Sara King (1)

I was really caught off-guard by this book - was not really expecting much from it, but I really enjoyed it. Some of the other reviewers had a problem with the amount of brutality in it, calling it Torture Porn, but I appreciated the reminders that this was a brutal planet, controlled by brutal people. Definitely not a YA book.
I see that the author is having some legal disputes with the publisher and that the sequel is stalled. That's a pity because I'm very interested in diving back into this story again.
Audiobook notes: Reading the author's account of the history of this book, I got the impression that the book was nearly self-published. However, the audio production was outstanding - I listen to a lot of audiobooks, and this one was very good, from the actual sound quality to the quality of the reader (Allyson Johnson) - she did a great job with the different voices.… (plus d'informations)

Started slow, got better in the middle, got less good at the end. But I'm curious enough to possibly pick up the next one.

It does have some pretty graphic and sadistic violence and surgical scenes. I actually skipped the worst of it, skimmed over the rest. It didn't seem gratuitous, exactly, because it does depict exactly how either evil or amoral the characters are; but less would have been enough. I would not recommend this book for people who have no tolerance for that.

The sociopathic genius little kid is interesting, but almost completely unbelievable to me *as* a little kid. In the first scene, where Mag and her little sister Anna are introduced and Anna says she's 8 years old, I assumed from the context that this was 8 colonial years, on some planet that took 2-3 terran years to circle its sun. I was shocked when it became clear that, no, really, this is supposed to be a little kid.

I also found some of the characters' decisions to be rather unbelievably abrupt. And there are a couple other things that twang at my suspension of disbelief.

But it's hard to find real, actual SF these days, and this does qualify. (Although there had better be a believable mechanism for the vegetable-carving idiot savant seer, and Magala's unbelievable ability with weapons. I suppose it's the Yolk that's ultimately responsible, but hopefully with enough explanation to be more than the SF equivalent of magic deus ex machina.… (plus d'informations)