I say this was my least favorite book of the series so far. I think it may have been different if I had read the original trilogy years ago and was excited to return to this world and characters after a long time, but it's only been a few months and so I think there wasn't enough anticipation to up my excitement despite how much I enjoyed the first three.
I loved Zu as a character in the original trilogy, but I don't think I loved her as the main character/narrator. I can't put my finger on exactly what it was, other than that I just liked Ruby more. So that's complain number one.
Complaint number two is that the storyline was just too complicated. Politics and mafia and secret plots and secret organizations and kidnappings, on top of too many secrets being kept for stupid reasons other than for the truth to come out as a "big reveal" halfway through the book. I don't know. Like I don't even know if I could give a summary of this plot because I don't think I truly understood everything that was going on. Way too many things were going on.
Overall the book was just ok. I liked the new characters a lot and I liked the new layer of powers manifesting other than just Green, Blue, Yellow, Orange, and Red (I especially like the one who can influence computers and technology like an Orange influences humans), but the rest of the storyline was just too complicated. Add that to the fact that there's clearly going to be another book because not everything was wrapped up in this one. As much as I really liked the original trilogy and loved the novellas and just really enjoy this world and characters and feel like Alexandra Bracken is a great author, I just don't feel like I can give it more than 3.5.
I loved Zu as a character in the original trilogy, but I don't think I loved her as the main character/narrator. I can't put my finger on exactly what it was, other than that I just liked Ruby more. So that's complain number one.
Complaint number two is that the storyline was just too complicated. Politics and mafia and secret plots and secret organizations and kidnappings, on top of too many secrets being kept for stupid reasons other than for the truth to come out as a "big reveal" halfway through the book. I don't know. Like I don't even know if I could give a summary of this plot because I don't think I truly understood everything that was going on. Way too many things were going on.
Overall the book was just ok. I liked the new characters a lot and I liked the new layer of powers manifesting other than just Green, Blue, Yellow, Orange, and Red (I especially like the one who can influence computers and technology like an Orange influences humans), but the rest of the storyline was just too complicated. Add that to the fact that there's clearly going to be another book because not everything was wrapped up in this one. As much as I really liked the original trilogy and loved the novellas and just really enjoy this world and characters and feel like Alexandra Bracken is a great author, I just don't feel like I can give it more than 3.5.