What do you think?
Rate this book
Transients #1
Arachne's Web
Seven Strangers
Three Students: Bliss Bhanushali feels an instant connection to her roommate Lexi and Lexi’s boyfriend Will, though both girls can’t help but feel Will is keeping something from them.
Two Scoundrels: Jack and Cobalt Zhao find themselves on the run after their foolproof plan to rob a space train goes inexplicably awry.
A Soldier: Gavin Ibori must fight for his very survival in a challenge designed to test the mettle of the most promising new warriors.
A Servant: Roslyn Turin wants nothing more than her freedom, but her dreams of another life send her into psychiatric care instead.
One History
By day, they are seven strangers from different moons. At night, they dream of their interconnected lives twenty years ago. Their visions send them to the mysterious moon of Arachne, where an archaeological dig turns up strange alien artifacts.
Then the dreams get darker, filled with images of glowing symbols and spattered blood.
In their last lives, they were murdered. And if they don’t find out why, history is doomed to repeat itself.
Three Students: Bliss Bhanushali feels an instant connection to her roommate Lexi and Lexi’s boyfriend Will, though both girls can’t help but feel Will is keeping something from them.
Two Scoundrels: Jack and Cobalt Zhao find themselves on the run after their foolproof plan to rob a space train goes inexplicably awry.
A Soldier: Gavin Ibori must fight for his very survival in a challenge designed to test the mettle of the most promising new warriors.
A Servant: Roslyn Turin wants nothing more than her freedom, but her dreams of another life send her into psychiatric care instead.
One History
By day, they are seven strangers from different moons. At night, they dream of their interconnected lives twenty years ago. Their visions send them to the mysterious moon of Arachne, where an archaeological dig turns up strange alien artifacts.
Then the dreams get darker, filled with images of glowing symbols and spattered blood.
In their last lives, they were murdered. And if they don’t find out why, history is doomed to repeat itself.
261 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 5, 2019
2 people are currently reading
7 people want to read
About the author
Elizabeth Corrigan
8 books174 followersElizabeth Corrigan has degrees in English and psychology and has spent several years working as a data analyst in various branches of the healthcare industry. When she’s not hard at work on her next novel, Elizabeth enjoys singing, reading teen vampire novels, and making Sims of her characters.
She drinks more Diet Coke than is probably optimal for the human body and is pathologically afraid of bees. She lives in Maryland with two cats and a purple Smart Car.
She drinks more Diet Coke than is probably optimal for the human body and is pathologically afraid of bees. She lives in Maryland with two cats and a purple Smart Car.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 1, 2019
In the far future, seven strangers find themselves connected by an unlikely - and dangerous - shared history. Each begins experiencing flashbacks to a time before they were born... glimpses of past lives that ended in tragedy. None knows why... but if they can't figure it out, their current lives are doomed as well.
Each character is given a unique and sharply written point of view, from the humble Roslyn, who works as a servant and dreams of freedom, to the troublemaking Jack, who persuades his twin brother to rob a space train with him (on dubious claims that his plan is foolproof). And then there's Gavin, a soldier competing in a survival game broadcast to the whole galaxy. The whole cast of characters is too broad-ranging to describe in a review (without summarizing the whole book or giving spoilers), but I can say that no two are alike, and each brings an interesting new perspective to the situation.
How are all these people connected? And what do these mysterious flashbacks mean? The search for these answers leads them on a journey to a strange moon - where new puzzles await them. I found myself drawn into the unique character voices and intrigued by the mystery surrounding them all, and I appreciated that this was a space-set sci-fi story that cared deeply about the people at the core of the tale - that treated them as human beings with thoughts and emotions rather than chess pieces for describing conflicts or technologies.
ARACHNE'S WEB is an enthralling new space opera from author Elizabeth Corrigan, full of intriguing characters and rich world building. A must-read for anyone who loves character-driven science fiction.
Each character is given a unique and sharply written point of view, from the humble Roslyn, who works as a servant and dreams of freedom, to the troublemaking Jack, who persuades his twin brother to rob a space train with him (on dubious claims that his plan is foolproof). And then there's Gavin, a soldier competing in a survival game broadcast to the whole galaxy. The whole cast of characters is too broad-ranging to describe in a review (without summarizing the whole book or giving spoilers), but I can say that no two are alike, and each brings an interesting new perspective to the situation.
How are all these people connected? And what do these mysterious flashbacks mean? The search for these answers leads them on a journey to a strange moon - where new puzzles await them. I found myself drawn into the unique character voices and intrigued by the mystery surrounding them all, and I appreciated that this was a space-set sci-fi story that cared deeply about the people at the core of the tale - that treated them as human beings with thoughts and emotions rather than chess pieces for describing conflicts or technologies.
ARACHNE'S WEB is an enthralling new space opera from author Elizabeth Corrigan, full of intriguing characters and rich world building. A must-read for anyone who loves character-driven science fiction.
December 27, 2019
Preface: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
I wanted to like this novel a lot more than I did. The premise is intriguing, and it's generally well-written. Unfortunately, it has two glaring flaws that are difficult to ignore.
