Back of Book Summary in a Sentence
Cyra and Akos are kids from the opposite side of the tracks, and by tracks I mean an ice planet in a distant galaxy where each person has a unique power.
Review
The world-building in this novel is amazing. It may be set in a distant, magical galaxy on a fictitious snow-covered planet, but I can imagine it in my head like it was just a state on the other side of the country.
From the descriptions of the amount of layers each person has to wear, to the snow goggles and face shield they need just to travel from their house to their flying vehicle, even I felt cold. And that’s saying a lot considering it’s eighty degrees where I am right now.
A good foundation is also built for explaining the magic that’s inherent in this galaxy and how something called the current flows through everything that breathes and gives people their special abilities. It’s similar to how each of the X-Men has a unique power. But in this universe, people don’t need to have mutations that ostracize them since literally everyone has an ability.
This chapter also starts to hint about the problems within the Assembly, a coalition of nine nation-planets. This galactic governing system seems pretty realistic as far as galactic governing systems go.
So if I could give Veronica Roth a hug for how amazing she is at drawing her readers into the world she’s built, it would be a bear hug lasting at least three seconds. Her naming conventions on the other hand…she would just get a firm handshake from me.
I was having a hard time not only with the names of the characters like Eijeh and Aoseh, but the names of the geographical locations as well. It’s completely understandable that these names are not Earth names since our own planet is probably in a distant galaxy, but I’ve never been a fan of too many vowels together with not that many consonants.
After a few more chapters, I’m certain that I’ll get used to all the names and spellings. That’s right, I’m planning on reading the rest of the book. I want to know more about this galaxy and the magic in it that gives people their powers.
Quotable Quote
Trying saying this three times fast.
Ori continued, “Hello, Aoseh, Sifa, Cisi, Akos. Happy Blooming. Come on, let’s go, Eij.” She said all this in one go, hardly taking time to breathe.
Get Carve the Mark
Gwen thinks that it’s as close to magic as humans can get when a blank Word document is filled with groups of letters, and those groups of letters turn into lines, and those lines turn into a whole new world.
When Gwen isn’t reading or writing, she’s drinking boba milk tea and singing along to Steven Universe. You should sing along with her.