This book was quite a rollercoaster to read.
This book tells the story of Nyx, an amnesic woman who finds herself knee deep in a 'zombie' apocalypse with no idea of who she is or where she came from and also no idea that an apocalypse was going on at all. She meets up with a group of soldiers attempting to find a research station to try and locate a possible cure for the disease.
For the first half of the book I found myself really struggling to continue. The plot seemed tired and generic, the main character was extremely unlikable and what seemed like minimal story progression and extremely over the top flowery writing was only slightly broken up by fascinating flashbacks into the past of the world and characters.
After the halfway mark the book really picked up and I found myself truly surprised by multiple twists and turns in the story that I just did not see coming at all and which threw my expectations of the story right out the window and made me get much more interested.
I also have to give credit to the author because I found her depiction of zombies (called 'Chaots') to be very interesting and refreshing compared to the fairly bland zombie that most media depicts these days.
I only wish the first half of the story had been more like the second half because it really was quite a big of a slot to get through at first which makes it difficult to recommend.
This book tells the story of Nyx, an amnesic woman who finds herself knee deep in a 'zombie' apocalypse with no idea of who she is or where she came from and also no idea that an apocalypse was going on at all. She meets up with a group of soldiers attempting to find a research station to try and locate a possible cure for the disease.
For the first half of the book I found myself really struggling to continue. The plot seemed tired and generic, the main character was extremely unlikable and what seemed like minimal story progression and extremely over the top flowery writing was only slightly broken up by fascinating flashbacks into the past of the world and characters.
After the halfway mark the book really picked up and I found myself truly surprised by multiple twists and turns in the story that I just did not see coming at all and which threw my expectations of the story right out the window and made me get much more interested.
I also have to give credit to the author because I found her depiction of zombies (called 'Chaots') to be very interesting and refreshing compared to the fairly bland zombie that most media depicts these days.
I only wish the first half of the story had been more like the second half because it really was quite a big of a slot to get through at first which makes it difficult to recommend.
Not really the most interesting or exciting read. Was a fairly standard revenge / murder fantasy novella without much action or intrigue going on. The knowledge and skills the main character had access to seemed to be a bit too far-fetched to feel realistic which also took me out of the story.
I am slightly curious to learn more about the main character's odd clairvoyance power and who the Ace of Diamonds person or group really is so I will continue with the series but I was definitely not impressed with book 1.
I am slightly curious to learn more about the main character's odd clairvoyance power and who the Ace of Diamonds person or group really is so I will continue with the series but I was definitely not impressed with book 1.
I enjoyed the second installment of the Nameless series much more then I did the first, but I'm certainly not in love with it.
One of the biggest issues I had with the first novel was how unrealistic both the villain and Nameless / Ace was portrayed. The second novel does a much better job with this. I found the villain to be very easy to understand in an abstract way - he clearly suffers from delusions of grandeur and other mental illness. He was allowed free into the world through money and politics which also seems very realistic.
I also enjoyed how Nameless Ace's perfect plan went awry when they didn't properly understand their target so they had to improvise when he didn't follow their script.
We also find out more about the Ace of Diamonds organization. The second book made it much clearer that they are a vigilante group using hacking and cyber espionage to acquire all of their information and set up their plans.
I personally do not like the concepts of vigilante justice and mob mentality and I believe that Nameless and the Ace of Diamonds are just as bad as the people they are hunting down and killing, so I am having a hard time connecting with the "good guys" in the series.
Finally, I am disappointed that we didn't get any further exploration of Nameless' vision ability. In fact it was less relevant in this story then it was in the first, and the one time it came up it was with a side character as opposed to helping against the villain.
One of the biggest issues I had with the first novel was how unrealistic both the villain and Nameless / Ace was portrayed. The second novel does a much better job with this. I found the villain to be very easy to understand in an abstract way - he clearly suffers from delusions of grandeur and other mental illness. He was allowed free into the world through money and politics which also seems very realistic.
I also enjoyed how Nameless Ace's perfect plan went awry when they didn't properly understand their target so they had to improvise when he didn't follow their script.
We also find out more about the Ace of Diamonds organization. The second book made it much clearer that they are a vigilante group using hacking and cyber espionage to acquire all of their information and set up their plans.
I personally do not like the concepts of vigilante justice and mob mentality and I believe that Nameless and the Ace of Diamonds are just as bad as the people they are hunting down and killing, so I am having a hard time connecting with the "good guys" in the series.
Finally, I am disappointed that we didn't get any further exploration of Nameless' vision ability. In fact it was less relevant in this story then it was in the first, and the one time it came up it was with a side character as opposed to helping against the villain.
This book took me completely by surprise, in a great way.
I will say that the overall story was a bit lacking. The beginning and the ending were interesting and moved the plot along quite well but the middle was fairly plodding and didn't really go anywhere.
Where this really shined were its world building and characters. Set Sytes did an amazing job introducing a varied cast of unique, different and interesting characters all with different personalities and motivations. He also painted gorgeous pictures of the world around them that they were traveling in. And he did that without getting into the purple prose world.
The description 'A weird west sci-fantasy' hits this novel on the head. It perfectly fills a great fantasy world with the gratuitous sex and violence you would expect from a wild west story, although it strays a little bit too far into campy territory sometimes.
The overarching plot of the series was introduced fairly well and intriguing although I found it a bit convoluted and difficult to fully understand. Hopefully the picture gets clearer throughout the sequels.
I will say that the overall story was a bit lacking. The beginning and the ending were interesting and moved the plot along quite well but the middle was fairly plodding and didn't really go anywhere.
Where this really shined were its world building and characters. Set Sytes did an amazing job introducing a varied cast of unique, different and interesting characters all with different personalities and motivations. He also painted gorgeous pictures of the world around them that they were traveling in. And he did that without getting into the purple prose world.
The description 'A weird west sci-fantasy' hits this novel on the head. It perfectly fills a great fantasy world with the gratuitous sex and violence you would expect from a wild west story, although it strays a little bit too far into campy territory sometimes.
The overarching plot of the series was introduced fairly well and intriguing although I found it a bit convoluted and difficult to fully understand. Hopefully the picture gets clearer throughout the sequels.