thecandlelightlibrary's Reviews (1.25k)

Thank you to Macmillan/Henry Holt & Co. for sending me an ARC of this title. I received this copy for free and this review contains my honest opinions. 

 

I’m truly not sure how to rate this. While I enjoyed many of the individual elements in this story, they never quite built into something engaging for me. I have two requirements for any book to potentially be an enjoyable read for me: first, I need to have a likable character and second, the story needs to end in a satisfying way. This book, incredibly, had neither for me. 

 

I think my first issue was it was marketed to me as science fiction and I found it to be much more literary with moments of magical realism. For the right reader this is probably a fantastic combination, but it left me hoping for so much more. In fact, I felt the story should have started after the first part (a third of the way through my copy) and I wish there had been more focus on the portals and magical realism aspects. I was also frustrated with how the magical realism aspects were never sufficiently explained (I don’t need a detailed instruction guide but I’d like to be able to follow along as things happen). 

 

The story spends most of its time focused on the main character, Ethan, and his disappointing experiences in the startup tech industry. Unfortunately, I found Ethan to be pretty boring as a character and I wasn’t very interested in most of the workplace interactions. I question why Noma wasn’t chosen to voice this story: she would have been much more fascinating for me and brought much more insight to the world. 

 

It felt almost as if there were two different stories fighting for control: the first being about a disgruntled employee working in a career they are clearly miserable in and the second being about the portals and multiverses. In such a short novel, though, neither quite received the attention they needed to shine. 

 

While this didn’t turn out to be the title for me, thank you again to the publisher for sending me a free ARC. 

I’ve read a handful of Sedaris’ essays before for different college literature classes and don’t remember any strong feelings towards them, so this level of disappointment is certainly new. I don’t understand how this was supposed to be the best examples of Sedaris’ writing and I am baffled by this book’s high rating. I did not find any part of this humorous, and I question why essays that were known to be problematic were still included in this edition. Why is being deliberately unkind to other groups of people considered humor?

The concept was cool and this could have been such a fantastic book, but ultimately it was let down by the relationship drama subplot(s) and it was incredibly difficult to remember which names went with which characters. I also did not enjoy the narrative of women giving up everything for husbands who weren't worth it.

Anthologies are difficult things, but I think Rita Dove did an excellent job compiling this one. While a lot of the poems did not speak to me, I did enjoy seeing such a broad representation of poets and reading about their lives. In all, 44 U.S. states are represented, plus Washington D.C. and several territories. However, I think I would have preferred to see representation from all 50 states and the poets arranged by region.

I was expecting more recipes, and it definitely needed more pictures, but everything look easy to try.

Thank you to Macmillan/TOR for sending me an ARC of this title. I received this copy for free and this review contains my honest opinions. 

 

Ocean’s Echo is the standalone companion novel to Winter’s Orbit and just as enjoyable. I couldn’t put this book down - in fact I stayed up to an irresponsibly late hour just to finish it. I had absolutely no idea where the plot was going to go and loved every single minute of it. 

 

This book is definitely science fiction with a hint of romance, but Tennal and Surit are so compelling to watch interact that I really didn’t mind. My favorite part of both Winter’s Orbit and Ocean’s Echo was actually the world-building, and I hope Maxwell continues to explore this incredible universe she’s created. The only reason Ocean’s Echo wasn’t 5-stars for me was that it didn’t resolve things quite where I wanted them to. While it was still a solid ending, I was hoping for something a bit different. 

 

If you enjoyed the world-building, characters, or writing style of Winter’s Orbit you’ll definitely enjoy this companion novel. Thank you again to the publisher for sending me a free ARC.