Being a Dune fan, I went in biased as hell. The best parts are when Paul starts to go nuts. He’s stuck in all times at once. He’s regretting his own prophecy, knowing that his sister is the real messiah. There’s too much political talk in the book that’s monotonous. Also the book just ends. There’s no resolution in the first novel. Paul just kicks major ass on worms. I recommend if you like the movie.

I had no idea this was in epistolary form. Like The Prestige. Seeing the different POVs from the characters notes served as good plot device. The progress moved pretty quickly, and when the scary violence hit, it HIT. My only complaint is that the latter half of the book meanders a bit. You can tell that the forced movement of the epistolary style got inconvenient, but the author had no choice. There’s a great deal of brotherhood and camaraderie too. No bad characters at all. Except for you know…the creatures of darkness.

I could explain how fucking confusing this plot is. I could tell you my favorite author David Mitchell was inspired by this guy. But I wont. I did not understand this novel at all. No resolution. Very surreal. Some good moments, but overall, a huge WTF moment

The prose is so beautiful that the first 200 pages just fly by. The plot itself is super intriguing and unique. This is my first Claire North novel and wow…I haven’t been blown away in some time by the sheer skill on a sentence by sentence basis. The only downfall is that there’s no true conflict or states, since Harry will just be reborn, and the villian’s attempt to remove his memory fails twice. Otherwise, super solid novel.

This one was recommended from top book critics, but what they don’t tell you is that it’s actually a smart marketing move. The prose and storyline seems convoluted at first, and puts you down a rabbit hole of vestibules. But towards the twist ending you realize it isn’t a fantasy book…it’s a different genre that I won’t mention because I don’t want to spoil it. Quick read, but the promise doesn’t payoff

The first arc is amazing. I really felt Darrow’s pain and his initial transformation from a Red to a Gold. But the middle-end just slogs for me, and the writing kind of collapses as the action gets super medieval. I preferred the opening to the rest, but that’s just my opinion. The medieval action wasn’t that believable.

It’s definitely literary sci-fi. It’s not too muddled down by the hard science of the world and the intricates of the androids. Instead, it’s more of a character study between two main protagonist. I enjoyed some of the sober tones, but the action scenes were way to quick. The middle part is the best, where Deckard questions his own existence, and the possibility of him being a robot.