It's actually eerie how much your criticisms mirror the conversation my bff and I had on finishing this book..... but we too, will be awaiting book four XD
Listening to you guys is a vicarious experience …all those books I’ll never read, all your constructive thoughts about what works and doesn’t work, examples of how to write a better story...it gives me as much to chew on as it entertains me. (But I keep trying *not* to imagine you reading anything I’ve written! 😬) If only creativity was as easy as criticism. But hey, that’s not a complaint. Love your work 👌
its unfortunate because it feels like this series has been becoming slighty worse with each book. i hated the concept of sad sex apartment so having all those plotlines almost repeated for no reason feels ....unprodcutive.
The second book is actually my favorite in the series. I enjoy the way it subverts the first book and I found the explorations of trauma super interesting. But I wish that Kaveh had gotten more criticism for having a relationship with someone who was 15 years younger than him and incredibly mentally ill. There were ways to support Cora without having sex with her, and it was clear from the sex scenes that Cora was doing it out of a feeling of obligation. That never got addressed. I get the impression the Ellis really loves Kaveh as a character and is hesitant to sully his name. Then Paris shows up, and we don't get much time with her before they're together. We don't get to fall in love with Paris like we did with Kaveh. I thought being with Paris would help Cora work through how toxic her relationship with Kaveh and Ampersand are. But unfortunately they didn't get much time together on the page. I think Ampersand is getting Dune'd. You could have had a really good tragic ending, where Paris finally helps her parse out her toxicity with Ampersand. But then Cora uses high language with him to save Paris, and ends up indoctrinated to his authority. Then book 4 is Paris trying to rescue Cora from her abusive cult relationship. I liked how Cora told off Nils in the ending, but I hated how it further deified Kaveh. FWIW, I went to a book signing, and Ellis said her publisher told her the book needed to be quite a bit shorter than it originally was. This may just be some bad editing. 🤷 And overall, I did really enjoy the book. I think human-alien relationships are portrayed well and with complexity. I liked the action and the tension. I mainly needed more from the human-human side.
A good platonic relationship really would be refreshing too, while he supports her. And bring more up with him nikola cora ampersand. As friends it would be as legit and complicated.
@@marocat4749 I think his death actually would have been more tragic if they had kept it at a friendship, at that point cora had literally no one to depend on among the humans with her best interest in mind who weren't trying to get anything from her. instead I was just creeped by his character taking advantage of someone whos not clearly not stable and vulnerable for sex, which lowered my opinion of his character. got to say they really made it up to be by the 3rd book because Paris is like the best character and I'm 100% there for the relationship. Sol's redemption was also pretty good, he was such in insufferable ass but I was agreeing with him about jevah lol
I stumbled across a RUclips video recently where the host was interviewing Lindsay Ellis about this book. I thought immediately that you guys should do a review. It was so strange seeing her o RUclips after all these years even if it wasn't on her own channel
Mazandaran is a province in Iran. Quite a few Iranian surnames refer to the place your ancestors were from. Mazandarani sticks out to me because my Persian teacher was from Mazandaran.
This series is just not what I expected it to be. I thought this would be some alien/monster boyfriend slow-burn since that's what the first book started with. Now, we're three books in and I think I'd rather get the sci-fi version with all the alien politicking, please. Maybe the slow-burn was just too slow for me and I stopped to smell the flowers along the way and now I'm starting at the decor.
It think Coras new love interest will be Paris’ sister, because Paris was also connected to Kaveh in a sort-of familial way and is introduced in the second book, but is the revealed to be a degradation of Kaveh in the third book. Paris’s sister is going to be even less of a character than Paris, but she will still eventually take the place of Paris
I will never stop being mad that Kaveh, the best character of this series, is dead. His relationship with Nikola is my favorite part of all 3 books. I will follow along this series as long Nikola is part of this, but i am still heartbroken
Ah! It didn’t but our summary makes it sound like it did. After visiting Belarus for one reason, they got information that lead them to travel to Chernobyl. - Maria
wait wait wait, authors don't get better? Like, because they are already doing well being published and thus have less of a need to or because they just... don't?
![BLACK BAG - Official Trailer [HD] - Only in Theaters March 14](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Du0Xp8WX_7I/mqdefault.jpg)
It's actually eerie how much your criticisms mirror the conversation my bff and I had on finishing this book..... but we too, will be awaiting book four XD
1:30:00 Why does this feel like it's a smut book where Will is desperately trying to cling on to the plot and great worldbuilding sprinkles.
