Empress of a Thousand Skies - Rhoda Belleza
Synopsis
(from Goodreads)
"Rhee is the only surviving heir to an ancient Kalusian dynasty. Alyosha is a Wraetan who has risen above his war refugee origins to find fame as the dashing star of a DroneVision show. Their paths collide with one brutal act of violence: Rhee is attacked, barely escaping with her life. Aly is blamed for her presumed murder.
The princess and her accused killer are forced to go into hiding - even as a war between planets is waged in Rhee's name. But soon, Rhee and Aly discover that the assassination attempt is just one part of a sinister plot. Bound together by an evil that only they can stop, the two fugitives must join forces to save the galaxy."
Review
This was our March 2017 Book Club pick! This book received a lot of hype. I actually got the physical paperback, and the cover is gorgeous, plus there's a great map.
I think the biggest thing that bugged me about this book was the blurb (above). It's very misleading. I'll come right out and say it so you don't read the book waiting forever for something to happen that never does: The two main characters, Aly and Rhee, never actually meet. Actually, that's a lie, they briefly see each other for half a second in the same room, but when it talks about "their paths collide" and "bound together" and "join forces", that is super misleading. Yes, they are fighting on the same side and for the same thing, but they don't ever work together. The whole book is basically two stories from two perspectives that are linked through events, but don't actually meet. Since I was waiting the whole book for them to come together, I felt a bit like a promise wasn't fulfilled? I know I probably shouldn't let it bug me that much, but it kinda threw off the whole book for me, since I was expecting something I didn't get.
Another random thing I didn't like: A lot of things happen off-screen and we're told about them after the fact. Like, suddenly the narrative will jump a week forward, and we're told in passing about some really interesting things that happened! I would have liked that to have been fleshed out more. The book was on the shorter side (I read it in a day), so I don't think the story would have been slowed down by adding more action.
As for characters, I really liked Aly. His character felt the most realistic of the main characters. I liked that he was a good problem solver even though he made some stupid mistakes. I didn't really like Rhee, though she got better by the end. I didn't like that she was set up as this strong, determined fighter when she was really a spoiled, naive brat. But I guess that's also the point, and she does grow quite a bit in the book. There are also several secondary characters that are interesting and add to the plot. And a super cute droid! Who doesn't love droids with lovable personalities?
Now, things I liked about this book. Very imaginitive world! Different humanoid and non-humanoid species existing in this universe. Very interesting tech, like the space train and the cube, which stores your memories. And I love things set in space and flying in spaceships. I'm a Star Wars girl at heart.
There is a tense political and social backdrop: there was a war, a world was destroyed, refugees are scattered throughout the galaxy, people of the conquering empire look down on those from the destroyed planet, politicians seeking to gain approval by blaming problems on this other race. I could definitely see ties to current real-world situations. I like it when authors explore ideas and problems that we have but in a different setting. I think it helps people more clearly see what the root of the problem is when you don't have your own biases (both good and bad) clouding the situation.
Besides refugees and war, there is also an interesting discussion about technology and privacy rights. With the cube technology that is so important to the book, we can see parallels in today's social media, where memories/pictures can be exploited. In the book it goes even deeper, as the hardware is literally in people's brains, but it raises some ethics questions that I have no doubt humanity will face very soon in the future as technology progresses.
The plot had enough twists and turns to keep me interested, though you can see a couple of the big twists coming from a mile away. It does end on a huge cliffhanger, so hopefully everything will wrap up in the sequel!
Despite my criticisms above, overall I found this book to be a fun, fresh sci-fi adventure.
Rating
I give this book 3 stars.
Details
Genre: Sci-fi, YA.
Language: Barely any, author uses in-world words instead.
Sex: None.
Violence: Some violence, nothing graphic.
Synopsis
(from Goodreads)
"Rhee is the only surviving heir to an ancient Kalusian dynasty. Alyosha is a Wraetan who has risen above his war refugee origins to find fame as the dashing star of a DroneVision show. Their paths collide with one brutal act of violence: Rhee is attacked, barely escaping with her life. Aly is blamed for her presumed murder.
The princess and her accused killer are forced to go into hiding - even as a war between planets is waged in Rhee's name. But soon, Rhee and Aly discover that the assassination attempt is just one part of a sinister plot. Bound together by an evil that only they can stop, the two fugitives must join forces to save the galaxy."
Review
This was our March 2017 Book Club pick! This book received a lot of hype. I actually got the physical paperback, and the cover is gorgeous, plus there's a great map.
I think the biggest thing that bugged me about this book was the blurb (above). It's very misleading. I'll come right out and say it so you don't read the book waiting forever for something to happen that never does: The two main characters, Aly and Rhee, never actually meet. Actually, that's a lie, they briefly see each other for half a second in the same room, but when it talks about "their paths collide" and "bound together" and "join forces", that is super misleading. Yes, they are fighting on the same side and for the same thing, but they don't ever work together. The whole book is basically two stories from two perspectives that are linked through events, but don't actually meet. Since I was waiting the whole book for them to come together, I felt a bit like a promise wasn't fulfilled? I know I probably shouldn't let it bug me that much, but it kinda threw off the whole book for me, since I was expecting something I didn't get.
Another random thing I didn't like: A lot of things happen off-screen and we're told about them after the fact. Like, suddenly the narrative will jump a week forward, and we're told in passing about some really interesting things that happened! I would have liked that to have been fleshed out more. The book was on the shorter side (I read it in a day), so I don't think the story would have been slowed down by adding more action.
As for characters, I really liked Aly. His character felt the most realistic of the main characters. I liked that he was a good problem solver even though he made some stupid mistakes. I didn't really like Rhee, though she got better by the end. I didn't like that she was set up as this strong, determined fighter when she was really a spoiled, naive brat. But I guess that's also the point, and she does grow quite a bit in the book. There are also several secondary characters that are interesting and add to the plot. And a super cute droid! Who doesn't love droids with lovable personalities?
Now, things I liked about this book. Very imaginitive world! Different humanoid and non-humanoid species existing in this universe. Very interesting tech, like the space train and the cube, which stores your memories. And I love things set in space and flying in spaceships. I'm a Star Wars girl at heart.
There is a tense political and social backdrop: there was a war, a world was destroyed, refugees are scattered throughout the galaxy, people of the conquering empire look down on those from the destroyed planet, politicians seeking to gain approval by blaming problems on this other race. I could definitely see ties to current real-world situations. I like it when authors explore ideas and problems that we have but in a different setting. I think it helps people more clearly see what the root of the problem is when you don't have your own biases (both good and bad) clouding the situation.
Besides refugees and war, there is also an interesting discussion about technology and privacy rights. With the cube technology that is so important to the book, we can see parallels in today's social media, where memories/pictures can be exploited. In the book it goes even deeper, as the hardware is literally in people's brains, but it raises some ethics questions that I have no doubt humanity will face very soon in the future as technology progresses.
The plot had enough twists and turns to keep me interested, though you can see a couple of the big twists coming from a mile away. It does end on a huge cliffhanger, so hopefully everything will wrap up in the sequel!
Despite my criticisms above, overall I found this book to be a fun, fresh sci-fi adventure.
Rating
I give this book 3 stars.
Details
Genre: Sci-fi, YA.
Language: Barely any, author uses in-world words instead.
Sex: None.
Violence: Some violence, nothing graphic.
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