What do you think?
Rate this book
Falcon Fire
On colonial Venus, people who are susceptible to lies have been denigrated and barred from the citizenry. Ancient dirigibles dock at the top of colossal towers to shunt people to and from underground cities. Armies of enclosed, beetle-shaped biocrawlers creep around the planet providing a coveted, yet deficient, natural environment. Colonists strive for an outdoor ecology to call their own, but terraforming is faltering.
There is growing unrest, and at the heart of this rift is Hix, a member of the Venusian underclass. He has risen from the tenements to become a renowned film star, until he is accused of murder. Neeva is destined to be Keeper, an esteemed protector of First Colony Heritage. She is also an inspector assigned to Hix’s case... and the victim happens to be her sister.
Hix and Neeva must find passage through the winds of change, or their people will be swept away forever.
There is growing unrest, and at the heart of this rift is Hix, a member of the Venusian underclass. He has risen from the tenements to become a renowned film star, until he is accused of murder. Neeva is destined to be Keeper, an esteemed protector of First Colony Heritage. She is also an inspector assigned to Hix’s case... and the victim happens to be her sister.
Hix and Neeva must find passage through the winds of change, or their people will be swept away forever.
- GenresScience Fiction
430 pages, Paperback
First published March 22, 2022
5 people are currently reading
2046 people want to read
About the author
Erik A. Otto
10 books93 followersErik A. Otto is a former healthcare industry executive, now turned science fiction author. His works include A Toxic Ambition, Detonation, Proliferation, Falcon Fire, and the Tale of Infidels series. Detonation has been named to Kirkus Reviews Best Books of 2018, and is a finalist for the Foreword INDIES Book of the Year Award for 2018. More information about his novels can be found at the following link:
https://www.erik-a-otto.com/eaonovels/
Erik's works of fiction expose the impact of cultural and technological themes on society in a number of futuristic and otherworldly settings. He focuses on delivering intricate plotting, engaging characters and action-driven story telling to immerse the reader in thought-provoking events and circumstances.
In addition to writing, Erik is currently serving as the Managing Director of Ethagi Inc., an organization dedicated to promoting the safe and ethical use of artificial general intelligence technologies. He lives in Victoria, BC, with his wife and two children.
https://www.erik-a-otto.com/eaonovels/
Erik's works of fiction expose the impact of cultural and technological themes on society in a number of futuristic and otherworldly settings. He focuses on delivering intricate plotting, engaging characters and action-driven story telling to immerse the reader in thought-provoking events and circumstances.
In addition to writing, Erik is currently serving as the Managing Director of Ethagi Inc., an organization dedicated to promoting the safe and ethical use of artificial general intelligence technologies. He lives in Victoria, BC, with his wife and two children.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews
April 22, 2022
This is an excellent standalone space opera with intriguing mysteries, nuanced characters, a great setting, and exciting action.
I recently picked this up by sheer random chance because it seems to have ZERO marketing (I just liked the cover and started reading). (I do not know the author nor the publisher.) And I'm so happy I stumbled upon it, because it's awesome.
One of the main characters is an investigator living on a far-future planet Venus which is being terraformed (a very cool and atmospheric setting with airships and moving bio-domes). She's still hung up on investigating her sister's death further even after closing the case with a conviction, but also gets a new case involving a mining settlement that has inexplicably disappeared after a riot. She's very focused on these investigations, which creates a strain on her relationship with her girlfriend.
The second main character is a former movie star and responsible for the sister's death, now sentenced to perform very dangerous piloting work on the mysterious planet Earth, which everyone knows is a toxic hellhole.
It has several intriguing mysteries: was the sister's death murder or an accident? Is the movie star secretly something else - not just acting in movies but also in real life? What happened to Earth? Why has terraforming of Venus slowed down to a crawl? What's up with the enigmatic symbionts ruling Venus? And so on, and so on, with a lot of surprising twists and turns, nuanced characters, good prose - it's got everything!