Listening to you guys is a vicarious experience …all those books I’ll never read, all your constructive thoughts about what works and doesn’t work, examples of how to write a better story...it gives me as much to chew on as it entertains me. (But I keep trying *not* to imagine you reading anything I’ve written! 😬) If only creativity was as easy as criticism. But hey, that’s not a complaint. Love your work 👌
its unfortunate because it feels like this series has been becoming slighty worse with each book. i hated the concept of sad sex apartment so having all those plotlines almost repeated for no reason feels ....unprodcutive.
The second book is actually my favorite in the series. I enjoy the way it subverts the first book and I found the explorations of trauma super interesting.
But I wish that Kaveh had gotten more criticism for having a relationship with someone who was 15 years younger than him and incredibly mentally ill. There were ways to support Cora without having sex with her, and it was clear from the sex scenes that Cora was doing it out of a feeling of obligation. That never got addressed. I get the impression the Ellis really loves Kaveh as a character and is hesitant to sully his name.
Then Paris shows up, and we don't get much time with her before they're together. We don't get to fall in love with Paris like we did with Kaveh. I thought being with Paris would help Cora work through how toxic her relationship with Kaveh and Ampersand are. But unfortunately they didn't get much time together on the page.
I think Ampersand is getting Dune'd. You could have had a really good tragic ending, where Paris finally helps her parse out her toxicity with Ampersand. But then Cora uses high language with him to save Paris, and ends up indoctrinated to his authority. Then book 4 is Paris trying to rescue Cora from her abusive cult relationship.
I liked how Cora told off Nils in the ending, but I hated how it further deified Kaveh.
FWIW, I went to a book signing, and Ellis said her publisher told her the book needed to be quite a bit shorter than it originally was. This may just be some bad editing. 🤷
And overall, I did really enjoy the book. I think human-alien relationships are portrayed well and with complexity. I liked the action and the tension. I mainly needed more from the human-human side.
A good platonic relationship really would be refreshing too, while he supports her.
And bring more up with him nikola cora ampersand. As friends it would be as legit and complicated.
@@marocat4749 I think his death actually would have been more tragic if they had kept it at a friendship, at that point cora had literally no one to depend on among the humans with her best interest in mind who weren't trying to get anything from her. instead I was just creeped by his character taking advantage of someone whos not clearly not stable and vulnerable for sex, which lowered my opinion of his character.
got to say they really made it up to be by the 3rd book because Paris is like the best character and I'm 100% there for the relationship. Sol's redemption was also pretty good, he was such in insufferable ass but I was agreeing with him about jevah lol
Cutting room floor may explain a lot
I stumbled across a RUclips video recently where the host was interviewing Lindsay Ellis about this book. I thought immediately that you guys should do a review. It was so strange seeing her o RUclips after all these years even if it wasn't on her own channel
Mazandaran is a province in Iran. Quite a few Iranian surnames refer to the place your ancestors were from. Mazandarani sticks out to me because my Persian teacher was from Mazandaran.
I'll need to read this book first, then I'll be back to watch this ❤
Ngl, hearing you guys talk about this book reminded me of your Cyborg Tinkerer review 😅
This series is just not what I expected it to be. I thought this would be some alien/monster boyfriend slow-burn since that's what the first book started with. Now, we're three books in and I think I'd rather get the sci-fi version with all the alien politicking, please. Maybe the slow-burn was just too slow for me and I stopped to smell the flowers along the way and now I'm starting at the decor.
It think Coras new love interest will be Paris’ sister, because Paris was also connected to Kaveh in a sort-of familial way and is introduced in the second book, but is the revealed to be a degradation of Kaveh in the third book. Paris’s sister is going to be even less of a character than Paris, but she will still eventually take the place of Paris
Kaveh and Cora could have just been good platonic friends and not have sex and close that early?
I will never stop being mad that Kaveh, the best character of this series, is dead. His relationship with Nikola is my favorite part of all 3 books. I will follow along this series as long Nikola is part of this, but i am still heartbroken
I need a fan fic where kaveh is alive and cybernetic
i hated him lol
If you want to read a quality sci-fi book, I would suggest you to read Alien from Earth. It's awesome.
They look like Secretary Birds!
Wait wait wait, the book put Chernobyl in Belarus?
Ah! It didn’t but our summary makes it sound like it did. After visiting Belarus for one reason, they got information that lead them to travel to Chernobyl. - Maria
@@unresolvedtextualtension*led. #IFIFY
You're welcome.
wait wait wait, authors don't get better? Like, because they are already doing well being published and thus have less of a need to or because they just... don't?
Its probably that publisher let authors less cook and not grow or dont courage much?
❤
I really don't like the name Ampersand. And I get it, you could write it & and that's quirky. But it's a mouthful and it's not a pretty word.