3.5/5
This is a YA/Sci-Fi story about a girl named Andra who is placed in cryonic sleep in order to escape her dying planet and start anew elsewhere. Except, instead of 100 years in sleep, she does not wake up until one thousand years after the fact. The civilization in which she wakes up considers her a goddess who will save them from chaos, but all Andra wants to do is find answers as to what happened to her family and how things went so wrong during her long slumber.
I enjoyed this book a decent amount. I liked the world building and the premise of the story. I was invested in the protagonist from the very beginning, and it was definitely a huge mystery trying to answer questions like how Andra ended up in cryonic sleep for so long, where her pod actually ended up, and how civilization had evolved in the last 1,000 years. The story jumps straight into Andra being woken up and the beginning chapters give clues little by little to introduce the reader to this universe. Unsurprisingly, language is one of the many things that has drastically changed over such a long period of time. This element of the novel was a little bit of a struggle in the beginning as it took some time to adjust to the strange new words and way of speaking. However, listening to the audiobook actually made it into a fun experience as the narrators played around with different accents and invented words/phrases. I thought the author did a brilliant job creating a new futuristic version of the English language to fit this story.
To be honest, I don’t think I enjoyed the general plot until about the last third of the book. There were several storylines being covered throughout, and I found myself struggling to keep up with their progression at times. I cared mostly only about Andra’s character because everything was a mystery to her so it was fascinating reading from her point of view. The book also covers Zhade’s perspective, but I didn’t find his character all that interesting or unique. I felt the romance was just okay; it didn’t feel rushed but neither did it capture my attention. I wish the characters were more fleshed out and given less predictable motivations, but I do recognize the effort put into the intricacies of the plot.
There were several twists throughout the book that pleasantly caught me by surprise, and the second half of the novel really picked up the pace and kept me reading until the end. On the whole, I would say I liked this book. Although I felt the character development was a bit lacking, the premise, writing style, and inventive futuristic themes redeemed the story for me. The reveal at the ending also opens up a new series of mysteries that I’m interested in exploring, so I will probably check out the sequel to see how everything is resolved.
This is a YA/Sci-Fi story about a girl named Andra who is placed in cryonic sleep in order to escape her dying planet and start anew elsewhere. Except, instead of 100 years in sleep, she does not wake up until one thousand years after the fact. The civilization in which she wakes up considers her a goddess who will save them from chaos, but all Andra wants to do is find answers as to what happened to her family and how things went so wrong during her long slumber.
I enjoyed this book a decent amount. I liked the world building and the premise of the story. I was invested in the protagonist from the very beginning, and it was definitely a huge mystery trying to answer questions like how Andra ended up in cryonic sleep for so long, where her pod actually ended up, and how civilization had evolved in the last 1,000 years. The story jumps straight into Andra being woken up and the beginning chapters give clues little by little to introduce the reader to this universe. Unsurprisingly, language is one of the many things that has drastically changed over such a long period of time. This element of the novel was a little bit of a struggle in the beginning as it took some time to adjust to the strange new words and way of speaking. However, listening to the audiobook actually made it into a fun experience as the narrators played around with different accents and invented words/phrases. I thought the author did a brilliant job creating a new futuristic version of the English language to fit this story.
To be honest, I don’t think I enjoyed the general plot until about the last third of the book. There were several storylines being covered throughout, and I found myself struggling to keep up with their progression at times. I cared mostly only about Andra’s character because everything was a mystery to her so it was fascinating reading from her point of view. The book also covers Zhade’s perspective, but I didn’t find his character all that interesting or unique. I felt the romance was just okay; it didn’t feel rushed but neither did it capture my attention. I wish the characters were more fleshed out and given less predictable motivations, but I do recognize the effort put into the intricacies of the plot.
There were several twists throughout the book that pleasantly caught me by surprise, and the second half of the novel really picked up the pace and kept me reading until the end. On the whole, I would say I liked this book. Although I felt the character development was a bit lacking, the premise, writing style, and inventive futuristic themes redeemed the story for me. The reveal at the ending also opens up a new series of mysteries that I’m interested in exploring, so I will probably check out the sequel to see how everything is resolved.