Hardcover, 880 pages
Published Sept. 14, 2020 by Tor Books.
Kira Navárez dreamed of life on new worlds. Now she's awakened a nightmare. During a routine survey mission on an uncolonized planet, Kira finds an alien relic. At first she's delighted, but elation turns to terror when the ancient dust around her begins to move.
As war erupts among the stars, Kira is launched into a galaxy-spanning odyssey of discovery and transformation. First contact isn't at all what she imagined, and events push her to the very limits of what it means to be human.
While Kira faces her own horrors, Earth and its colonies stand upon the brink of annihilation. Now, Kira might be humanity's greatest and final hope...
I think this is three books that I listened to as a single book. Engaging but at times I was thinking “what is taking you so long to figure this out”. Aliens were quite alien but had human thought processes as well. I enjoyed it nonetheless, although I did not care for the Epilog.
Paolini kann vielleicht Phantasie. Eine Phantasie-Story in die Zukunft und den Weltraum zu verlegen macht leider noch keinen brauchbaren Science-Fiction-Roman. Selten so ein uninspierertes und vorhersehbares Buch gelesen.
Content warning Spoilers
Meh. For someone who read a bit of sci-fi, this book is really bland. Characters are behaving inconsistently, which makes it difficult to relate with them. I turned the pages, one sci-fi cliché after another, waiting for have some narrative signifiance. But the ruthless space marine who is actually kind, the alien-that-is-different-from-us-but-is-actually-thinking-just-like-the-humans-in-the-books, the countraband ship captain who is also a love interest... This first book does not really hype me for the upcoming sequel.
Wow. Never ever bored. Gripping exciting stuff. Enjoyed every page.
I originally found a hardcover copy of this book in a "free books" bin, then borrowed the audiobook edition from the library. I definitely enjoyed it, but I never felt emotionally invested in the characters. The episodic nature of the plot made the book feel very long; whenever I expected things to wrap up another conflict was tacked on.
An excellent story. The appendixes are also worth reading.
Loads of fun, but the longer it goes, the farther it gets from its promising start as "real" scifi. The author's afterword discussing the long process creating this book was quite interesting. I wonder if I personally might have liked one of the earlier versions?
The backdrop is great, the characters engaging. By all means read it, but I guess I was hoping for something it's not.
