J. P. Valentine

Sampled for the first round of SPSFC judging. https://thespsfc.org/how-the-competition-works/ While this book made it to my team's quarter-finalist list, it was not my style (NMS) so I am not going to complete it.

Initial impressions: From a technical aspect, this is one of the best books in my team's slush pile. It's very easy to read, well-crafted, and very polished. The book has a killer first line, too: “The day I died started off as boring as the day before it.”

Plot & Characters: Lucy (the spaceship) is by far my favorite of the characters. I like main character Cal a lot less—however, both of the two are well-developed characters and you can tell they have background history that the author knows, whether or not the reader does. (It might get shared with the reader at some point after I stopped. I'm not sure.)

I didn't really get a good sense of where the plot was going from the portion I read. I followed the story up until a point where Cal was going to school to learn how to cultivate qi, but I don't know what the point of cultivating is.

CW: lots of swearing; some gore and medical content; repeated use of the word "psycho" which was off-putting to me

Overall thoughts: First off, I think that readers who are better suited to the content and style of writing will love this. I personally had issues with the gore—both the initial scene of violence and the later descriptions of bodily secretions—but that won't bother everyone. Additionally, this book does a lot of snarky 4th wall breaking where the main character directs comments to the reader, but for some reason that I can't pinpoint, it wasn't done in a way that I enjoy. Perhaps Cal's sense of humor and mine are too different?

Ultimately, this book is a fast read that, for its target audience, will probably hit a lot of the right notes with character development and attitude. Even readers who aren't fully in-tune with the main character will get a very well crafted story that zips along at a fast pace, with some great one-liners and conversations between characters.… (mehr)

I loved it, I hated it and I'm wrecked

My honest opinion, I'm no book worm so don't expect a pro review.

Writing wise, since the first book it really got easier to pay attention to the story rather than the heavy style in the first book.

My opinion is that the end ruined a lot of the experience for me, just because I will NEVER read it again. Honestly not worth the mountain of angst to feel the story ever again ( Wich normally I avoid like the plague, so thanks for catching me off guard), thought it's definitely the type of story I won't be forgetting any time soon.

I loved the story as a whole and the steady pace of wonder when shit will wreck me emotionally again. Definitely a rollercoaster in the best sense.

I hated the feeling that there's no hope for love in the story. Could it be maturity or any number of things that you could argue that story wise, "it just wasn't the time" for the characters, just to make it sound plausible? Sure! But for me the book built a crescendo only to faltline in the end. It really really could have had a somewhat good ending after closing the hole.

The book honestly left a bitter taste of peace and hopelessness and deep hurt for the characters. If that was the honest intention, then you got it.
Do I recommend it? Fuck yeah.… (mehr)