Saturday, 1 February 2025

Only Human, Sylvain Neuvel


Book Title: Only Human
Author: Sylvain Neuvel
Series: Themis Files #3
Date Started: January 27th  2025
Date Completed: February 1st 2025
Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Adventure
Quality Rating: Three Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Two Star
Final Rating: Three Stars
Review:

◆ Thank you to NetGalley for this ebook for review 

I’ve never been able to settle into science fiction literature, and while the first book in this series had a mythic/fairytale quality that I liked, the trilogy has progressed into pure sci fi (which is absolutely fine, I’ve just found my attention waning unfortunately).

That being said, there were three things that kept sticking out to me reading this; the transcript style often doesn’t lend itself to the drama the story seems to need, the characters can often very flippant with their generation of countries (I get some of them are supposed to be bad people but even the main cast do it), and - most importantly - I don’t buy the melodramatic father/daughter drama for a second, it’s far too shallow and performative on both sides.

I miss Rose being the main character, and I miss Kara all around. I think that, for me, was why almost all the beats in Only Humans just didn’t hit; there didn’t seem to be an emotional anchor in the way the other books had. I’ve read a lot of books about governments turning into facist world-ending adrenaline junkies and having a field day being corrupt politicians, whether it’s against aliens or the lower classes or each other. I want to pay more attention to the people standing against them.

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