoping to both get my point across but avoid serious spoilers, but it is proving a challenge! Let's try like this: the cross-cultural clashes our protagonists wind up having to solve are very different than the ones which they imagined, but they were no less compelling to me. To what extent this was because of my own history and to what extent this was because of Edala's craft is difficult to differentiate. I can only say that reading the descriptions alongside with Aspen, slowly putting together the details, and then quietly going, "Ah. My grandparents lived through that. I have family dead because of the same kind of thing that's happening here" was a gut punch, and that the topic was handled gracefully.
The other topic that packs a gut punch in this book is medical treatment as loss of autonomy, crossing into punitive psychiatry. This, too, was a topic I'd both done work on and had personal experience of, so again I have a hard time discerning what exactly picked me up and smashed me into a wall--the theme itself, or the way it was executed. Both, I think. This is the part of the story where our arguable deuteragonist's arc finds its resolution, and it is not a pleasant thing to read by any means--but the truthfulness of the story more than makes up for it. Off-handed, well-intentioned, accidental cruelty is a major theme in this book, both at its beginning and at its end, and to me, it is handled beautifully--including the way the survivors recover, as they do: slowly, in fits and starts, skirting around the pain at first, then growing around it over a matter of months and years. The sheer accuracy of the Edala's narrative here gutted me. I'd listened to stories like this one, read them, wrote about them, and in a much, much milder way than depicted--lived them. TTOU's depiction rang true. It is perhaps one of my favorite survival narratives in the world.
I will mention just one of my favorite elements of how Edala executes this story: the way Aspen's compassionate gaze pulls a veil over many elements other authors would linger on, while still giving us more than enough to feel the events' impact. On a Doylist level, it reads like a principled stand against misery porn; on a Watsonian one, it is a heartwrenching mix of both professional and personal compassion. Aspen's narrative always keeps the sensitive topics in view, but the way they do it is wonderful--out of the corner of their eye, just enough for us to understand, but firmly drawing the curtains where they need to. I am very grateful for this depiction. In this day and age of turning people's souls inside out in full public view, we could all stand to learn how to do this better, especially the professionals.
I won't say too much about the ending of the story, except that I found myself dropping my head into my hands and going, "Well, Aspen, best of luck with your freshly opened, absolutely normal can of worms! I can always count on you to find and/or make one. At least you're in good company, so chase the stars--and maybe I'll see you on the other side." It's a beginning more than an ending, and that feels very appropriate.
To conclude, this review, Time to Orbit: Unknown isn't a perfect story. It has its weak points, its dropped conflicts, its non-sequiturs and its moments of craft failure. But warts and all, the duology has become one of my favorite books, and a story I will likely remain in conversation with for a very long time. Give it a try. Perhaps it'll capture you, too.
March 5, 2025
I read all of Time To Orbit: Unknown in the span of about three days on Derin's website, and I genuinely enjoyed it. I will probably be getting print copies of both halves. It's full of fascinating concepts, excellent twists (which are well foreshadowed in spite of it all) and runs at a pretty breakneck pace. A duology of "everything happens so much" that is engaging, interesting, and fun to read. The worldbuilding is super robust, making the story highly immersive, and I understand why so many people struggled to put it down.
That said, I give this half of the story a lower rating than the first because while the first had the benefit of being introductory, the second fails to be conclusory in a pretty dramatic way. The story itself is brilliant and I do sincerely recommend it, but I found a lot of this part to be vastly unsatisfying. The main conflicts tend to be resolved offscreen while our main character is indisposed in some capacity, are rarely explained in detail, and the main character's core personal conflict is never actually resolved.
