his is the first book I read by Kate Eliott and I can say I thoroughly enjoyed.
The blurb talks about “Gender Swapped Alexander the Great on interstellar scale” and I couldn’t resist as Alexander the Great is one of my favorite historical character.
To be honest I found hard to match Alexander with Sun as I wasn’t able to match fictional characters with the historical one. On the other side I think it’s an excellent and gripping story that kept me hooked even if I’m not a big fan of military sci-fi
It’s a bit slow at the beginning but it’s also the part where the author introduce us to a very complex and fascinating world. The world building is amongst the strong point of this book: fascinating civilisations and different races, political intrigues and very sophisticated technologies. Even if there’s a Far East flavour they are original and fresh.
Kate Eliott is an excellent storyteller and she delivers a story that is action packed, gripping and fast paced after the first part.
I didn’t find easy to warm up to Sun but we see her grow and show her cunning and her strategical abilities during the book. Her companions are fascinating, I loved Persephone and Zizou. All the characters are well thought and interesting.
Even if it’s a sci-fi story some aspects reflect those of our society and there’s plenty of social commentary. I liked how the author use the reality show as a mean of propaganda and as a part of the plot.
I’m very curious to read the next books in this series because I think it’s going to be very interesting. It’s the first book I read by Kate Eliott and won’t surely be the last.
I strongly recommend it as it’s highly entertaining and gripping.
Many thanks to Head of Zeus and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine