This book was phenomenal. A real page turner. Usually I don't fall so deeply into science fiction books but this one was amazing. A little romance, a bit of warfare, and a healthy dose of intergalactic freaks. Such a fun read! ( )

This was a pretty intense book. I had to read it twice to get all the details, and shall probably read it again because I think there is still more in there for me to discover. Well worth the time and loads of fun to boot! ( )

An action-adventure space opera. Good character development. The premise is a traveling carnival and circus, but only a small part of the story involves the characters taking part in the circus. The rest is a war story and how they take part in the war. ( )

I really enjoyed a lot of parts of this book and other parts I really disliked.
Likes-
*creative premise and interesting characters- The characters are so original and I loved finding out about their talents and skills. I was totally surprised by a couple of revelations about a few characters towards the end.
Dislikes-
*uneven pacing- Some parts I was very into and then suddenly I find myself in a new setting and I don't know how they got there or when it is. For example, I'm reading about the MC being on a certain planet and then a new scene starts and they are now on the MC's home planet with no lead in to why, how, or when they got there. I think it just needs some more editing.
*random discussions or comments about character's gender and sexual orientation and habits. It wasn't worked into the storyline but rather felt like the parts were just inserted to be politically correct. These references could have been removed and the plot wouldn't have been affected at all.

(I received a free ebook copy in exchange for my honest review.) ( )

I received a free copy of this book in return for an honest review.

I'm sorry to say I was very disappointed in this book. It had a lot of promise, but really, really needed looking at by a better editor. The writing was all over the place. There were sections that were well-written and seemed to work well within the plot, but there were oh-so many tangents that led nowhere and pieces of sloppy writing that the editor should have picked up on.

The worst part for me, was an early segment in which the main character was talking with a market trader. During this segment - a few pages - the author point blank refused to assign a gender and corresponding pronoun to said trader. The result was that this person was referred to as "they" the entire time.
Now I am fully aware that the assuming of people's gender thing is a big issue at the moment, and possibly the author was trying to comment on that in some way, but the result was the most irritating few pages I have ever forced myself to read. There is a reason we use gender and pronouns. It makes reading/speaking easier, for both parties involved. Without them, the text does not flow, the mental images will not form, and the story falls flat. Dead. Kaput.

It took a lot for me to continue reading after that.

But all that aside, the ideas are definitely there, and there were definite signs of writing talent amongst the chaff, so hopefully, with more experience and a better editor, future books by this author will be well worth reading.

1.5 stars. ( )