Orchard

Stephanie Garber

Okay, woah. I enjoyed this book SO much. Now, it didn’t stand out as anything personally special, but it was so good from an author’s perspective.The way the main character describes her feelings in colors was so original and inspirational. It made the writing immersive.The world itself, the empires and caraval itself were so fascinating. I needed to know what happened next and what showed up. (And I NEED to know WHY they say “by god’s teeth” PLEASE STEPHANIE PLEASE.SPOILERS AHEAD:As for the story, again, woah. Not only was there a twist villian, surprise! the twist villain turned out to be not a villain, which was both refreshing AND captivating. The characters had complex layers. And those layers got ripped away into something else. And the way it was done SO cleanly was impressive.So many stereotypes. Lots of romance and blah blah blah, the story felt rich inspite of that. I don’t know romance, was recommended this as a starter, and it has set the bar HIGH.I could go on and on about this book. Thoroughly impressed, majorly enjoyed. Will for sure be continuing the series.

Diana Wynne Jones

[SPOILER] “I think we ought to live happily ever after…” [/SPOILER]

Becky Chambers

The setting and concept of this book are very interesting. I adore the idea of robots gone wild and humans learning from them. (Wild Robot did it better ngl)The main character is someone struggling with identity. She comes so close to accepting the image of God, to accepting Kingdom values, yet is deterred by the robot who tries to teach nihilism as hopecore.We see the main character go through rebellion, arrogance, sexual immorality, and more; and when she looks back she finds solace in family, healthy father figures, home, rest, purpose (that being loving outwardly). Yet what does Mosscap say? “You have no purpose”. That is supposed to bring peace???The writing is pretty and poetic at times, and other times the metaphors and prose make no sense. The build up feels rushed or non-existent sometimes. In reality, this feels like it was written to mainly be an expression of an idea. Which I hate. The message is pushed over the story, and not through it. I had a lot of hope and even sat through being confused at the mc’s pronouns for the whole book. I was sadly disappointed.

Jeff VanderMeer

Nothing about this book really stood out, but I don’t want to let that ruin my opinion. It was well written, had a decent story, the setting was incredulously described and built, and the tone was perfect. Would for sure recommend.

Rodney Howard-Browne