SPOILERS BELOW
More narrative time is spent with Aspen in a holding cell for a nonexistent medical issue than with prepping them for the conclusion of the story, and the holding period doesn't actually have a proper resolution because they choose to "deal with it later" and then never really do. The core conflict on the planet is dealt with while Aspen is in the cell, and we never find out details on what happened or how because other things are going on by then. I guess the whole thing with Dandelion is supposed to be seen as resolved following the conversation that gives her that name? It didn't feel resolved at all, but from there it's a race to the ending, so it's barely touched on again. A great deal of time is spent figuring out how to hide things from Antarctica, and then we don't even get to see their final response to what the team was hiding in the first place—in spite of multiple characters staying on-planet to see it, and the ship being in contact with those characters clear until the last page. Aspen's core personal conflict regarding their sister is never resolved, they never really recover, and instead continue running away from it until the very end where they've installed themself as a component of the ship and no longer have to worry about their own wellbeing, which was the whole purpose of them running off into the stars in the first place and is framed as a bad thing through the entire story.
In much more minor issues that are consistent between both titles, the way dialogue is structured sometimes makes it difficult to tell who is speaking; often, there's one dialogue tag describing who started the conversation, and then none for several paragraphs while multiple characters go back and forth, and I guess the reader is supposed to keep track based on an alternating pattern in cases where the character dialect doesn't make it obvious who's saying what? It doesn't always work, and it's a pretty minor issue, but I did have to backtrack to double check that I knew who was talking multiple times, which broke my immersion in the story. I also wish there were more visual descriptions of...anything, really, but characters and locations are described once on their introduction and never really described again.
Overall, a very good reading experience in and of itself, but a super unsatisfying ending.
That said, I give this half of the story a lower rating than the first because while the first had the benefit of being introductory, the second fails to be conclusory in a pretty dramatic way. The story itself is brilliant and I do sincerely recommend it, but I found a lot of this part to be vastly unsatisfying. The main conflicts tend to be resolved offscreen while our main character is indisposed in some capacity, are rarely explained in detail, and the main character's core personal conflict is never actually resolved.
SPOILERS BELOW
More narrative time is spent with Aspen in a holding cell for a nonexistent medical issue than with prepping them for the conclusion of the story, and the holding period doesn't actually have a proper resolution because they choose to "deal with it later" and then never really do. The core conflict on the planet is dealt with while Aspen is in the cell, and we never find out details on what happened or how because other things are going on by then. I guess the whole thing with Dandelion is supposed to be seen as resolved following the conversation that gives her that name? It didn't feel resolved at all, but from there it's a race to the ending, so it's barely touched on again. A great deal of time is spent figuring out how to hide things from Antarctica, and then we don't even get to see their final response to what the team was hiding in the first place—in spite of multiple characters staying on-planet to see it, and the ship being in contact with those characters clear until the last page. Aspen's core personal conflict regarding their sister is never resolved, they never really recover, and instead continue running away from it until the very end where they've installed themself as a component of the ship and no longer have to worry about their own wellbeing, which was the whole purpose of them running off into the stars in the first place and is framed as a bad thing through the entire story.
In much more minor issues that are consistent between both titles, the way dialogue is structured sometimes makes it difficult to tell who is speaking; often, there's one dialogue tag describing who started the conversation, and then none for several paragraphs while multiple characters go back and forth, and I guess the reader is supposed to keep track based on an alternating pattern in cases where the character dialect doesn't make it obvious who's saying what? It doesn't always work, and it's a pretty minor issue, but I did have to backtrack to double check that I knew who was talking multiple times, which broke my immersion in the story. I also wish there were more visual descriptions of...anything, really, but characters and locations are described once on their introduction and never really described again.
Overall, a very good reading experience in and of itself, but a super unsatisfying ending.
September 29, 2024
I've always been fascinated by sociology in science fiction. Whether they're Belters from Corey's The Expanse, or various individuals in Banks' The Culture, seeing the sociological ramifications of various sci-fi premises is always something that scratches my rationalist itch.
I also love a good mystery in science fiction; these are somewhat more rare, usually showing up with unfair deus ex machina, but occasionally something like Clement's Mission of Gravity will present a hard sci-fi mystery that the reader can technically figure out from context, but which is difficult enough that you'll usually fail to do so. Good mysteries will always reward a second reread, like Palahniuk's Fight Club. Good mysteries in the hard sci-fi genre are almost nonexistent.
So consider my surprise when I come across Derin Edala's Time to Orbit: Unknown series. This is rational science fiction (my favorite kind!) focusing on a series of entirely fair mysteries (so rare!) about sociology of all things! This is a rarity of rarities, and it does not disappoint.
The main character of the two books in this series, The Javelin Program & The Antarctica Conspiracy, is the sociologist Dr. Aspen Greaves. They are, without a doubt, one of the best protagonists in a rational sci-fi mystery that I'm, aware of. (Part of this might be because the great hard sci-fi mystery writers are generally only good at _natural science_ mysteries, not mysteries of motivations or sociology. (Clement in particular is *terrible* at dialogue, to the same extent as he is utterly amazing at setting.)) Aspen, despite originating from a society that is foreign to me, proves to be an excellent reader surrogate. I'm not sure how exactly Edala was able to accomplish this, but it is easy to imagine myself in Aspen's shoes, even as they evaluate the various cultures of those around them.
I haven't even spoken to the plot of the Time to Orbit: Unknown series, but, honestly, I don't think I need to. The fact that the setting is a deep space colonization ship; that the characters are all from various cultures in the Sol system far enough in the future that everything is not quite what you'd expect; and that the mysteries are all entirely fair, predictable if you spend enough time thinking about them, but difficult enough that you'll never figure them out before reaching the point in the text where they are resolved — these are all superfluous to the fact that I just plain enjoyed this series.
If any of this would also appeal to you, then I heartily recommend Derin Edala's two books in the Time to Orbit: Unknown series: The Javelin Program & The Antarctica Conspiracy. I fully endorse this story as a rationalist sci-fi sociological mystery. Well done, Edala.
I also love a good mystery in science fiction; these are somewhat more rare, usually showing up with unfair deus ex machina, but occasionally something like Clement's Mission of Gravity will present a hard sci-fi mystery that the reader can technically figure out from context, but which is difficult enough that you'll usually fail to do so. Good mysteries will always reward a second reread, like Palahniuk's Fight Club. Good mysteries in the hard sci-fi genre are almost nonexistent.
So consider my surprise when I come across Derin Edala's Time to Orbit: Unknown series. This is rational science fiction (my favorite kind!) focusing on a series of entirely fair mysteries (so rare!) about sociology of all things! This is a rarity of rarities, and it does not disappoint.
The main character of the two books in this series, The Javelin Program & The Antarctica Conspiracy, is the sociologist Dr. Aspen Greaves. They are, without a doubt, one of the best protagonists in a rational sci-fi mystery that I'm, aware of. (Part of this might be because the great hard sci-fi mystery writers are generally only good at _natural science_ mysteries, not mysteries of motivations or sociology. (Clement in particular is *terrible* at dialogue, to the same extent as he is utterly amazing at setting.)) Aspen, despite originating from a society that is foreign to me, proves to be an excellent reader surrogate. I'm not sure how exactly Edala was able to accomplish this, but it is easy to imagine myself in Aspen's shoes, even as they evaluate the various cultures of those around them.
I haven't even spoken to the plot of the Time to Orbit: Unknown series, but, honestly, I don't think I need to. The fact that the setting is a deep space colonization ship; that the characters are all from various cultures in the Sol system far enough in the future that everything is not quite what you'd expect; and that the mysteries are all entirely fair, predictable if you spend enough time thinking about them, but difficult enough that you'll never figure them out before reaching the point in the text where they are resolved — these are all superfluous to the fact that I just plain enjoyed this series.
If any of this would also appeal to you, then I heartily recommend Derin Edala's two books in the Time to Orbit: Unknown series: The Javelin Program & The Antarctica Conspiracy. I fully endorse this story as a rationalist sci-fi sociological mystery. Well done, Edala.
