Ratings18
Average rating3.6
Amahle is a Light Chaser – one of a number of explorers, who travel the universe alone (except for their onboard AI), trading trinkets for life stories. But when she listens to the stories sent down through the ages she hears the same voice talking directly to her from different times and on different worlds, and comes to understand that something terrible is happening, and only she is in a position to do anything about it. And it will cost everything to put it right.
Reviews with the most likes.
More of a 3.5 but I'm rounding up.
A space opera sci-fi novella isn't actually my kind of book, especially written by two authors known for their very hardcore science fiction series. So, I don't even know why I bought this one but I guess seeing many lovely reviews by bloggers I follow made me wanna give it a try.
And it turned out to be such a fascinating one. Told through the eyes of a loner pilot who has been alive for thousands of years traveling across planets and collecting memories, this story spans worlds and centuries and even lifetimes. The authors use the story within a story format to take us through the lives of many characters and how they all tie up to our main characters' destiny. Love that survived across lives, reincarnations, extremely sentient AI, a highly evolved species that can control the destiny of the universe, and a lonely pilot who finally decides to do something about it - this little novella has it all and if you aren't looking for too much detailed world building and are ready to suspend disbelief, I'm sure you will have fun reading this one.
A great little novella - interesting universe and characters.
This was short and fun, but an awful lot of hand-waving was involved. I am curious exactly what proportion of the work is Hamilton's and which is Powell's, since this felt a little under-powered for a Peter F. Hamilton novel (although, to be honest, I've only read his longer works, so maybe this is typical).
TL;DR
I didn't enjoy this book very much. The mini stories our main character experiences through these memory collars weren't interesting to me. The bigger plot also didn't seem interesting and then the book ends with an unsatisfactory ending.
My Scoring System
I have five things I look for in a book, if the book checks all five it's a 5/5 stars book, if it checks none it's a 1/5 stars and everything else is a combination:
X - Main Story: Boring and uninteresting.
X - Side Stories (if it applies): Since they're only a few paragraphs I didn't get invested into them, also knowing that they're memories and have already happened makes it even harder to care about them.
X - Characters: All really bland, no one stands out.
X - Setting/Ambiance: Interesting spaceship she has but the locations she visits aren't interesting in my opinion.
X - Ending: Didn't like it, it just ends and then there's nothing.
Extensive Review
Nothing to say here.