I think this will appeal especially to fans of The Expanse since it has the same combination of mystery plot, societal conflict, well-researched space science, and interesting characters. Plus thrilling action and surprising reveals.
I recently picked this up by sheer random chance because it seems to have ZERO marketing (I just liked the cover and started reading). (I do not know the author nor the publisher.) And I'm so happy I stumbled upon it, because it's awesome.
One of the main characters is an investigator living on a far-future planet Venus which is being terraformed (a very cool and atmospheric setting with airships and moving bio-domes). She's still hung up on investigating her sister's death further even after closing the case with a conviction, but also gets a new case involving a mining settlement that has inexplicably disappeared after a riot. She's very focused on these investigations, which creates a strain on her relationship with her girlfriend.
The second main character is a former movie star and responsible for the sister's death, now sentenced to perform very dangerous piloting work on the mysterious planet Earth, which everyone knows is a toxic hellhole.
It has several intriguing mysteries: was the sister's death murder or an accident? Is the movie star secretly something else - not just acting in movies but also in real life? What happened to Earth? Why has terraforming of Venus slowed down to a crawl? What's up with the enigmatic symbionts ruling Venus? And so on, and so on, with a lot of surprising twists and turns, nuanced characters, good prose - it's got everything!
I think this will appeal especially to fans of The Expanse since it has the same combination of mystery plot, societal conflict, well-researched space science, and interesting characters. Plus thrilling action and surprising reveals.
April 7, 2022
Wonderful combination of entertaining plot, compelling characters, and relevant commentary on today's factious society. Otto is adept at convincing world-building and reveals this world through a refreshing, tight narrative style. Highly recommend!
May 5, 2022
In the vein of The Expanse, this highly entertaining story is a great addition to the space opera tales.
November 11, 2022
4 out of 5
Falcon Fire by Erik A. Otto is a Science Fiction Novel about colonial Venus and the different factions of humans struggling for control. Hix is the former actor convicted of killing his girlfriend and Neeva is the inspector whose sister was Hix's girlfriend. As they interact the truth about Venus everyone believes comes into question.
Falcon Fire is an action packed story from the start and keeps going until the conclusion. Character development was a key focus within the narrative, although the plot was excellent as well. The Venus and its civilization was very intriguing and hopefully will be visited again in further books.
Highly recommended! If you enjoy Sci Fi that takes on todays issues of misinformation and inequality then this is a must read.
Falcon Fire by Erik A. Otto is a Science Fiction Novel about colonial Venus and the different factions of humans struggling for control. Hix is the former actor convicted of killing his girlfriend and Neeva is the inspector whose sister was Hix's girlfriend. As they interact the truth about Venus everyone believes comes into question.
Falcon Fire is an action packed story from the start and keeps going until the conclusion. Character development was a key focus within the narrative, although the plot was excellent as well. The Venus and its civilization was very intriguing and hopefully will be visited again in further books.
Highly recommended! If you enjoy Sci Fi that takes on todays issues of misinformation and inequality then this is a must read.
May 27, 2022
Complicated
I received this book through a Goodreads Giveaway. This is a fairly long but well imagined look into a possible future universe where history is re imagined for political purposes yet with some current issues brought forward into s new time. Well written and enjoyable, especially as the author brought forward elements of our culture, such as video games and movies. Fresh
I received this book through a Goodreads Giveaway. This is a fairly long but well imagined look into a possible future universe where history is re imagined for political purposes yet with some current issues brought forward into s new time. Well written and enjoyable, especially as the author brought forward elements of our culture, such as video games and movies. Fresh
September 9, 2022
This fast paced, politically charged space opera is set on Venus. We follow Neeva, a high ranking Reformer and investigator and Hix, the Hedonist movie star.. I found this story very confusing at first with many unexplained details but as the story progressed the gaps started to fill in and the story got better and better. If you enjoy hard science and hard hitting political truths you’ll love this story. Highly recommend.
