Book Reviews: Convergent Space & Lilith
Good morning and happy Friday!
As some of you may know, I'm on a quest to read as many books by authors I've recently met on Twitter as I can and review their work. Below are two reviews from books I've read so far: Convergent Space by John-Paul Cleary, a science fiction novel, and Lilith by Victoria Limbert, an urban fantasy-horror novel.
The titles below are links to where you can buy these books from Amazon.com.
Convergent Space by John-Paul Cleary
Convergent Space is a sweeping sci-fi epic set in the future of our little corner of the galaxy. It centers around Rone, a reluctant heroine on a quest to clear humanity's name of the largest catastrophe in galactic history.
Overall it's an interesting story whose cultures, both alien and far-future human, are well developed. The dialog is also well written and the characters' voices are distinct. One hardly need the speaker attributions to know who is saying what. One can tell that Mr. Cleary put a lot of time into getting the dialog right and it certainly paid off. However, there are a few critical issues that prevented me from giving the work a higher rating.
There is a lot of exposition. Characters seem to lapse into long historical narratives at the drop of a hat and go on for pages before the story returns to the scene. There is also a lot of point of view jumping that disrupts the flow of the scenes. Finally, the main antagonists are a bit too classic for me to really be interested in them. They seem to giggle and wink at the thought of genocide with melodramatic glee. It is disappointing, because if not for this one-dimensionality they would have been truly horrifying antagonists.
Rone on the other hand, is a very interesting and complex character. She is a lot of fun to read about and her scenes are the most riveting. Her interactions with her mechanical companion, Necessity, kept me turning pages for the length of the story, and she makes the whole trip through Mr. Cleary's world worthwhile.
An earlier reviewer mentioned this, and I agree. Fans of science fiction like Star Trek will very much enjoy Convergent Space.
Lilith (Twin Souls Novels Book 1) by Victoria Limbert
Lilith is a tale of demons living in our world that simmers with mystery, drama and sexual tension.
Ms. Limbert quickly weaves visual descriptions of demons, spells, and magic that pull the reader right in from the beginning. I often found myself reluctant to put my kindle down. The prose flows well across the pages and it is clear Ms. Limbert is a skilled writer.
Unfortunately, there were a few things that prevented me from giving the book five stars. For one, there is a preponderance of repetition in the use of adjectives to describe the non-physical characteristics of the demon world. Reading the words "lust, pain, sex" over and over again made me a bit numb to it by the end of the book. It made the otherwise colorful and entrancing demons a bit one-dimensional.
Also, I was a bit thrown off by Annette's continual condescension to human males throughout the story. In nearly every scene where her primary interaction is with humans, she continuously thinks and speaks about how they could never understand what is going on, and how all of their conclusions are wrong. The way in which she does this, true or not, comes across as venomous which I found a bit off-putting (being a human male myself). The tone does not carry over to demonic males, and so I suspect this is an intentional choice that just had its volume turned up too high for my tastes. It made the otherwise likable Annette a bit narcissistic.
Despite this, the story is so involving that I was pulled right out of these moments back into the real juice that keeps the tale building to the climactic end. I'm not normally a reader of paranormal urban fantasy, but I really enjoyed Lilith. I highly recommend it for all fans of the urban fantasy, paranormal, and occult genres.
As some of you may know, I'm on a quest to read as many books by authors I've recently met on Twitter as I can and review their work. Below are two reviews from books I've read so far: Convergent Space by John-Paul Cleary, a science fiction novel, and Lilith by Victoria Limbert, an urban fantasy-horror novel.
The titles below are links to where you can buy these books from Amazon.com.
Convergent Space by John-Paul Cleary
Convergent Space is a sweeping sci-fi epic set in the future of our little corner of the galaxy. It centers around Rone, a reluctant heroine on a quest to clear humanity's name of the largest catastrophe in galactic history.
Overall it's an interesting story whose cultures, both alien and far-future human, are well developed. The dialog is also well written and the characters' voices are distinct. One hardly need the speaker attributions to know who is saying what. One can tell that Mr. Cleary put a lot of time into getting the dialog right and it certainly paid off. However, there are a few critical issues that prevented me from giving the work a higher rating.
There is a lot of exposition. Characters seem to lapse into long historical narratives at the drop of a hat and go on for pages before the story returns to the scene. There is also a lot of point of view jumping that disrupts the flow of the scenes. Finally, the main antagonists are a bit too classic for me to really be interested in them. They seem to giggle and wink at the thought of genocide with melodramatic glee. It is disappointing, because if not for this one-dimensionality they would have been truly horrifying antagonists.
Rone on the other hand, is a very interesting and complex character. She is a lot of fun to read about and her scenes are the most riveting. Her interactions with her mechanical companion, Necessity, kept me turning pages for the length of the story, and she makes the whole trip through Mr. Cleary's world worthwhile.
An earlier reviewer mentioned this, and I agree. Fans of science fiction like Star Trek will very much enjoy Convergent Space.
Lilith (Twin Souls Novels Book 1) by Victoria Limbert
Lilith is a tale of demons living in our world that simmers with mystery, drama and sexual tension.
Ms. Limbert quickly weaves visual descriptions of demons, spells, and magic that pull the reader right in from the beginning. I often found myself reluctant to put my kindle down. The prose flows well across the pages and it is clear Ms. Limbert is a skilled writer.
Unfortunately, there were a few things that prevented me from giving the book five stars. For one, there is a preponderance of repetition in the use of adjectives to describe the non-physical characteristics of the demon world. Reading the words "lust, pain, sex" over and over again made me a bit numb to it by the end of the book. It made the otherwise colorful and entrancing demons a bit one-dimensional.
Also, I was a bit thrown off by Annette's continual condescension to human males throughout the story. In nearly every scene where her primary interaction is with humans, she continuously thinks and speaks about how they could never understand what is going on, and how all of their conclusions are wrong. The way in which she does this, true or not, comes across as venomous which I found a bit off-putting (being a human male myself). The tone does not carry over to demonic males, and so I suspect this is an intentional choice that just had its volume turned up too high for my tastes. It made the otherwise likable Annette a bit narcissistic.
Despite this, the story is so involving that I was pulled right out of these moments back into the real juice that keeps the tale building to the climactic end. I'm not normally a reader of paranormal urban fantasy, but I really enjoyed Lilith. I highly recommend it for all fans of the urban fantasy, paranormal, and occult genres.
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