Sci-fi That Will Keep You Guessing
Thank you so much to Penguin Teen for an advanced copy! I won it in a giveaway, and this in no way impacts my review of the ARC copy of this book.
Brief Summary:
Andra and 1 million other colonists are chosen to travel across the galaxy to find a new home on the planet Holymyth. To do this, they are put into stasis for 100 years. Except Andra wakes up 1,000 years later than she's supposed to on a foreign planet, surrounded by foreign people with a foreign language. Not only that, these people consider her to be a goddess- who can blame them since she's basically a fairytale princess in a glass coffin?- who can save them with her magic. If not, she'll be executed. Pretty concerning, right? Andra is determined to find a way off this planet and return home to Earth. Her life depends on it.
Zhade is the bastard prince of Eerensed, though the people don't know it. He was banished to the desert for 4 years after the execution of his mother. Zhade will do anything it takes to get back into his home and avenge his mother's murder no matter the cost.
I was torn between giving this 3 and 4 stars. I don't typically read a lot of sci-fi, though I do consider it to be one of my favorite genres. I'm not sure exactly why I wasn't 100% feeling this book, so let's delve in and try to figure it out.
First, in this society, the people consider technology to be magic. No one understands it for what it is, and they don't really know how to use it. I don't understand what could've happened to make people forget what technology is. It's not like technology went away after the original colonists died? People still knew what it was/how to use it/how to create it. How could that knowledge just die out generations later? This is not explained in the book. It just seems a little odd to me, and I would've been fine with it if it was explained somehow. However, it does make sense that it's not explained since the book is mostly in Andra's POV and she doesn't even know what happened to cause her to wake up 1,000 years too late! So it's not like she'd know how the knowledge of tech died out years ago, and there's no history books for her to read.
The plot and the characters are very solid. I honestly had no clue how this book was going to turn out which is really rare for me! It was very action packed, and the situation seemed to change chapter by chapter. There were so many twists, and I'd say I only had an inkling for one of them. The characters were well rounded. There's a nice cast of supporting characters. My favorite character was obviously Zhade. I mean who doesn't love a confident, quick-witted, bastard prince? I am kind of mad at Zhade for doing this thing I don't think he really needed to do, but I guess I'll get over it. I loved the banter between him and Andra. I only wish there could've been more! I almost feel like we didn't see them together that much. Sure, there are lots of scenes where they are together but it's skimmed over. It goes along the lines of, "Zhade and Andra were together for hours doing this thing. Here's a few lines of their conversation. Aaaaand next chapter where it's the next day." I want more! I'm greedy for banter and relationship development it seems.
The ending is a slam dunk! I've got so many questions, and I'm looking forward to seeing where the story goes next. There's so many things that need to be tied up, and I can't wait to see how Andra and Zhade do it. It's definitely a cliffhanger ending, so buckle your seatbelts and hold on tight! We've got a long wait ahead of us *cries in Eerensedian*.
Brief Summary:
Andra and 1 million other colonists are chosen to travel across the galaxy to find a new home on the planet Holymyth. To do this, they are put into stasis for 100 years. Except Andra wakes up 1,000 years later than she's supposed to on a foreign planet, surrounded by foreign people with a foreign language. Not only that, these people consider her to be a goddess- who can blame them since she's basically a fairytale princess in a glass coffin?- who can save them with her magic. If not, she'll be executed. Pretty concerning, right? Andra is determined to find a way off this planet and return home to Earth. Her life depends on it.
Zhade is the bastard prince of Eerensed, though the people don't know it. He was banished to the desert for 4 years after the execution of his mother. Zhade will do anything it takes to get back into his home and avenge his mother's murder no matter the cost.
I was torn between giving this 3 and 4 stars. I don't typically read a lot of sci-fi, though I do consider it to be one of my favorite genres. I'm not sure exactly why I wasn't 100% feeling this book, so let's delve in and try to figure it out.
First, in this society, the people consider technology to be magic. No one understands it for what it is, and they don't really know how to use it. I don't understand what could've happened to make people forget what technology is. It's not like technology went away after the original colonists died? People still knew what it was/how to use it/how to create it. How could that knowledge just die out generations later? This is not explained in the book. It just seems a little odd to me, and I would've been fine with it if it was explained somehow. However, it does make sense that it's not explained since the book is mostly in Andra's POV and she doesn't even know what happened to cause her to wake up 1,000 years too late! So it's not like she'd know how the knowledge of tech died out years ago, and there's no history books for her to read.
The plot and the characters are very solid. I honestly had no clue how this book was going to turn out which is really rare for me! It was very action packed, and the situation seemed to change chapter by chapter. There were so many twists, and I'd say I only had an inkling for one of them. The characters were well rounded. There's a nice cast of supporting characters. My favorite character was obviously Zhade. I mean who doesn't love a confident, quick-witted, bastard prince? I am kind of mad at Zhade for doing this thing I don't think he really needed to do, but I guess I'll get over it. I loved the banter between him and Andra. I only wish there could've been more! I almost feel like we didn't see them together that much. Sure, there are lots of scenes where they are together but it's skimmed over. It goes along the lines of, "Zhade and Andra were together for hours doing this thing. Here's a few lines of their conversation. Aaaaand next chapter where it's the next day." I want more! I'm greedy for banter and relationship development it seems.
The ending is a slam dunk! I've got so many questions, and I'm looking forward to seeing where the story goes next. There's so many things that need to be tied up, and I can't wait to see how Andra and Zhade do it. It's definitely a cliffhanger ending, so buckle your seatbelts and hold on tight! We've got a long wait ahead of us *cries in Eerensedian*.