Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Ninth City Burning by J. Patrick Black (A Review)

Ninth City Burning by J. Patrick Black
Centeries of war with aliens threaten the future of human civilization on earth in this gripping, epic science fiction debut...
We never saw them coming.
Entire cities disappeared in the blink of an eye, leaving nothing but dust and rubble.
When an alien race came to make Earth theirs, they brought with them a weapon we had no way to fight, a universe-altering force known as thelemity. It seemed nothing could stop it--until we discovered we could wield the power too.
Five hundred years later, the Earth is locked in a grinding war of attrition. The talented few capable of bending thelimity to their will are trained in elite military academies, destined for the front lines. Those who refused to support the war have been exiled to the wilds of a ruined Earth.
But the enemy's tactics are changing, and Earth's defenders are about to discover this centuries-old war has only just begun. As a terrible new onslaught looms, heroes will rise from unlikely quarters, and fight back.
I must start off by saying that I was really surprised how long it took me to read this book. I usually get through books pretty quickly, but this one took me 5 or 6 nights instead of my normal 2 or 3. It was a little slow, but not boring, slow. There is just a whole lot of world building, but this definitely adds to the story.

So, by day 5, I was ready to finish it up, but I wasn't upset that I still had another few chapters to read on day 6. It was a really good book.

The author does a great job of weaving a few very different POVs in throughout the book. This is what makes it a little slow. Each character has a completely different life at the beginning, some in completely different settings (and almost different worlds). So, when I say there is a lot of world-building, it's not necessarily just one world. He did a great job of making it not boring, though.

I saw a couple of reviews that said this book was too slow and featured too many characters and POVs. I don't think so, though. I think the author just wanted to make sure all the world and all its characters were well-established. I think the fact that he did this in Ninth City Burning will definitely contribute to the next book. Even though it might have made this book longer, it will make it a lot easier to jump into the next book, since we already know everything we need to know about Ninth City and its characters.

Looking forward to seeing what happens next with Torro, Naomi, Jax, Rae, Venn, Kez and everybody else! I'll definitely read the sequel!

I received this book from the publishers, via First to Read, in exchange for my honest opinion.


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