Axiom's End - ComeLibros Club

benwerd@bookwyrm.social reviewed Axiom's End by Lindsay Ellis

The themes were alien to me

4 stars

Very readable: a pageturner book that keeps you going through a riveting plot at breakneck speed. I also enjoyed the discussion of alien-ness in the context of building relationships of all kinds. I was a little taken aback by the CIA turning out to be the good guys; the aliens in many ways being as harmful as the knee-jerk reactions against them made them out to be; the truth-seeking indie journalist being one of the bad guys; and the (spoilers) thing that Ampersand does to Cora without permission towards the end. I felt like the themes either weren't thought through as well as they might be, or were otherwise more right-wing than I typically want to enjoy. Which is a shame, because those things aside, I enjoyed the read very much.

Machinedreamread@bookwyrm.social reviewed Axiom's End by Lindsay Ellis

Too much dialogue, too much weirdness

2 stars

So much dialogue!! I found myself annoyed. It started so great but by the end I found the main character annoying and her actions weird…. iykyk. I didn’t like it and I felt like it had a lot of potential. Not going to read the next one.

makyo@furry.bookwyrms.ink reviewed Axiom's End by Lindsay Ellis (Noumena, #1)

None

4 stars

Axiom's End is a delightful race from a first contact to the beginning of understanding on a very individual, even intimate level.

I have been, as I assume many of the early readers have, a long-time follower of Ellis' works. Of course, going from video essays on film theory to a novel is quite a leap, so I still went into this not quite knowing what I expected. I knew that there were aliens, I think? And it took place in the Bush years? Not much beyond that.

Well, there were indeed aliens, and as promised, there was indeed W in the world. Beyond that, however, was some pretty dang good action, some emotional heaviness that I very much was not expecting, and a question of how well one can truly empathize with someone different from you on a so fundamental a level as planet-of-origin (as well at trying to …

Axiom's End is a delightful race from a first contact to the beginning of understanding on a very individual, even intimate level.

I have been, as I assume many of the early readers have, a long-time follower of Ellis' works. Of course, going from video essays on film theory to a novel is quite a leap, so I still went into this not quite knowing what I expected. I knew that there were aliens, I think? And it took place in the Bush years? Not much beyond that.

Well, there were indeed aliens, and as promised, there was indeed W in the world. Beyond that, however, was some pretty dang good action, some emotional heaviness that I very much was not expecting, and a question of how well one can truly empathize with someone different from you on a so fundamental a level as planet-of-origin (as well at trying to empathize with other humans, too, which we have a hard enough time doing as it is.)

The prose was a bit coarse at the beginning, but quickly smoothed out. I suspect if I were to reread the book, I may even revise this assessment, too. Ellis' writing is well suited to both action- and emotion-filled scenes; though the prose itself never really wowed me it still very much worked. I got notes of Orson Scott Card (without the zealous homophobia), Cixin Liu (without the what-if-women-were-bad-actually), and Dan Simmons (with less John Keats) from the page, all authors whose writing I enjoy for their ability to get me wrapped up in a book. I may have stopped reading Card and Liu, but I'm definitely looking forward to more Ellis!