Nic

Thanks NetGalley for the opportunity to read this!

4.75 stars rounded up!

This book's blurb mentions "The otherworldly religious conflict of Dune, the cosmic strangeness of Gideon the Ninth, and the heart-pounding action of Red Rising converge in this horror-tinged epic science fantasy debut" and I do not think that is wrong in the slightest. The stakes are cosmic and somehow that still does not feel wide enough in scope. I was sold this book as a horror sci-fantasy and it does not lack in any aspect. From the beginning, you are sold this dark and gritty world where the gods are real and they demand a continual sacrifice. As things unfold and the truth is revealed, your jaw will hit the floor and never recover. There are plenty of moments in this that make the Red Wedding feel like a birthday party at McDonald's. If morally grey characters are your thing and there is no clear 'good' guy, this will be for you.

In the Scar, this was simply the way of things. To hate what had made you. To love what destroyed you.

I’m tapping out. I was willing to give this author a shot, after hearing some… less than stellar things. There are just so many cringe moments that I don’t think I can look past and they immediately pull me from the series. Hadrian uses ephebe to refer to his 15yo brother and another individual. He also uses plebeians, a lot. If this is for you, more power to you! It’s just not for me.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing the arc! I appreciate the opportunity to read this early.

This is my first foray into Rebecca Thorne. I also have not ready much in the way of 'cozy' before, namely Legends & Lattes and Paladin's Grace. I really enjoyed my time with Moss'd in Space. I like science fiction, I like cozy, so liking this a shoo-in. I really enjoyed the character of Moss, the sentient organic computing system. I didn't go into this expecting it to be a very thought provoking ultra in-depth book... and you know what? It delivered. Torian was a great character, trying her best to save those she loves. I enjoyed the snark and attitude given by Moss.

If I had to give a singular complaint that weighed on me as the book continued on, I would say that it's marketed as a 'cozy sapphic sci-fi romance' and it feels like the romance is all of... maybe 10 pages? The biggest conversation the main character and the love interest have is maybe 10 pages and they end the conversation saying maybe they'd be better off as friends. I do enjoy what was on-page, I just wish there was more of it.

This book was phenomenal. I went into it basically blind and had no idea what to expect and no idea what it was even really about. I was a big big fan of Hannah Kaner's debut trilogy, Godkiller, so this was an instant read as soon as I saw that it was coming out. This book takes the darkest moments of `Fallen Gods` and amps it up to 11. The heartbreak and betrayal felt in this cannot be understated. Tilde is a protagonist that you are not intended to like and that makes her one of my favorites. She is on a warpath and the only thing that is going to appease her is the burning of anyone that has wronged her. I appreciate that it maintains a low magic feel. There undoubtedly is magic but it isn't something that is used without much consequence. The heartbreak experienced throughout this book, from page 1 to the very end, will stick with me undoubtedly for years to come. If this is book 1, I cannot wait to see where the rest of this trilogy goes.

If you like sapphic dark fantasy with a protagonist that makes decisions that you may not always be able to support, I cannot recommend this enough.

I would like to thank Netgalley for the opportunity to read this!

I went into this book swapping out the Furies for the Fates and was moderately confused for most of it, but once I flipped them in my mind, everything clicked.

This book is influenced by multiple mythologies, including Greek (with the Furies being a very core theme). I enjoy that Mark Lawrence made Rue an older age (60+) and it isn't something that's swept under the rug, it is a very common theme that is routinely brought up and is part of her character.

This book is brutal, unforgiving, and dark. The ending sets up for the next two books beautifully. This was my first Mark Lawrence book and I can't wait to get back into his older material.

The prose itself isn't something that I think stands out, particularly, but it does what it needs to do to get the grittiness of the story across.

The Academy graduated three students a year, three Kindly Ones, supposedly incarnations of the trio whose name you did not speak.

“Welcome to the Academy of Kindness.”

“Sometimes fate delivers a better choice than anything we can come up with ourselves.”

Youth, it seemed, was a drug she had forgotten during the course of its slow weaning.

To get it out of the way - this is essentially a historical urban fantasy retelling of the Beast of Gévaudan. This books is split between 3 timelines. The main storyline is telling the 'present' day (which is, in and of itself, in the past), a second storyline that takes place 20 years before the main storyline, and then a tertiary storyline where it sets up events that spiral through both other storylines. The prose in this isn't necessarily anything standout but it doesn't need to be. I really like the banter between the two main characters, Sebastian and Sarmodel. Livia was a tertiary character but her moments feel very much like a secondhand thought. I think the romance portions of this make sense and drive the plot forward.

“But I loved you, always, even when you wanted to kill me. That never changed. I loved you.”

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"You are the man I wanted to rebuild Gévaudan with—sugarcane and cinnamon, remember?"

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But no, this was Antoine’s story in many ways, and it doesn’t feel right to move on without him. Even spending time with his memory has been a comfort, and I pray that I have honored it, and him.

This book was incredible. The time travel concepts and the romance being intertwined with it was incredible. I was on the hook from the get-go. Watching and learning about all of the layers unraveling was at times difficult to track but in a satisfying way.

You will note that the Green Knight is rarely alone, in these stories. I promised her she wouldn’t be, you see.

All of the references and call backs... my heart is full (and simultaneously empty).

They say it ends where it began: beneath the yew tree.