Dreamer

I really enjoyed this book. I was not expecting to love it this much because I hadn't seen many enthusiastic positive reviews. In fact, I owned this book for about a year before listening to it. Now I'm so happy to have discovered a new-to-me series and author. I won't do this book the justice it deserves with my review, but I can definitely talk excitedly about it for a bit.

This is a sci-fi novel on an epic scale, with very high stakes. Some of the plot elements are familiar, although a lot of it feels original to me. From the summary I guessed Kendi was the main character, but he's just one of several point-of-view characters. It's very much an ensemble cast, and several of the PoV characters are different from those I have usually encountered in fiction, which is always refreshing.

The prologue is quite a gripping scene. I definitely wanted to find out exactly what happened to those characters; the rest of their story does get told, but it's pretty far into the book. It was a little jarring to switch to a spaceship, with a totally different group of characters, right after that prologue. It took me a little while to figure out how they tied in with the prologue at all. I was also expecting the m/m romance to be central to the story; while it's definitely important, it's just one of many things happening. However, there were a couple of moments where I felt like Ben and Kendi's true love saved the universe, which is always great in any book! So this book very much took me by surprise in a number of ways, which I liked a lot.

Sejal's journal entries and his plotline were similar to a lot of YA novels. I don't mean that as a criticism, though, as it was done very well. I liked him and was definitely cheering for him. This book didn't feel like a YA novel overall, because of all the different PoVs. Also, Sejal has a number of very real flaws, as do all the important characters. I liked Harenn right away because she was so blunt and rude. I think her plotline would've felt melodramatic if she had been sweet-natured. I could really understand her reaction when Bellerophon was hit with the Despair. Overall, this is a really well-crafted book, with small details planted often in order to set up large and satisfying payoffs.

The audiobook narrator, P.J. Ochlan, is exceptionally talented. The characters are of different ages, nationalities, etc., and the narrator had totally distinct voices for all of them. If I had only heard Sejal's journal entries, for example, I would have thought this was an actual teenage narrator, and Kendi's Australian accent seemed great to me (although I'm American so I don't know for sure). I listen to a lot of audiobooks, and this performer is absolutely top-notch.