April 3, 2022
Upcoming Author
Falcon Fire is a great tale told by Eric Otto who's one of the best
writers out there today and he writes ingenious novels. I was only disappointed by the fact that there's no Book #2 In this series for me to purchase today. Otto is a writer that we all need to start following!
Falcon Fire is a great tale told by Eric Otto who's one of the best
writers out there today and he writes ingenious novels. I was only disappointed by the fact that there's no Book #2 In this series for me to purchase today. Otto is a writer that we all need to start following!
October 30, 2022
I have never read anything by Erik A. Otto, but Falcon Fire is a brilliant space opera with mystery, intrigue, and certainly believeable science! The characters are well-developed and what I found wonderfully interesting is the society on Venus. I do not want to give anything away, but to Indo not believe I've read anything with a similar social structure. It is really worth the read!!
April 8, 2022
I won this book in a goodreads drawing.
A former actor is now a convict on his way to a planet Venus that is being terra-formed, but not as well as they'd have the people believe.
For some reason, people thought to be gullible are segregated from the non-gullible, even though the "non-gullible" swallow as many lies as the others.
After a while, things start to happen.
A former actor is now a convict on his way to a planet Venus that is being terra-formed, but not as well as they'd have the people believe.
For some reason, people thought to be gullible are segregated from the non-gullible, even though the "non-gullible" swallow as many lies as the others.
After a while, things start to happen.
November 4, 2023
This one had a bit of a rough opening, but it was maybe more to do with the specific subgenre and plot launching point - in effect, more about me than the story. But this review is written by me, so what can we do but continue?
So, negatives right up front, I was mid-whelmed at best by the title, opening scenes, and the characters as they were laid out at the start. I was, as mentioned, delighted by the cover and I did like the setting, though. So that got me through the moderate floundering I had to do at the outset before I got a handle on what the story was about. As it happened, it was a relatively simple story, told in an interestingly intricate way. And it was very well-written!
Where are we?
It's the future. Venus[1] has been settled by colonists on a variety of self-contained land-crawlers, sealed habitat-towers, and giant-arse nuclear balloons, and the population is working towards "the Verdara" in a neat blending of work ethic and faith. It was a little reminiscent, but in no way derivative, of the Mars terraforming ethos in The Expanse but as I often say, those comparisons are inevitable. Mars is colonised too, but by a strange tech-augmented highly-advanced wing of humanity and they've been out of contact for centuries.
Somewhere else, on an orbital space station Hix, aka. Falcon Fire, is a star pilot and a star actor, fallen on hard times. We're introduced to him at rock bottom, in a prison colony type setup where he and his fellow prisoners are stored like battery chickens and then trotted out for slavers to inspect and make various use of. He gets recruited by a team that needs a decent pilot, and begins some kind of espionage / organised crime enforcer / action antihero type work. I think. This was the part that could have been laid out a bit more clearly for us dummies, maybe. But it sort of comes into focus later so it's not a big deal.
Society has divided into several factions, chief among them the "responsible and educated" Reformers of Venus's north pole (NoPo) and the "foolish and emotional" Hedonists of Venus's south pole (SoPo). It rapidly becomes clear that the fracture has occurred along eerily familiar lines. Both sides also refer to "gulls," as in gullible uneducated people who believe anything, but it is clear the Reformers consider all Hedonists to be this brand of credulous, ignorant reactionary who can't be trusted to have a say in decisions of world (or even 'national' ... or even individual-personal) importance.
There's also the Symbionts, a smaller class of highly tech-implanted and dependent folks who kind of oversee and organise things in an interesting alternative to AI. These may or may not be the sort of people making up the population of Mars - we don't get to see Mars, really, and I have high hopes for continued books in this setting that explore the world Otto set up. It really did feel like the author wanted to just lay out a worldbuilding thing, and the plot was a necessary evil to spread over the top of the worldbuilding. I can't help but approve, and I would happily just read more appendices-style stuff. I am not, I hasten to add as always, a typical reader in this regard. Apparently.
