Hali

This book is the first and slowest of the trilogy. Which doesnt mean its bad, its more a testament to how unbelievably good the series gets. I cant say a lot of positive things, not for lack of them, but because Im so floored and my brain is so full of lore of this continent and its characters.

There is one gripe Ive had throughout the book: By borrowing from real cultures – namely Ottoman for Solaria – the author builds a world which bears resemblance to ours while not necessarily intending to do so. I am not assuming ANY Badwill at all, and this is a systematic, not individual thing, but seeing the "oriental" empire be represented as scheming, politicking, open to sex and pleasure and so forth evokes orientalist imagery. Its not overtly racist or anything, just made me think.

Honestly floored by how good this book is. No notes, loved the pacing and plot (and its twists).

Initially I wanted to give the book a 4.5 but after pondering on it I rounded it up to a 5. Not a lot to say except: What a great ending to the series. Made me cry at some points. Oh Caris, the woman you are. A lighthearted remark tho: How come only the straight and lesbian couples are doomed? :D Terilyn and Eimarille's deaths also felt a bit sudden, but then again, I dont know how else they wouldve met their ends. And thank you, Lisandro, for providing a lore reason why Caris stayed committed to her dead boyfriend.

The more I read this series, the less I like the English translation. This volume's en tl seems a bit better and clearer tho so yay! Fun volume, a lot of things happened in it.

It's somewhere between greatly written and embarrassingly out of touch. The main character Anna mentions multiple times how she is bothered by Will's competitiveness because she is a single mother of two and she can't lose her job and the flexibility it brings, but her disliking him is later on framed mainly as her being competitive as well and her being worried about her position thanks to him snatching up chances is dropped. Will has his own good reasons for wanting those, dont get me wrong! But this is never spoken about, in conversations, Annas dislike of Will is reduced to him being competitive and annoying. I think this is what bothered me the most about the book. As soon as this was forgotten, the book (regrettably) became a lot more fun.

You can really feel the tension between Anna and Will and even with "fade to black" sex scenes, the book is sexy. Their flirting in well-written and they have chemistry. The characters – aside from Anna, sadly – are given a lot of respect and fleshed out like crazy, too. It's honestly great.

Not the worst but two more things that bothered me:

• the author managed to write autistic weirdos multiple times (sometimes in a good, sometimes in a bad light, although the way the first one was written is a bit too close for comfort to an actual ableist depiction of autistic people for me)
• the author is... out of touch... but tries to be in touch... the mid-20 year olds are not bonding over Roblox and the kids are not calling each other default, usually

Tldr: There's some glaring issues but I still had a lot of fun reading this book thanks to how well-written the rest of the book is.