Lotus Blue

The author claims inspiration from Dune, and indeed we spend the entirety of the 3x too long journey in blistering dust, but really this is an unrelieved journey to Mordor, though unknown until the end to most of the travelers. And there are more Saurons out there. The writing is good enough to keep going through uninteresting characters, often improbable actions, all the plot bolts and gears clearly outlined, nothing hidden or inscrutable here.

Centuries ago, wars ruined the earth, destroying cities and wrecking the environment. But humanity remains as people struggle to survive in the harsh world that remains. But an ancient and powerful war machine, Lotus Blue, has awaken in the desert, and what’s left of the world may be at risk.

Lotus Blue has a variety of POV characters, but the protagonist is clearly Star, who has far more sections than anyone else. Star and her sister Nene live and travel with a caravan of traders, heading up and down the Sand Road. But unfolding events have a cataclysmic effect upon the caravan, drawing Star into the quest to stop Lotus Blue.

Here’s the biggest problem with Lotus Blue: Star had absolutely no impact on the outcome of the book. She show more could have died in the very beginning and the ending would have been the same. I noticed about half way through that Star was a passive protagonist who lacked agency – she tends to react rather than be proactive. But I’d assumed that in the end she would make some plot relevant action. I assumed wrong.

When I said there were a lot of POV characters, I meant it. First off, there’s Star. Then there’s Kian, a boy trying to find Lotus Blue for his one glory. His cousin also gets sections. Same goes for a wealthy merchant’s daughter, an aging female super solider, a battle scared male super solider, Lotus Blue itself, a random girl in a watchtower, and a scrappy stowaway. Here’s the thing… all but two or three of them could have disappeared from the book and the end result regarding Lotus Blue wouldn’t be much different.

Having such a mass of characters negatively impacted characterization. I never really connected with any of them. At one point a side character died, and it was being treated like an emotional moment. Only I actively didn’t care because he had no characterization or personality.

One other disappointment was that I picked up Lotus Blue because I saw it on a list of SFF about sisters. It’s not really a book about sisters. Nene disappears halfway through and never returns.

On the bright side, I did enjoy the setting. The world Cat Sparks imagines is one of an ever growing desert, with mad mechas blazing through the sand and reckless humans hunting them for parts. There’s a certain Mad Max feel to it, helped by the post-apocalyptic Australian setting. The world really came alive, and I loved the details such as the sand ships, towers, and immortal super soldiers.

If there’s a there’s a sequel to Lotus Blue (and based on the ending, I think there will be), I am not going to read it. While I liked the world building, it was not enough to make up for the problems in structure and characterization.

Originally posted on The Illustrated Page.

I received an ARC from the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for a free and honest review. show less

Lotus Blue by Australian author, Cat Sparks is a post-apocalyptic story that tells the story of Star, a seventeen year old girl who, with her older sister, medic Nene are part of a group of nomads, travellers that journey along the Sand Road, crossing dangerous desert that is populated by rogue machinery and other strange monsters, remnants from a past time and long forgotten war. While her sister appears to guard a secret about their past, Star longs to break free, to experience a different life and is making plans to run away when their wagon caravan sees an Angel satellite crash to Earth, this, in turn, sets off a series of events that sends Star in a new direction. Meanwhile, an old and powerful entity called a Lotus Blue has awoken show more in the desert. This was the deadliest of all war machines and appears to have it’s own agenda.

I struggled with this story as I found the many characters, the detailed world building and references to so much technology quite confusing. Rather like a puzzle, each nugget of information needed to be evaluated and placed in a way that would move the story forward. Eventually I was disappointed that the main character, Star, really wasn’t all that important to the story as she seemed to be there more to react to rather than control the events. The author did a stellar job in bringing this futuristic land vividly to life, but unfortunately I simply had to work too hard to make sense of the story. show less

I really enjoyed the book right up until the end, which just didn't seem to come up to the standard of the rest of the book. After a really enthralling adventure it really felt like the ending was rushed to its conclusion - hence only 4 stars.

It's not too far fetched to imagine a future like the one depicted within this book, or the causes for it. The more we begin to rely on drones and augmented soldiers to fight wars, slowly but surely handing over more and more control to computer intelligence, the closer we get to the characters in the book and ultimately entities like 'Lotus Blue'.

I'm hoping the ending in this book isn't the end and that there'll be more books in this dystopian future.

I didn't enter this book with specific expectations, but it just didn't get there for me. There are a TON of characters, a number of whom aren't clearly introduced or described, which made for some very confusing moments where I had to stop and backtrack. The story itself wasn't particularly compelling for me either. I think there is an audience for this book; I just wasn't part of it.

[This review is based on an advanced review copy received from the publisher via Edelweiss.]

DNF. Interesting premise and excellent world building hence the three stars. Otherwise, this book annoyed me and I gave up at p.105. I felt like I had to force myself to get through a chapter. Not worth it.

Fantastic, interesting use of nano-technology.
A post-apocalyptic tale that is a bit different.