Steal the Sky

DNF

(approx) PG 60

So, before I get into talking about this book, I'm going to give you a little background. This book has been on my to-read shelf here for over three years. I do not remember what drew me to the book. It could have been the steampunk. It could have been heist-esque story in the synopsis. (The synopsis that is really drastically different than the book itself.) The fact is, though, I just don't remember. It has survived several list cleanings, but it never graduated to a ‘buy' book.

Now, for the past year and a half or so, my disposable income has been severely reduced for multiple reasons. That means I've been buying fewer books, which means when I do spend my hard earned cash on a book, it must be certain to like it. It also means that, until the past couple weeks, I've been reading less. The change during the past couple weeks has been my rediscovery of the library and my shock at them having many books - even many of the niche books - that I've been wanting to read.

Much to my own shock, my library system did have this book available, but only as an audiobook. I'm not the biggest fan of audiobooks, but I've listened to several that were plain awesome so I figured I'd give this a go while working on some mindless computer tasks.

This book does, actually, show a lot of potential. The world building is good, having some great ideas. Mechanically, the writing is sound. I would be slightly curious to read later work by this author, after she settles into creating characters and dialogue - because that's where it falls down for me.

In the first chapter, we only have two characters and everything between these two characters feels so stilted. The dialogue sounds very odd, it doesn't flow well. This is not helped at all by the narrator, who reads the book like he was told emote constantly, having the most overblown tone imaginable.

The voice for the main guy I personally find very grating, as well as the little I get of his personality. This is just, over all, something that is not going to work for me, and there's no reason for me to bother with something that frustrates me this much.

(Rather unfortunately, all my library has is the Scorched Continent series and that only in audiobook, so I will likely never be back to this author.)