Hix's haunted past involves the loss of a loved one, Shawna (star-crossed Hedonite and Reformer lovers, but it doesn't get too tropey), in circumstances that landed him in space-prison. Neeva, Shawna's sister, is ready to make the all-important move to becoming a cultural leader among the Reformers, but she is also a loose cannon cop-type with everything to prove, who pisses off city hall and gets taken off the case and all that good stuff. Her work to uncover criminal cartel activity among the Hedonite subcultures of SoPo just happens to connect up to the case of Hix and Shawna, that she is too close to and just can't let go (like I said, all that good stuff). She proceeds to uncover a conspiracy that goes all the way to the top, that she proceeds to blow off.
I won't spoil it any further because there's a lot more to it than that, but this is a good solid action adventure and a fun read.
Sex-o-meter
Right from the outset we have a certain amount of tasteful mention-and-move-along smut, but not a huge amount of on-page sex. Some sleazy butt-grabbing slavers and movie executives, and some light crack-whoring. That's about it. A Kevin Spacey out of a possible Harvey Weinstein (I was going to make a fun 'Kevin Space-y' sci-fi pun out of this but I couldn't come up with a space pun for Weinstein, that's the only reason I didn't do it).
Gore-o-meter
Some action deaths, a bit of shooting and exploding and dismemberment and prosthetic gun-arm replacement (cool as fuck, by the way, no notes), and the preferred method of executing enemies to the (cartel? Government? Whoever) seems to be sealing them up in a piece of space station and detaching it to burn up in the atmosphere ... doesn't seem very practical but anyway, that happens. It's a reasonably violent one but the violence is a backdrop, not the point. We don't have to linger on it. Two and a half raggedy flesh-gobbets out of a possible five.
WTF-o-meter
Enh. It's actually all pretty explicable, except for why humanity would try to colonise and terraform Venus in the first place. Earth, even in its nearly-a-thousand-years-in-the-future state, is much easier to work with. But no, it's a straight-up action adventure with some nice twists and turns, and some tantalising unexplored corners of the world that I would love to see more of, but nothing really WTF-y.
Oh, like I said, the whole story was really well-written - Otto knows what he's doing at the keyboard, for sure - but there was one dangler that made the entire third act of the book surreal and hilarious to me: "The lead guard—a round-bellied man with a greasy beard named Daw..." from this point on, I was interested only in the adventures of Daw the greasy beard, and his unpleasant guard buddy (name unknown). If Otto ever wrote a new book in this series and made it a buddy comedy with main characters Daw the greasy beard and his round-bellied and anonymous sidekick, the WTF-o-meter is giving Falcon Fire a Falcon Fire out of a possible that book.
My Final Verdict
Imagine a future where the Morlocks and the Eloi are divided not by class, but by susceptibility to misinformation. This is what Otto is laying out for us, a kind of scary extrapolation of today's "political"[2] landscape. Venus's history is interesting, the dirigibles and the Verdara and the centuries of terraforming. The reveals and twists we get to see are great. I've described Neeva as a paint-by-numbers space-cop type for the purposes of humour, but the chapter "One little detail" changed it all for me and Neeva finally made sense. Really well done, excellent chapter. The book rewards the reader with a cool twist ending that could have been executed differently but all in all it was fine. The pacing was a bit off, the action escalating and then hanging for a while, I can't quite put my finger on it but yeah, it was okay. Three stars!