January 15, 2025
Like 4.5 but rounded up cuz i generally like it too much. But, it felt as if the whole - aaa i dont remember their names! - colomy planet plotline was so underdeveloped?
Before i go on i wpuld like to point out that i read this as it was being released bi-weekly on the author's site, so some stuff mightve been edited between the free digital version amd the physical release that i wouldnt know about.
Ok so during the whole planet plotline were introduced, pretty suddenly (and especially as, with reading it as ot was beong released, i had no way of knowong this was the last arc of the book) to yet another big cast of extra characters. Now this happened before, like with the previous captain of the javelin (dont rmemeber their name) and all the people they decoded to wake up, but it felt that the previous groups of people had more time to be introduced. It wasnt perfect of course, there were a lot of side characters that only got a few fun interactions, but ynkow, there was enough fleshed pit stuff that it felt excusable (hmm no that sounds too harsh, whateber im too tired to think of synonyms).
And then when the genetocally modified humans of that colomy got introduced it felt as of their time was cut short, like there was so much inyrogue on them and theor culture and i constantly wanted to know more, but noo, how about u go througj like 20 chapters of Aspen being stuck in solitary confinement with no one but a crackjob doctor to keep company (for which, having to then wait days for the next chapter, hoping they'll finally be put of there the next, only to still be stuck, was def something) . And like even through that it feels like the doctors biasses couldve been explored fuether, but she felt so featureless to me (?) sorry im bad at explaining anything.
gods i do love this book so much, but thays the problem with me o guess, wjen i really like smth i need to know every minute detail of the world and charscters, and all the previous arcs managed to sate that want, and yet the last one didnt and its a bit sad to me.
Like when Aspen becomes the ship o woshed there was anotjer chapter going onto theor experoemces, but i understand why ot ended there, and im personally too stupid to write fanfiction good enougj to explore that :(((((.
Sorry all of this is wordvomit leading nowhere.
Before i go on i wpuld like to point out that i read this as it was being released bi-weekly on the author's site, so some stuff mightve been edited between the free digital version amd the physical release that i wouldnt know about.
Ok so during the whole planet plotline were introduced, pretty suddenly (and especially as, with reading it as ot was beong released, i had no way of knowong this was the last arc of the book) to yet another big cast of extra characters. Now this happened before, like with the previous captain of the javelin (dont rmemeber their name) and all the people they decoded to wake up, but it felt that the previous groups of people had more time to be introduced. It wasnt perfect of course, there were a lot of side characters that only got a few fun interactions, but ynkow, there was enough fleshed pit stuff that it felt excusable (hmm no that sounds too harsh, whateber im too tired to think of synonyms).
And then when the genetocally modified humans of that colomy got introduced it felt as of their time was cut short, like there was so much inyrogue on them and theor culture and i constantly wanted to know more, but noo, how about u go througj like 20 chapters of Aspen being stuck in solitary confinement with no one but a crackjob doctor to keep company (for which, having to then wait days for the next chapter, hoping they'll finally be put of there the next, only to still be stuck, was def something) . And like even through that it feels like the doctors biasses couldve been explored fuether, but she felt so featureless to me (?) sorry im bad at explaining anything.
gods i do love this book so much, but thays the problem with me o guess, wjen i really like smth i need to know every minute detail of the world and charscters, and all the previous arcs managed to sate that want, and yet the last one didnt and its a bit sad to me.
Like when Aspen becomes the ship o woshed there was anotjer chapter going onto theor experoemces, but i understand why ot ended there, and im personally too stupid to write fanfiction good enougj to explore that :(((((.
Sorry all of this is wordvomit leading nowhere.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 29, 2025
✨"We have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night"✨
📖⭐Personal Ratings⭐📖
- Story - 5/5
- Characters - 4.5/5 (some characters don't get enough spot light)
- Ending - 3/5
- Setting - 4.8/5
- Writing - 4.5/5 (some minor errors)
Overall Rating -> 4.36 ⭐ -> 4⭐ (Rounded down bc of the ending)
An amazing journey and a memorable story that will (for the most part) keep you on the edge of your seat.
