Hi everyone
“Nyx had already been to hell. One prayer more
or less wouldn't make any difference...
On a ravaged, contaminated world, a centuries-old holy war rages, fought by a
bloody mix of mercenaries, magicians, and conscripted soldiers. Though the
origins of the war are shady and complex, there's one thing everybody agrees
on...
There's not a chance in hell of ending it.
Nyx is a former government assassin who makes a living cutting off heads for
cash. But when a dubious deal between her government and an alien gene pirate
goes bad, Nyx's ugly past makes her the top pick for a covert recovery. The
head they want her to bring home could end the war--but at what price?
The world is about to find out.”
*
SPOILERS
*
In this debut
novel Hurley creates a unique, complex, weird, original, strange, challenging
and disturbing world and it’s unlike anything I’ve read before.
The cities house mostly women because men are off fighting the war. That doesn’t
make these women weak, quite to the contrary, they are badass and strong. Thank you
Hurley for creating this!
Thank you for creating a world with people of color and with a religion
grounded in Muslim ideology rather than Christian.
Hurley writes about all these themes, raising questions while doing so but it’s
not judgmental, sentimental or emotional. It’s challenging and it makes us think.
There are
so many possibilities with this world; the interesting cultures, the different
species, the amazing technology, the strange magic and even a few aliens.
But Hurley doesn’t explore it all. I would have loved a more thorough world
building, more explanations about the workings of these technologies and
insight into the magic system. But it’s not there. She sets it all up to make
something absolutely brilliant and then she seems to lack the interest or
motivation to make it really work.
It’s nice and intriguing when there’s mystery left to the world, but I’m left
with a lot of questions and that frustrates me and leaves me a bit dissatisfied with the novel as a whole.
The writing
is very graphic and the book contains some rather horrific and literally
skin-crawling scenes. I loved that.
The
characters are diverse and unique. Nyx especially is wonderfully done and
she has so much depth even though she seems nothing more than a badass fighter on the surface.
All of these characters are flawed, they can be cowards or just dumb and
stupid.
I loved the almost complete lack of romance. There was some tension and it was
wonderfully done, but there was no real romance.
The first
part (before she goes to prison) is confusing, almost boring and I couldn’t get
into it. I didn’t like the timejump either. In my opinion, Hurley should have
started the novel after Nyx’s time in prison so she could properly introduce
the characters and the story. But no, after those almost prologue-like first
pages we jump right into the action without any explanations or time to get to
know the world and the characters. I felt lost and it took me a while to get
into it. Once I stopped questioning everything and just accepted things for what they were and once Nyx was out of prison, the enjoyment of a good book
started.
Also,
enough with the bugs already! They are used for everything; medicine, fuel,
torture, espionage…
How is that even possible? It’s like Hurley thought of something new and
exciting and she just couldn’t stop herself putting them to use everywhere and
for everything.
But, even though I'm terrified of spiders, I absolutely loved the idea of
using bugs as a cornerstone of society.
The novel
is fast paced and I didn’t want to put it down (unfortunately, life gets in the
way of doing just that). It’s suspenseful, unpredictable (mostly), very
intriguing and full of twists.
The ending especially was interesting.
The reappearance of Jacks was unexpected and it brought the whole novel to a
proper ending.
It’s not quite a setup for the next two novels in the series because it’s a
closed ending and the story can go a few ways but I do hope the old gang gets
together again.
And it’s in no way a happy ending for anyone.
I didn’t
love it, but I enjoyed it a lot so I ordered the second and third installment a
few hours after finishing this book. It’s very interesting but it left me
unsatisfied.
Hopefully, we’ll get (a) better world building, (b) the old team back together and
(c) more hints about the possibility of Nyx having children.
4 STARS
Happy
reading.
Helena
Leftover homemade carrot cake while starting a new book.
