The Sun and the Void

So … this will be a little complicated. If I had went with my normal rule of: if the book does not raise my interest at page 50-100, I dnf it - I would have. But since I participated in the readalong that Illumicrate hosted on their Discordserver, I gave it much more of a chance. Did I regret it? I can’t really say to be real honest. And the issue is, I can’t even tell you what exactly it was, that made this book just “meh” for me. I liked that chapter 1 starts right in there with the action, but after that it just kinda fell flat for me. A lot of world building, dozens of names that nobody could keep track of at the beginning and just not that much of an interesting story. There were huge time skips and apparently it wasn’t a big deal cause … nothing happens in the meantime. Also not much during the time you are spending with the characters. Only in the last 150 pages did it get a little more interesting. I did not like many characters, honestly I only really liked one, and while the last page of each pov did invoke a little interest in me, I highly doubt that it will be enough to read book two.

I see fantasy and girls using magic and buy - and I'm rarely disappointed! What I liked: - The world itself. I've never read fantasy set in a world inspired by South-American countries/cultures before and it was awesome to read about it. I also liked the world-building, like the religions, the tinieblas and other creatures/species, although I'm still a little confused on the physical strength of nozariels. - also on that note: the art and the glossary at the end. I know it's random but I'm a sucker for these things - The premise. Two girls who don't really belong desperately want to be free for the first time in their lives and/or find a place they can call home. I thought their motivations were very strong and understandable (why am I so bad with words) - kind of the writing and the characters (more on that later). I liked the prose and the interactions between the characters. My favorites were definitely Maior and Eva (but also, despite not being my favorite, the author did an amazing job at making me like Javier in the end??? I still don't know how she did it??????) The things I didn't like: - Reina. She was a great character with an interesting motivation and I understood where she came from but eh. More specifically, I didn't like how gullible she was. Eva's naivety was realistic, especially when it came to her marriage. But Reina changed her opinion with the wind, it seemed. So much so that it felt unrealistic. She's so caught up in one belief and then someone tells her "uh no, you got it all wrong" and suddenly she's done a 180. And this happened like a dozen times. Like, there was no hesitation, just one person presenting new information to her and suddenly that's her new truth. - writing-wise, I thought some expressions were used too often (cough, fire as a metaphor (?) for pain from wounds inflicted in battle, cough) but that is a minor pet-peeve so not truly a complaint. Still, this was a very promising book, especially the end! I kind of expected it, though the book did manage to confuse me a little bit with Reina changing who she worshipped. I will definitely be reading the next book in this series (it's going to be one, right? I NEED MORE!)

"The Sun and The Void" was one of my most anticipated books this year and I'm really glad that I was able to read an ARC of it! The blurb was really promising but after reading the book I have to say that even with really good plot ideas the execution wasn't as satisfying. Let's start with the things I enjoyed: The woldbuilding happened through the eyes of the protagonist, we learn about the world through other characters telling and explaining it to them. The arc of suspense at the end was quite good and I enjoyed reading the last chapters. But the biggest issue I had with the book was the timeline. The story expanded over a view years and because of that it feld like the author wanted to put too many plot points in this book. There was too little focus on different events and they fell a bit flat.  Also, the characters seemed kinda inconsistent and some of their actions didn't made sense. Another thing I didn't like were the love interests. They were either racist (at least in the beginning) or abusive and still, the protagonists fall for them. I really didn't like that the abusive behaviour was explained with <spoiler> "a curse" </spoiler> for that seemed to take the responsibility for their actions. All in all I would say that the ideas for the plot are really great but it needs a little more balance between booklength and events in the story as well as more comprehensible character building. Thank you NetGalley for providing an e-ARC of this book!