Honestly, I was really disappointed with this book. I somehow started it before book one, paused read book one, and then came back and I was hoping there would have been more clarify to the sand diving thing.... but no such luck. There was also a serious mood switch between book one and book two. Book one was very dark and overly detailed in some gruesome stuff, book two was a lot more of a focus on the YA characters and really enforced that YA book feel, even if it wasn't. I'm even more bothered by the use of the atomic weapons and how it doesn't seem to really have any effects on this world, especially that cliff hanger at the very end.... ( )

"Across the Sand" does a great job expanding upon the world introduced in the first novel. The characters were again an important part of this story, though there were many more points of view (& characters in general) to keep track of in this work. There was some repetition as we experienced the same event from different characters' perspectives. However, the points of view were mostly split into two different plot lines that eventually converged, so there wasn't too much repetition. I do think that, if I hadn't just re-read "Sand" prior to reading this, I likely would have been confused. But I overall enjoyed this book ( )

TW/CW: Violence

RATING: 3/5

REVIEW:

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving an honest review.

Across the Sand is the sequel to Sand, which I read a couple of years ago. I would suggest that if you haven’t read it, you might read that first and then read that one. Even if you read it a few years ago like me, it might be worth it to have a refresher.

So, the good first.

Howey is excellent at building worlds. He really brings the world to life, a whole culture with what feels like more under the surface. New tech, new cultural mores, new ways for people to interact. It’s all in there, making what I feel is the most interesting part of this book – the world itself.
Howey is also a good writer. If he wasn’t, there was no way I would have made it through this book.
And the bad…

I’m sorry to all the people who seem to like it, but this book was so boring! At 50% I was still trying to figure out what the plot was, and really nothing happened except in the last 10-20% of the book? And even the final resolution was a bit anticlimactic. He may be great at creating worlds but plots? not so much.
Unless you’ve JUST read Sand, the characters are hard to keep apart. He pretty much just assumes you’ll know them without giving you much of their background, and there were places I was very much confused as to who was who.
Over all, this book is okay. It is well written, which kept me limping along, waiting for things to get interesting, which they only slightly did in the last 20% of the book. If you like sci-fi books with good worldbuilding but snail-slow plots, this is the book for you. ( )