(I received a free copy of this book from the publishers in exchange for a review).
(This review may contain spoilers).
I did find it a little difficult to get into this book at first. I felt that there was a lot of information imparted through dialogue that created blocks of text that I often find quite difficult to read.
Once I got past the lessons stage, I found it easier to get into the book. I was able to understand the motivations of most of the characters, though I did struggle somewhat to understand their motivations at times. Still, many of the characters did come across as really strong and although I’m not sure I really liked many of the characters, they were quite intriguing.
There were a lot of politics in this book. At times, I did feel those politics overwhelmed the science fiction aspects, but I still found them to make the book more interesting to read.
One of the main problems I did see with the book was very little of the characters’ pasts. Although I knew a lot about them from what they did and said in the present, it would have been nice to know a bit more about their motivations. I knew what they were trying to do… I just wasn’t really sure why they were trying to do it.
I think the technology in the book came across really well in the action scenes, but the long explanations by the teachers were really difficult to read. I feel it would have been better to show the technology in action towards the beginning. Although there were scenes later on like that, I think there should have been more and that quite a bit of the explanation-dialogue could have been cut.
The book, on the whole, was mostly well-written, though I did notice some errors as I rad the book. A lot of the action was written really well – I do just feel that there could have been less telling through characters’ dialogue and more showing.
Ink of Blood 