The first is the plot. The plot to this novel is borderline nonexistent, and really only exists to further the characters' arcs. I love me some character development, but unfortunately, you do need an actual plot to keep a story moving along, and this novel is completely lacking. Roslyn is generally moping around and ultimately committed to a psych hospital, where she ends up snoozing all her time away. Will/Bliss/Lexi are just doing college stuff. Gavin is in a competition that would be interesting, but because he doesn't care about winning and there's no real danger, it has no stakes, and his conflict is ultimately solved in a few lines of dialogue with no consequences. Tegan/Detrick and Jack/Cobalt have the closest things to actual plotlines, but these are also undercut/solved very rapidly at the end. Other plot points happen as complete contrivances, like Old-Roslyn's sickness. No one else is affected by the sickness, and it has no lasting effects - it only exists to make Old-Jack have his revelation. Other contrivances also exist - Transients always keep their exact same name in every life (for no discernable reason), retain all their skills from past lives, and stay hot twenty-somethings forever - that exist solely to make the story simpler or to make our characters more wishfulfill-y.
By the end of the novel, we don't know anything new about what Transients are, what Demetrius/Phedre want, what the ruins are for...nothing. We just maybe solve our romantic entanglements...which is the book's second hugest flaws.
The love triangles. My god, the love triangles. Or love squares, really. We have Gavin/Roslyn/Jack/cheating and Bliss/Will/Lexi/fame, and booooy does this get old. Seriously, we have these near-timeless immortals who can learn anything over the course of their many lifetimes, are actually sort of aliens with connections to some ancient culture, and instead of all that awesomeness, we get 100+ pages of soap-opera moaning and musing. It got really, really old. These seemingly wrap up right at the end, but I'd bet my biscuits they'll come back to life in the next book just to cause more misery all over again.
Aside from these complaints, the story did have a lot of potential. The characters themselves are promising. I was curious to know more about Transients, Demetrius, Phedre, all that. Instead, we got pages and pages of romantic angst and spinning around in circles until the plot decided to kick in. It was just generally a let-down for a story that could have been something great. Maybe it will be, in future books - I won't be reading them.
I wanted to like this novel a lot more than I did. The premise is intriguing, and it's generally well-written. Unfortunately, it has two glaring flaws that are difficult to ignore.
The first is the plot. The plot to this novel is borderline nonexistent, and really only exists to further the characters' arcs. I love me some character development, but unfortunately, you do need an actual plot to keep a story moving along, and this novel is completely lacking. Roslyn is generally moping around and ultimately committed to a psych hospital, where she ends up snoozing all her time away. Will/Bliss/Lexi are just doing college stuff. Gavin is in a competition that would be interesting, but because he doesn't care about winning and there's no real danger, it has no stakes, and his conflict is ultimately solved in a few lines of dialogue with no consequences. Tegan/Detrick and Jack/Cobalt have the closest things to actual plotlines, but these are also undercut/solved very rapidly at the end. Other plot points happen as complete contrivances, like Old-Roslyn's sickness. No one else is affected by the sickness, and it has no lasting effects - it only exists to make Old-Jack have his revelation. Other contrivances also exist - Transients always keep their exact same name in every life (for no discernable reason), retain all their skills from past lives, and stay hot twenty-somethings forever - that exist solely to make the story simpler or to make our characters more wishfulfill-y.
By the end of the novel, we don't know anything new about what Transients are, what Demetrius/Phedre want, what the ruins are for...nothing. We just maybe solve our romantic entanglements...which is the book's second hugest flaws.
The love triangles. My god, the love triangles. Or love squares, really. We have Gavin/Roslyn/Jack/cheating and Bliss/Will/Lexi/fame, and booooy does this get old. Seriously, we have these near-timeless immortals who can learn anything over the course of their many lifetimes, are actually sort of aliens with connections to some ancient culture, and instead of all that awesomeness, we get 100+ pages of soap-opera moaning and musing. It got really, really old. These seemingly wrap up right at the end, but I'd bet my biscuits they'll come back to life in the next book just to cause more misery all over again.
Aside from these complaints, the story did have a lot of potential. The characters themselves are promising. I was curious to know more about Transients, Demetrius, Phedre, all that. Instead, we got pages and pages of romantic angst and spinning around in circles until the plot decided to kick in. It was just generally a let-down for a story that could have been something great. Maybe it will be, in future books - I won't be reading them.
November 4, 2019
Seven people who seem to be connected in a past life. Where does that leave them now?
I found this book to be a little hard to classify. Based on the description and cover I was expecting a SF space story and, admittedly, we get a little of that, but not as much as I was expecting. On the other hand, we get a lot more romance than I expected. And unfortunately, from my perspective, a lot of angst to go with not. I am not a fan of angst-ridden characters or stories.
That aside, the story was well written, although I can't say it was easy to read. We have a large cast of characters and multiple times which got confusing on occasion. The characters themselves are fairly well described, but I would have liked them to be a bit more developed, or maybe more mature is what I mean. See previous comment about all the romantic angst.
In the end, I did enjoy the read, but I was left rather unsatisfied.
I received an ARC from Hidden Gems for review purposes.
I found this book to be a little hard to classify. Based on the description and cover I was expecting a SF space story and, admittedly, we get a little of that, but not as much as I was expecting. On the other hand, we get a lot more romance than I expected. And unfortunately, from my perspective, a lot of angst to go with not. I am not a fan of angst-ridden characters or stories.
That aside, the story was well written, although I can't say it was easy to read. We have a large cast of characters and multiple times which got confusing on occasion. The characters themselves are fairly well described, but I would have liked them to be a bit more developed, or maybe more mature is what I mean. See previous comment about all the romantic angst.
In the end, I did enjoy the read, but I was left rather unsatisfied.
I received an ARC from Hidden Gems for review purposes.
September 29, 2019
This book kept me coming back for more and I loved the flow of the characters and the world building. There wasn't a full point in ant of the story and I really enjoyed the ride I was taken on in this book. Highly recommend it!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews