Really interesting world but very abrupt ending

Hard science fiction but focused primarily around three characters, so the science is more of a background than the primary focus. On a future colony world that will be settled by Earth descendents, daylight and night are so extreme that the full light of day literally sets crops on fire. Cities have to be carefully shuttered and crops shaded in order to survive. The world is clearly at least several generations post-settlement and much of their ancestors' original equipment is breaking down, while weather changes to the planet cause additional problems.

In between the strictly regimented city Xiosphant and the criminal-controlled city Argel, the plot follows a pair of friends, Sophie and Bianca, and a smuggler, Mouth. Sophie tells her part of the story in first person, so is clearly the 'main' character, and when she is thrown out of Xiosphant into the Night to die, she discovers that one of the native alien races (the "crocodiles") are actually sapient. If there is a fourth main character in the book, it's the crocodiles; through Sophie, they try to communicate with the humans to explain that human actions are what's destroying the planet and causing the devastating weather changes, as well as causing huge suffering and death to the crocodile population.

Sophie, however, is both powerless and rather easily distracted, mainly by Bianca, who she adores for reasons that become less and less easy to sympathize with. Bianca, a privileged rich girl from the upper class section of Xiosphant, initially appears to be a good friend to Sophie but through the course of the book becomes more and more selfish and closed-minded, to the point it rapidly becomes very frustrating watching Sophie continue to trust and follow her.

Mouth is probably the most interesting character in the book. Initially she's fairly unlikeable, but as you learn more about her background and what she's suffered, and as she grows to be a better character, she becomes more and more sympathetic.

Ultimately Sophie, with the help of Mouth, attempt to initiate communication between the crocodiles and the human settlers. And at this point, the book ends very abruptly, without a satisfactory conclusion or a clear indication of what the outcome will be.

Overall, the book was very interesting; I really liked the alien world; the crocodiles were a great species; the society and politics were interesting; and the book was well written. However, the ending was a let down and felt as if it cut short several chapters too soon. I am guessing there's a sequel planned? But I'm not a fan of leaving a book unsatisfactorily short, even if it does have a sequel coming.

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4 people found this helpful

thoughtful & thought provoking

I'm still digesting this, but I really enjoyed it - dense with layers and originality.

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Not for Me

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book and chose to review it after listening to a finished audiobook. This in no way impacts my opinion.

This book was intriguing and boring at the same time. It felt like there were three books in here and it could have been a trilogy, but instead a lot of the parts were a lot shorter than I would have liked. I thought there could have been a much stronger story in the revolution but that was overshadowed with, well, everything else. I definitely would have enjoyed this more if it focused on one plot line instead of all of them.

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Visionary

The work of an incredible imagination, with many-layered, relevant themes. I haven't seen enough good sci-fi that is also filled with vivid emotions and characters. Compared to "All the Birds In the Sky," I think this one is more "telly" - there are long passages telling you in the abstract about characters' feelings and motivations, instead of characterizing them through actions. But if you're like me, you'll find the prose poetic enough that you won't mind too much. If a moment feels cliche, press on, it doesn't turn out how you think.

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4 people found this helpful

I'll shout it from the rooftops: I LOVE THIS BOOK

A lovely story about four women and their journeys of self-discovery. And oh yeah, it takes place on an alien planet tidally-locked with its sun where there are no days, no seasons, no evidence of the passage of time, and only a thin filament of barely habitable space between solar-fired incineration and dark frozen death. Yes, the ending doesn't resolve everything, but think of it as Book 1 in a series. I hope someday there will be a Book 2, but regardless it is a beautiful, mind-expanding, heart-wrenching tale that stands on its own two feet.

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pubescent tripe

started with some good ideas but turned into girls exploring their confusing feelings with alien tendrils and would be lesbianism

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Different, and not in a good way

don't listen to this podcast if you enjoy any sort of closure to stories. Ugh.

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Disjointed plot, exaggerated characters,

In the first third, I was hopeful and excited about where this story could go. In the last third, I was wishing for it to end. I really wanted to like this book, but I'm very disappointed and I'm glad it's finally done.

The world itself is a cool and original idea. The alien civilization is awesome and I loved learning about it. those two aspects were well thought out. however, the scale of the world felt inconsistent and hard to imagine. Sometimes it seemed like a tiny planet the size of Texas with town-sized cities. Other times, the cities are described as massive sprawling cities insurmountably far from anything else. That aside, it's a very cool concept.
Both of these original and cool concepts are overshadowed by Sophie's incoherent character development (or lack thereof), the disjointed plot, and unlikeable and inconsistent characters.
The first half of the story feels completely irrelevant to the last half, rather than providing context for later events.
The characters oscillate between bland and overreaction. Their range of emotion and behaviour is bizarre - not anything relatable and lacks any semblance of human nuance.

From a sci-fi perspective, it's great. From a story & character crafting perspective, it's not worth your time.

Also, I hate that this is classified as a queer novel. There is BARELY any queerness and it feels entirely irrelevant to the story. The first third of the story implies that there is a queer relationship, but there isn't. It feels like the one queer main character is only queer when it's convenient and it's only mentioned when it supports the next plot point. Her queer-love driven motivations seem to drive drastic decisions in the first half, but in the last half are often contradicted by her own actions and forgotten about entirely most of the time.

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