---
[1] Call this a pet peeve, and a rather pointless one since I love the whole setting and the technology involved, but why do so many authors think colonising Venus is going to be a starter once Earth becomes uninhabitable? To be fair, Otto has definitely done his homework on this one, and he did set Mars up first as an "original" colony, but even Mars is ... look, we're going to fuck up Earth, that's more or less a given at this point, but we are never going to fuck it up to the point where it becomes less hospitable than Mars, let alone Venus (and the asteroid belt is basically spaceships, just say you're living in spaceships). The technology and infrastructure sci-fi authors put on Mars and Venus to make them habitable could be used far more easily on Earth. That's all I'm saying.
[2] Another pet peeve of mine? Identifying cultural phenomena as "political" because we're too dumb to know what "ideological" means. Fucking heeds, I swear to God.
So, negatives right up front, I was mid-whelmed at best by the title, opening scenes, and the characters as they were laid out at the start. I was, as mentioned, delighted by the cover and I did like the setting, though. So that got me through the moderate floundering I had to do at the outset before I got a handle on what the story was about. As it happened, it was a relatively simple story, told in an interestingly intricate way. And it was very well-written!
Where are we?
It's the future. Venus[1] has been settled by colonists on a variety of self-contained land-crawlers, sealed habitat-towers, and giant-arse nuclear balloons, and the population is working towards "the Verdara" in a neat blending of work ethic and faith. It was a little reminiscent, but in no way derivative, of the Mars terraforming ethos in The Expanse but as I often say, those comparisons are inevitable. Mars is colonised too, but by a strange tech-augmented highly-advanced wing of humanity and they've been out of contact for centuries.
Somewhere else, on an orbital space station Hix, aka. Falcon Fire, is a star pilot and a star actor, fallen on hard times. We're introduced to him at rock bottom, in a prison colony type setup where he and his fellow prisoners are stored like battery chickens and then trotted out for slavers to inspect and make various use of. He gets recruited by a team that needs a decent pilot, and begins some kind of espionage / organised crime enforcer / action antihero type work. I think. This was the part that could have been laid out a bit more clearly for us dummies, maybe. But it sort of comes into focus later so it's not a big deal.
Society has divided into several factions, chief among them the "responsible and educated" Reformers of Venus's north pole (NoPo) and the "foolish and emotional" Hedonists of Venus's south pole (SoPo). It rapidly becomes clear that the fracture has occurred along eerily familiar lines. Both sides also refer to "gulls," as in gullible uneducated people who believe anything, but it is clear the Reformers consider all Hedonists to be this brand of credulous, ignorant reactionary who can't be trusted to have a say in decisions of world (or even 'national' ... or even individual-personal) importance.
There's also the Symbionts, a smaller class of highly tech-implanted and dependent folks who kind of oversee and organise things in an interesting alternative to AI. These may or may not be the sort of people making up the population of Mars - we don't get to see Mars, really, and I have high hopes for continued books in this setting that explore the world Otto set up. It really did feel like the author wanted to just lay out a worldbuilding thing, and the plot was a necessary evil to spread over the top of the worldbuilding. I can't help but approve, and I would happily just read more appendices-style stuff. I am not, I hasten to add as always, a typical reader in this regard. Apparently.
Hix's haunted past involves the loss of a loved one, Shawna (star-crossed Hedonite and Reformer lovers, but it doesn't get too tropey), in circumstances that landed him in space-prison. Neeva, Shawna's sister, is ready to make the all-important move to becoming a cultural leader among the Reformers, but she is also a loose cannon cop-type with everything to prove, who pisses off city hall and gets taken off the case and all that good stuff. Her work to uncover criminal cartel activity among the Hedonite subcultures of SoPo just happens to connect up to the case of Hix and Shawna, that she is too close to and just can't let go (like I said, all that good stuff). She proceeds to uncover a conspiracy that goes all the way to the top, that she proceeds to blow off.
I won't spoil it any further because there's a lot more to it than that, but this is a good solid action adventure and a fun read.