I really did enjoy this book and was so, so tempted to give a 5 star rating... However it simply just didn't grip me by the pants for a lack of better words as much as the first one did. It's still really good!! Just the ending falls flat sadly. (The ending feels like biting into a sandwich and the first bite is only bread... its not bad, just a bit sad and leaves you wanting another bite)
The only difference here is that I'm not left wanting another bite... I think the story kept its self open if the author ever wanted to come back to it, but honestly its good where it is.
Overall this is one hell of a ride that is 100% worth your time. The only reason this review might sound negative is because I cannot even begin to talk about the parts I like without ruining the amazing experience that is waiting for just a few pages away...
With that said...
READ THIS BOOK PLEASE!!
Thank you so much Rachel and friends for recommending this book to me, it has truly been amazing!
(Not a book reviewer as always, just my thoughts after reading!)
📖⭐Personal Ratings⭐📖
- Story - 5/5
- Characters - 4.5/5 (some characters don't get enough spot light)
- Ending - 3/5
- Setting - 4.8/5
- Writing - 4.5/5 (some minor errors)
Overall Rating -> 4.36 ⭐ -> 4⭐ (Rounded down bc of the ending)
An amazing journey and a memorable story that will (for the most part) keep you on the edge of your seat.
I really did enjoy this book and was so, so tempted to give a 5 star rating... However it simply just didn't grip me by the pants for a lack of better words as much as the first one did. It's still really good!! Just the ending falls flat sadly. (The ending feels like biting into a sandwich and the first bite is only bread... its not bad, just a bit sad and leaves you wanting another bite)
The only difference here is that I'm not left wanting another bite... I think the story kept its self open if the author ever wanted to come back to it, but honestly its good where it is.
Overall this is one hell of a ride that is 100% worth your time. The only reason this review might sound negative is because I cannot even begin to talk about the parts I like without ruining the amazing experience that is waiting for just a few pages away...
With that said...
READ THIS BOOK PLEASE!!
Thank you so much Rachel and friends for recommending this book to me, it has truly been amazing!
(Not a book reviewer as always, just my thoughts after reading!)
March 23, 2025
Sērijai turpinoties, aizvien vairāk iemīlēju tēlus, īpaši hakeri Talu, kas aizraujas ar 20.-21. gadsimta Zemes kultūru, un man viņu visu pietrūka, kad pabeidzu lasīt. Ļoti patīkami, ka pat ļaundariem ir sarežģīta motivācija, ideāli un spēja mācīties no kļūdām, savukārt galvenie varoņi apzinās arī savu potenciālu nodarīt citiem pāri un apsver, vai mērķus tiešām ir vērts sasniegt. Aizkustinošas ainas, kurās tēli, kas nekad nav redzējuši augus un dzīvniekus, reaģē uz pienenēm un bitēm ar sajūsmu, ko tās ir pelnījušas.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 5, 2025
Amazing. A lot of twists that I did not see coming, so many plot threads neatly tied up in a satisfying thread.
Characters make sense. Their motivations track, their choices are clear, which is impressive when there's so many of them. The science is explained and detailed. Sociology and human culture is discussed and considered thoroughly.
Also a reference to a modern pop media that made me stop and text a friend that got a reference. So. Take what you will of that.
Characters make sense. Their motivations track, their choices are clear, which is impressive when there's so many of them. The science is explained and detailed. Sociology and human culture is discussed and considered thoroughly.
Also a reference to a modern pop media that made me stop and text a friend that got a reference. So. Take what you will of that.
November 14, 2025
I was so sad when this book ended! This was an incredible, completely absorbing read. It's such a well written mystery, at no point could I predict what would happen next, but, in hindsight, it always ended up making perfect sense and the ending was somehow completely satisfying despite the hugely complex problems the characters faced. It also, despite all the imminent peril, managed not to stress me out too much to actually enjoy it while still completely holding my interest, which is a rare gem for me. Overall, such a good story and would highly recommend!!
