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sassyowlreads 's review for:
The First Sister
by Linden A. Lewis
4.5 stars! Check out my blog post for a full review!
World-building: The Handmaid’s Tale vibes were clear right off the bat. The Sisterhood is very reminiscent of the Handmaid/Aunt system in Gilead. The hierarchy within the Icarii reminded me of the Red Rising Colors but with a little more fluidity.
The Geans: super religious and live on Earth and Mars. The Sisterhood is part of their Society
The Icarii: technologically advanced and live on Mercury and Venus. “Middle” names denote status, aka the sol in Lito sol Lucius.
The Asters: Former humans who essentially underwent speciation when they moved out to the Asteroid Belt and are now considered completely different species and are the lowest of the low (Low Reds for you Howlers out there)
Synthetics: Only alluded to in regards to a war that broke out when AIs rebelled.
The Gaens and Icarii are at war and the poor Asters are in the middle of it.
Characters: There are 3 protagonists, First Sister, Lito sol Lucius and Hiro val Akira. Hiro’s POV is told via voice recordings which was an interesting way for an entire Point-of-view to be told. Sisters have their voices surgically removed upon becoming a full-fledged sister so most of First Sister’s POV is inner monologue and conveying things by gesturing. Lito and First Sister have a lot of internal struggle, First Sister because she has no voice and Lito because his mind isn’t solely his own thanks to the neural transplant and partner system the Icarii use.
Plot: This plot kept me on my toes for sure! There were a lot of twists and I was constantly trying to connect the threads of the three main characters and secondary character, Saito Ren. I won’t say too much here to avoid spoiling anything but I will say that it starts slow and takes some time to get going but once it does, things get crazy fast!
Other Notable Things: I loved how diverse the characters were too! Hiro is non-binary, First Sister is bi-sexual and gender is presented as very fluid.
The book also gets extra points for the author being so interactive and nice!
Thanks so much to Netgalley and the Publisher for the e-arc!
World-building: The Handmaid’s Tale vibes were clear right off the bat. The Sisterhood is very reminiscent of the Handmaid/Aunt system in Gilead. The hierarchy within the Icarii reminded me of the Red Rising Colors but with a little more fluidity.
The Geans: super religious and live on Earth and Mars. The Sisterhood is part of their Society
The Icarii: technologically advanced and live on Mercury and Venus. “Middle” names denote status, aka the sol in Lito sol Lucius.
The Asters: Former humans who essentially underwent speciation when they moved out to the Asteroid Belt and are now considered completely different species and are the lowest of the low (Low Reds for you Howlers out there)
Synthetics: Only alluded to in regards to a war that broke out when AIs rebelled.
The Gaens and Icarii are at war and the poor Asters are in the middle of it.
Characters: There are 3 protagonists, First Sister, Lito sol Lucius and Hiro val Akira. Hiro’s POV is told via voice recordings which was an interesting way for an entire Point-of-view to be told. Sisters have their voices surgically removed upon becoming a full-fledged sister so most of First Sister’s POV is inner monologue and conveying things by gesturing. Lito and First Sister have a lot of internal struggle, First Sister because she has no voice and Lito because his mind isn’t solely his own thanks to the neural transplant and partner system the Icarii use.
Plot: This plot kept me on my toes for sure! There were a lot of twists and I was constantly trying to connect the threads of the three main characters and secondary character, Saito Ren. I won’t say too much here to avoid spoiling anything but I will say that it starts slow and takes some time to get going but once it does, things get crazy fast!
Other Notable Things: I loved how diverse the characters were too! Hiro is non-binary, First Sister is bi-sexual and gender is presented as very fluid.
The book also gets extra points for the author being so interactive and nice!
Thanks so much to Netgalley and the Publisher for the e-arc!