Sex-o-meter
Right from the outset we have a certain amount of tasteful mention-and-move-along smut, but not a huge amount of on-page sex. Some sleazy butt-grabbing slavers and movie executives, and some light crack-whoring. That's about it. A Kevin Spacey out of a possible Harvey Weinstein (I was going to make a fun 'Kevin Space-y' sci-fi pun out of this but I couldn't come up with a space pun for Weinstein, that's the only reason I didn't do it).
Gore-o-meter
Some action deaths, a bit of shooting and exploding and dismemberment and prosthetic gun-arm replacement (cool as fuck, by the way, no notes), and the preferred method of executing enemies to the (cartel? Government? Whoever) seems to be sealing them up in a piece of space station and detaching it to burn up in the atmosphere ... doesn't seem very practical but anyway, that happens. It's a reasonably violent one but the violence is a backdrop, not the point. We don't have to linger on it. Two and a half raggedy flesh-gobbets out of a possible five.
WTF-o-meter
Enh. It's actually all pretty explicable, except for why humanity would try to colonise and terraform Venus in the first place. Earth, even in its nearly-a-thousand-years-in-the-future state, is much easier to work with. But no, it's a straight-up action adventure with some nice twists and turns, and some tantalising unexplored corners of the world that I would love to see more of, but nothing really WTF-y.
Oh, like I said, the whole story was really well-written - Otto knows what he's doing at the keyboard, for sure - but there was one dangler that made the entire third act of the book surreal and hilarious to me: "The lead guard—a round-bellied man with a greasy beard named Daw..." from this point on, I was interested only in the adventures of Daw the greasy beard, and his unpleasant guard buddy (name unknown). If Otto ever wrote a new book in this series and made it a buddy comedy with main characters Daw the greasy beard and his round-bellied and anonymous sidekick, the WTF-o-meter is giving Falcon Fire a Falcon Fire out of a possible that book.
My Final Verdict
Imagine a future where the Morlocks and the Eloi are divided not by class, but by susceptibility to misinformation. This is what Otto is laying out for us, a kind of scary extrapolation of today's "political"[2] landscape. Venus's history is interesting, the dirigibles and the Verdara and the centuries of terraforming. The reveals and twists we get to see are great. I've described Neeva as a paint-by-numbers space-cop type for the purposes of humour, but the chapter "One little detail" changed it all for me and Neeva finally made sense. Really well done, excellent chapter. The book rewards the reader with a cool twist ending that could have been executed differently but all in all it was fine. The pacing was a bit off, the action escalating and then hanging for a while, I can't quite put my finger on it but yeah, it was okay. Three stars!
---
[1] Call this a pet peeve, and a rather pointless one since I love the whole setting and the technology involved, but why do so many authors think colonising Venus is going to be a starter once Earth becomes uninhabitable? To be fair, Otto has definitely done his homework on this one, and he did set Mars up first as an "original" colony, but even Mars is ... look, we're going to fuck up Earth, that's more or less a given at this point, but we are never going to fuck it up to the point where it becomes less hospitable than Mars, let alone Venus (and the asteroid belt is basically spaceships, just say you're living in spaceships). The technology and infrastructure sci-fi authors put on Mars and Venus to make them habitable could be used far more easily on Earth. That's all I'm saying.
[2] Another pet peeve of mine? Identifying cultural phenomena as "political" because we're too dumb to know what "ideological" means. Fucking heeds, I swear to God.
February 26, 2023
Falcon Fire by Erik Otto is a thrilling science fiction adventure set on colonial Venus. The themes of classism and discrimination beat at the heart of this action-laced sci-fi thriller and makes it more enjoyable.
The plot, told from the alternating points of view of Hix and Neeva, is steadily paced with suspenseful twists and turns.
Falcon Fire is an interstellar thrill ride filled with dynamic characters and harrowing adventures, deserving of a four-star rating.
A big thanks to Netgalley for providing me a copy of this book for my unbiased review.
The plot, told from the alternating points of view of Hix and Neeva, is steadily paced with suspenseful twists and turns.
