Incredible story, Consangs. 4.9 Stars

I love the story.

This is a story which explores just how far greed and other desires can corrupt a society until a society falls apart, and New Vultan is a case study in what happens after such a fall.

Avo is a heavily flawed character constantly warring with his own desires. You can really get a sense for his character, and I think the characterisation the author employs, not only for Avo but also for side characters is worthy of high praise.

Avo comes to in the middle of nowhere, with no recollection of how he got there, and only the clothes on his back to call his own. He goes on a journey to crawl out from the dregs of society, fighting biologically and mechanically enhanced guys, gangs and gods all the while.

There’s a lot of vocabulary a reader will not be familiar with in this book, but after a while I understood more and more, and I think that gave the book a qualitative change in my eyes.

Overall, the world building is an utter masterpiece in my eyes. Cyberpunk 2077 - is a video game series, I thought that was the peak of the far-future biomechanical hellscape genre. But really it doesn’t compare in scale and substance when compared to this.
Now I hate to be critical of something I hold in such high regard, but I hold honesty in high regard too so here goes;
At some points the story suffers when going about exposition. For example Avo could be about to make an important decision, or action, and the author might then delay the story so as to expose and explain the setting or Avo’s bias / worldview. This when paired with the already slow pace (in my opinion), can make getting through an action sequence annoying.

One thing’s for certain though, whatever exposition the author attempts to make is worthwhile waiting for.

For reference: I’ve read most, not all of it before, when the chapters came out on royal road. It shone like a diamond in the rough then and still holds its sparkle now. I think I put it down then because I was a bit to immature vocabulary-wise to glean every bit of detail. I’m really glad I picked it up again. This is the first audio book I’ve every listened to, and I’m comforted knowing that the subject matter is quality beforehand.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!