LRRC Week 43

Happy Halloween everyone!

#85: THE SKYLARK'S SONG by J.M. Frey

I had a lot of fun with this one!

Skylark's Song is a vaguely-steampunk fantasy about Robin, a pilot from a minority culture, who rises to prominence in her kingdom's army after surviving an encounter with the Coyote, a pilot for the kingdom they're at war with. She then has to prove herself to her fellow pilots, and stay ahead of the Coyote.

Honestly, my main critique of this book is that it feels like it takes a while to get started. The first half of the book isn't bad by any means, and it held my attention just fine, but when I got to about the midpoint and encountered what was ACTUALLY meant to be the main conflict of the story, I found myself wishing that there was more book left.

My favourite part of the book was the interplay between Robin and the Coyote, and the part where the book is almost a fake-romance intrigue is where it really shone. I could have definitely enjoyed a lot more of that line of plot.

This book was also surprisingly dark at times. I was definitely unprepared for the level of gore that some scenes had. This isn't necessarily a critique, just perhaps something to be aware of - if you're going in for a fun romp, just be aware that there's some other stuff in there as well!

All in all, I enjoyed my experience of reading, and I'm really interested to see what happens to Robin and the Coyote next!

#86: AXIOM'S END by Lindsey Ellis

Oh, this is a tough one.

I've been a fan of Lindsey's work on youtube for a number of years - I find her commentary is always really interesting and insightful, even when I don't agree with it. I was really intrigued to see what her first published book would be like.

Unfortunately, I'm finding myself kind of "meh" about the whole thing. I don't think the book is bad, by any means. It's not necessarily off-putting, and it sometimes kept me in enough suspense that I wanted to keep reading (as opposed to continuing to read because the book was due back to the library in forty-eight hours and oh god--)

It's fine. It's FINE.

Things I liked: I found the main alien, known as Ampersand, to be a really interesting character. His motivations and relationships were complicated and fascinating. Really, all the alien characters were cool, and I liked learning about their species and culture.

Things I disliked: ...mostly everything else? I wasn't terribly invested in the plot, and I had difficulty connecting to the human characters, which was most problematic when one of said human characters was the protagonist. It seemed like she was consistently making the worst possible decisions. Also, it seemed like there were a lot of details that didn't actually pay off. I realize that this is the first book in a planned series, but I still want it to be a book in its own right.

I don't think this book is bad, but I did find it a bit disappointing, and at times I found myself skimming (see previous mention of the time crunch I was reading under) in a way that tends to signal disconnection from the text.

Also, what the hell was that ending sentence?? This is a little more wrapped up than some other books I've done this for (*coughs* Wanderers *coughs*), but I still found myself going "Where's the last five pages??? This isn't an ending, Lindsey!!!"

I am as yet undecided if I care enough to check out the next book in the series. On one hand, I am mildly curious to see what happens next. On the other hand, I feel a little exhausted. I suppose I have time to figure it out.

NEXT WEEK'S AGENDA
#87: Drowned Country by Emily Tesh
#88: The Space Between Worlds by Micaiah Johnson