John Nevets

I recently finished listening to the audio book of this. I enjoyed it. I really like the universe, and the world building that went into the story. The characters are enjoyable, but maybe not as deep as other works, but that works in this story as well. The story can be a bit obvious at times, but is still fun and entertaining. The end may be a bit weaker than the journey there, but it still resolved everything. Maybe tied it up a bit too neatly, but hey it's a story not life. I will very much keep an eye on this author, and probably read more in this universe, it is just too much fun not too.

I'm trying to review more books, and post them on here this year. This was influanced by the recent loss of a very active reader and reviewer Jenny “Reading Envy” Colvin.

I'm not sure this is exactly where I expected the story to continue. Don't get me wrong, I liked it, the story was good, and unlike some of the early novellas in this series, it is fairly episodic. I won't quite say self contained, since it is really helpful to have some background first, but the actual plot is mostly self contained. It also showed some character development for our lead. And shows it both developing new skills, and refining how it works in this environment.

I will keep reading this series as long is it is being made. But there is not much more to say, Martha Wells just continues to make this great comfort food.

I'm not typically a big review writer, but I was inspired to create this one in memory of an avid reader and reviewer Jenny Colvin.

I ended up really enjoying listing to this book. While I'm not a huge fan of the post apocalyptic sub genre, especially in literature, as with most art quality will overcome much. It seems the author, is more of a fan of this type of story then me, and does allude to this in the story. And that is a good thing, I think it helps in both them crafting a good story, and knowing both what tropes work, and what ones are ripe for being manipulated.

The story itself is much more a traditional young adult natural adventure novel, just set in a world that his been very depopulated. But what I really enjoyed about this story is how it ended up being a story it keeps telling you it is not. The lead character, Griz, narrates the novel, and Griz is a reader. And this is how the author ends up mentioning other P-A stories that obviously influenced this one. I'm a bit surprised that more of the adventuring stories don't also get name checked since like I said they are obviously a big influence as well.

I'm usually a bit vague regarding plots in my reviews, since I don't like to spoil the experience for the future reader. And I'm going to be so in this one is well. Especially since I very much enjoyed going into this fairly cold and just enjoying the ride as Griz went adventuring.

I was inspired to read this book while it was one I had for a while, was also on Jenny (Reading Envy) Colvin's to read pile as well. And since she had just passed, I thought it was appropriate to not only read a few books on that list, but also to write up some reviews, since that was something she was always doing. After finishing this, it also made me a bit sad that she had not gotten around to this one, since what little I know about her, I think she would have very much enjoyed it as well.

After finishing Foreigner I really wanted to continue the story, and I had gotten both this and book 3 at the same time as book 1. So I jumped right in. This does pick up almost immediately after the first book ended. It continues the court and political intrigue that was very much part of the first book. It also stayed within the POV of the one lead character. While not quite having a midlife crisis, we do go deep into his insecurities, many of them brought on by the stressful situations he finds himself in. While I think this aspect is well told, it does get a bit old over time, as I waited for the story to progress. C.J. Cherryh describes his emotional landscape the way other genre writers describe the physical landscapes of the worlds they are building. This is done with great skill in language, but I felt I wanted the story to move on more then be stuck in just one characters mind.

I've very much enjoyed that the lead character is a “good guy” in almost every sense of the phrase. While he is not perfect, he is striving to do his best for the world and the inhabitants of it. He is the type of character you would see on the “West Wing” tv show, and I very much liked that.

This is also the middle book of what is described as a sub-trillogy of the series. And it feels like it, while it doesn't end on a cliff hanger, there is much more unresolved at the end of this book than there was at the end of the first book. I will read book 3 soon, but for now I think I'm going to take a bit of a break from the series.

I was inspired to write this review in memory of Jenny (Reading Envy) Colvin.

This was actually a reread for me, but the last time i read this was roughly 30 years ago, when I was a teenager. I hadn't remembered much of the story, and I'm sure I got more out of it this time. I will probably follow this up soon with a few more books in the series, something I didn't do the first time I read this.

This is a science fiction book. But I wouldn't call it a science fiction story. By that I mean that after the first chapter the rest of the story takes place on just one planet, with tech not much different then ours. Yes this is an alien world, with aliens, but it is much more of a court/ political drama then it is anything else. To be honest it feels more like a lot of fantasy that includes this sort of drama in it. And for what it is, it is very good. But I wouldn't go in looking for galaxy spanning space opera, it is a much smaller story then that. With the exception of the beginning, it stays with just one POV character, this works, but also aids in the story feeling smaller.

I always find it interesting when you see themes in books written decades ago, that feel that they could be making social commentary today. And this one has a few. I know it is nothing new, but that in and of it self, can be eye opening. Thinking of the fact that we as a society have been dealing with some of the same issues for decades, and in some cases centuries, is both enlightening, and discouraging at the same time.

In the past I haven't done many reviews, but I've decided to do a few more recently to memorialize the passing of Jenny Colvin (Reading Envy). A very active reader and reviewer, and someone who I will miss doing more of these.