Representation: Black and Asian characters
Trigger warnings: Blood, grief and loss depiction, death of a father in the past and a friend, dead bodies, genocide, earthquake, emesis, bullying and murder mentioned, physical assault and injury, fire, military violence and war themes
Score: Five points out of ten.

One year ago, I read the first instalment of the Unstoppable trilogy: Victories Greater Than Death--a massive disappointment. One year later, it was time to read the second part of the series: Dreams Bigger Than Heartbreak. Unfortunately, when I picked it up, read and finished it, it was equally underwhelming. No library has the third part, Promises Stronger Than Darkness, but I won't read that; I'm done with this author.

It starts (more like continues) with the characters that need no introduction: Tina, Elza and Rachel, all living separate lives but none of them are on Earth anymore. Elza desires to be the first human to enter The Palace of Scented Tears, while Rachel can't draw after encountering an alien artefact and Tina seizes an opportunity to study at the Royal Space Academy but unexpectedly does not fulfil others' expectations there. Sounds disjointed? It sure is. It was a struggle to read each individual narrative. Splitting the book into three parts each starring a protagonist would be better; not to mention I couldn't connect or relate to any of them in the first place. The character soup didn't help either, as there were so many non-human people I had to meet that I couldn't remember or keep track of them. Rachel goes to a black hole to attempt to restore her artistic abilities, and Elza meets the antagonist from Victories Greater Than Death, Marrant, all while Tina stumbles upon the Bereavement. Nothing much happened in the first 300 pages. Damina, Kez and Yiwei were predominantly in the background. However, the last 100 quickened the pace to its detriment as I couldn't comprehend all the events that occurred. The malicious organisation, the Compassion, returns to execute their vitriolic plan to extinguish entire species by inserting black holes that eat suns from the inside, slowly destroying civilisations. Which is what happened to the Irriyaians and why most of them are dead now, including another person, Yatto. Tina also ceased to exist during the disordered pandemonium when she transformed into captain Thaoh Argentian, which concluded Dreams Bigger Than Heartbreak on a low note. ( )

This book is so good! It's got a hard job to do as the middle book of a trilogy, but it all works -- the Big Plot advances, there's a lot of character development, and we're careening into the final act. And the book is excellent on its own merits, too! All our protagonists go on difficult journies to become the people they want to be. Somehow things get even more queer than they already were! There's a bunch of more cool world we discover, and some more answers about how the bad guys got that way. Love it! ( )

https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/hugos-2023-lodestar-award-for-best-ya-book/

This sequel seemed to me independently enjoyable even if you haven’t read (or can’t remember) last year’s Victories Greater than Death. Six teens turn out to be vital to the future of humanity, and must confront various potentially fatal challenges for high stakes while dealing with the usual agonies of relationships and (interestingly) creativity. ( )

Lovely sequel. Takes place a few months after the end of the first book. The characters are trying to find their places—and themselves—in the universe.

There were consequences. Some of the Earthlings are living their dreams—Elza is in princess school, Kez is training to be a diplomat, Damini is learning everything she possibly can. Tina and Yiwei are in the Royal Fleet. Rachael, however, is lost. Whenever she tries to make new art, she flashes back to the horrors of the Vayt. She goes on a quest to regain her identity as an artist. Along the way she meets new friends and old ones. Once again, they will need to work together to stop Marrant and the Compassion from making the universe worse. ( )

This was fun and stressful and exciting and ended on a bit of a low point, like a big gay Empire Strikes Back made out of candy mined from the core of a candy comet circling an intelligent marshmallow star singing KPop. ( )