Falcon Fire is an interstellar thrill ride filled with dynamic characters and harrowing adventures, deserving of a four-star rating.
A big thanks to Netgalley for providing me a copy of this book for my unbiased review.
October 18, 2022
This is a tale about two groups of people that historically hate each other. One group rules over the other. It takes place in the future on other planets in the solar system. It's a cautionary tale about racism.
December 27, 2022
This book kept me engaged while on my toes from beginning to end. There were times that I was a little confused where I was at but usually was able to figure it out in time. Great story overall. I will definitely recommend it to others. I look forward to another Erik Otto book!
June 7, 2022
This was a GoodReads giveaway win of a Kindle ebook.
I started this book and then it really irked me that we are terraforming Venus. Venus with a surface temp of 900 degree F (475 C). But it has some decent reviews by other readers. I am going to give it a week or so and do a complete restart. Maybe I am letting the technical issues get in the way of the storyline. Only got about 10 percent into the story.
Okay, I gave it a rest and then started all over from the beginning. I usually enjoy being dropped into an environment and exploring the new world the author is building. For some reason, part 1 of this story just was too confusing to win me over. But I pushed on.
Things got better after part 2. Personally, I like a bit more technical background tie-in to reason out on my own why a story is progressing as it does. For this tale I felt that just about any twist you can't anticipate can occur just to get to the ending the author wanted.
Overall, it emphasizes how we all have our personal goals and will ignore facts that don't fit into our obtaining our goals. It was hard to figure out who was the hero. We all lie to ourselves in order to achieve our "perceived" goal. Yes, there is a parallel to our current political situation and that is also a sign of a good read, in that it makes you question your world and your personal actions. It was a good story, just a bit slow to start and not really my favorite approach to story telling.
Have a GoodReads.
I started this book and then it really irked me that we are terraforming Venus. Venus with a surface temp of 900 degree F (475 C). But it has some decent reviews by other readers. I am going to give it a week or so and do a complete restart. Maybe I am letting the technical issues get in the way of the storyline. Only got about 10 percent into the story.
Okay, I gave it a rest and then started all over from the beginning. I usually enjoy being dropped into an environment and exploring the new world the author is building. For some reason, part 1 of this story just was too confusing to win me over. But I pushed on.
Things got better after part 2. Personally, I like a bit more technical background tie-in to reason out on my own why a story is progressing as it does. For this tale I felt that just about any twist you can't anticipate can occur just to get to the ending the author wanted.
Overall, it emphasizes how we all have our personal goals and will ignore facts that don't fit into our obtaining our goals. It was hard to figure out who was the hero. We all lie to ourselves in order to achieve our "perceived" goal. Yes, there is a parallel to our current political situation and that is also a sign of a good read, in that it makes you question your world and your personal actions. It was a good story, just a bit slow to start and not really my favorite approach to story telling.
Have a GoodReads.
April 30, 2022
I received this book as part of LibraryThing’s early reviewer program.
I have to be honest, I almost stopped reading this one. It got off to a very slow start and it was about page 115 (or Part 2) when it started to click.
The book would have been a lot stronger if the author had been more clear, earlier on, about the underground factions and a little more on the origin of the division between Hedonist and Reformers the lineages. Just a few hints to foreshadow would have helped. And the ending was maybe just a little too "neat."
Anyway, I liked the setting and the scenes on Earth. I'm glad I stuck with it.
I have to be honest, I almost stopped reading this one. It got off to a very slow start and it was about page 115 (or Part 2) when it started to click.
The book would have been a lot stronger if the author had been more clear, earlier on, about the underground factions and a little more on the origin of the division between Hedonist and Reformers the lineages. Just a few hints to foreshadow would have helped. And the ending was maybe just a little too "neat."
Anyway, I liked the setting and the scenes on Earth. I'm glad I stuck with it.
Displaying 1 - 15 of 15 reviews