Shann

I can't say much here, because to say too much would give everything away.

I will say that I was pleasantly surprised by this book. I did the ill-conceived thing of reading Reddit reviews, many of them lukewarm to downright negative, and that made me nervous. I loved Time and Ruin so much, but I feared staleness. I feared a "jump the shark" moment that would make my eyes roll. How many more times can we find another uplifted species and learn of another ill-fated group of past humans.

Then I read the fucking book.

Definitely the most philosophical of the series, it is a headscratcher. You'll have instances where you don't understand what's going on. You'll check and make sure you read that sentence right, or double check to make sure you didn't miss anything in the previous chapter. Much like with Time and Ruin, you'll be forced to ponder questions about life. But, beyond that, you'll be forced to tackle questions about consciousness.

I loved this book. I really loved this book. I'm pleased to say that I've got that same bittersweet ennui that comes with finishing a book in this series. Thank god I've already bought Strife!

I think that this took what the first book gave us and pushed it to another, more fun level. I truly cannot wait to read the next two books in the series!

It was so fun??? I wasn't expecting it be so fun???

This is the first Tchaikovsky book I've read, and holy shit, I am blown away. I can't wait to read the next one.

Oof. But also, goddamn.

Truly, I loved this book. It wasn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but it was gripping. The aliens were well thought out; the time-period was very much felt; and it was just fun!

The only reason I didn't give this a 4/5 is that it felt like there was a lot of just... talking back and forth. Each of the other books featured a great amount of worldbuilding, mixed with small moments of slice of life instances, eventually leading to the climactic moment that sort of tests the characters in some way.

This entry did the same, but I think it was just a little too ambitious. By including so many characters that were literally so alien from a lot of the leads we've had so far, it felt like Chambers wanted to give us as much context as possible whenever possible. While there were some moments, where this really worked, other times it just felt... exhausting.

While I loved getting to know all of the different aliens of the Galactic Commons, I wish I had to know them a little more organically.

Probably the most emotionally resonant of the series. It made me cry in a pretty intense way. I love the Exodan Fleet.

While I do think there were certainly some moments of drag in this installment, I am SHOCKED at how easuly Chambers was able to sell me on it. It is such a huge, intimate departure from the sprawling crew of Wayfarer.

I am so glad it continued to make me smile.