September 6, 2024
I can’t believe this journey is finally over. I’ve been reading this through biweekly emails for over a year now, I’ve posted about this on Tumblr and Discord and written fanfiction about it, and I cried when characters died. This was such an amazing read and I still don’t know how to feel about it being done.
April 13, 2025
Easy easy 5 stars goddang. Continues to be the most thoughtful piece of sci-fi, maybe even fiction fullstop, that I've ever read. Love love love everything and that ending is INSANE OH MY GOD! thank you again to mark and rachel for recommending this to me mwah mwah love you guys, I'll be thinking about this story forever!
December 28, 2025
I adored this book, the way it explored culture and society, which questions it chose to answer and which it left hanging. I think the length was completely justified and I struggled to put it down throughout. I haven't read fun sci-fi like this in a while and I didn't realize how much I'd missed it.
January 24, 2025
Read all of these online in an fervor. The first half was definitely stronger than the second. This author excels at character and relationship building, as well as setting up and paying off mysteries. However, this second half was just less compelling. Worth a read and very interesting.
April 16, 2025
This second book is also phenomenal. I didn't love everything about the way it wrapped up, but overall I'm still so glad I read it. The social/societal worldbuilding continues to be fantastic, and the plot is one I'm never going to get out of my head.
January 25, 2025
EXCELLENT. WONDERFUL. I LOVE EVERY CHARACTER.THAT E N D I N G WAS A GUT PUNCH BUT SO SATISFYING. I read both books over the course of a week and I’m still digesting them.
January 27, 2025
I didn't expect the ending
March 9, 2025
ough. oughhhhhh. ough. got REAL teary there. um. god. i love dandelion and adin and denish and aspen and tinera and tal so so so sso so sos so so so much.
March 26, 2025
What the fuck, Derin
May 7, 2025
the murder plotline in this book is one of the most stressful things ive ever read i kept having to get up and pace my house. excellent stuff
October 27, 2025
..... i am with Aspen on once the whole "Vault" business rolled in
also somehow thats when the book managed to lose me again, because huuuuuuh?
also somehow thats when the book managed to lose me again, because huuuuuuh?
November 10, 2025
quick, easy read with a disappointing ending. this series badly needed aggressive editing
May 10, 2025
I really enjoyed the first book in this series, but the second one fell flat for me. This book lacks the compelling engineering challenges and the engaging mystery that I thought made the first book work. It relies more on interpersonal drama, which wasn't enough to sustain my interest on its own.
I hated the ending of this book. I admit that I skimmed the last 10% of the book, because the ending the characters choose felt pointless and empty. The ending felt so stupid and unrelatable to me, even though Aspen's thought process is fully fleshed out and clearly foreshadowed. In addition, the ending fails to engage with some of the questions that are set up early on in the first book, which robs the whole series of a compelling payoff. In particular
I did enjoy the new characters introduced in this book, particularly the commentary on childhood and family structure. Some of the new characters are genuinely very interesting and their motivations and society is explored in an interesting way.
If you liked the slice of life aspect of the first book and you want more of that, I think you might like the second entry better than I did.
I hated the ending of this book. I admit that I skimmed the last 10% of the book, because the ending the characters choose felt pointless and empty. The ending felt so stupid and unrelatable to me, even though Aspen's thought process is fully fleshed out and clearly foreshadowed. In addition, the ending fails to engage with some of the questions that are set up early on in the first book, which robs the whole series of a compelling payoff. In particular
I did enjoy the new characters introduced in this book, particularly the commentary on childhood and family structure. Some of the new characters are genuinely very interesting and their motivations and society is explored in an interesting way.
If you liked the slice of life aspect of the first book and you want more of that, I think you might like the second entry better than I did.
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