6.5/10, bit slow paced, but I do like the world building. ( )

I’ve been in a sci-fi mood lately, and this book happened to be lying in my office, waiting to be reviewed. So, I thought: “What the hell. Two birds, one stone … Let’s do this!” and I got on with reading Dove Arising by Karen Bao. Honestly though, I’ve been putting off reading this book, due to the horrendous cover art. I mean, look at that pathetic, amateurish cover! Some of the cover art I make for independent publishers who can’t afford professional cover artists’ fees looks better than this train wreck. What’s worse, this is what an imprint of Penguin Books USA came up with? WTF? Oh, and don’t get me started on the formatting. Note to the editor-in-chief at Viking Books: Y’all better get your shit together and fix this travesty if you want to sell books.

Rant over.

What I could figure out, prior to actually reading the book, was that it was something akin to The Lunar Chronicles by Marissa Meyer mixed with James Dashner‘s The Maze Runner. It sounded … interesting. I mean, I love The Lunar Chronicles, but The Maze Runner kind of fell short at some point. Anywho, so I read Dove Arising, and let me just say a LOT happens in a very short time. This isn’t a bad thing. Yes, I’m sure many readers might not enjoy how fast the story is, what with the conflict, the drama, the rush of words, and the inevitable oh crap! moment at the end, but I personally found it quite a ride. At times it was somewhat predictable, though, but for a debut I think it was a rather fun read.

Phaet is a strong protagonist, although I wanted to strangle her at times, but I forgave her because she is only fifteen years old. Wes was … well, I wish he was more than he is, because he was terribly predictable, but I liked him nonetheless. Umbriel, on the other hand, reminds me of a young Christian Gray. He’s way too controlling. Seriously, I hope someone kills him sooner rather than later. And yes, this marks the beginning of a love-triangle. Shocker. Okay, what did you expect, Monique? It’s a young adult read!

All those things aside, I’m looking forward to the next book. I want to see where Karen Bao is taking this story, and if the sci-fi is going to go full-blown dystopian… We’ll see.

This book is perfect for young adult readers in search of a science fiction fix. ( )

Young adult dystopia with the predictable story arc and romantic triangle.

I was not a fan of how much the narrator explains everything, especially at the start of the book but never entirely abating. It feels particularly odd because (once you get past that a fair way) it becomes clear that the character herself has a lot more nuance and complexity to her.

Also clunky was how over-competent both she and her brother are and, for that matter, how ridiculously quickly the military apparently promote new graduates. But I like the focus on family, and the worldbuilding (inspired by the author's parents' experience of the Cultural Revolution). ( )

Dove Arising is Karen Bao’s first book, and a pretty ambitious one. It takes place in the distant future, in a utopian society built on the surface of the moon after the earth’s resources fail. The story centers around a young girl named Phaet Theta who has to find a way to keep her family from being thrown out of their home while their mother is quarantined. If she cannot keep up with the rent, then her and her siblings would have to move into the shelter, a place that houses the poorest in society. In order to do this she joins the military branch of her society.

In general, I really enjoyed the story but there are a few things that puzzled me. First is the whole system of renting and the shelter, it was hard to understand why it existed in this society in the first place. Given that they live on the moon and that there is a limited amount of resources and hopefully they have learned from the mistakes of earth, I would have thought that a futuristic society would have some restrictions on things like, how many children families are allowed, so that everyone can manage to feed and clothe their families. Or what type of jobs people are allowed, so that everyone has something to do to keep the society running.

Additionally, Phaet’s age was a little puzzling. She was an exceptional fifteen year old with a drive to save her family, but it seemed a bit strange that she was able to come from behind and compete with teens who were three years older than she was. I don’t think the impact of the story would have been lost if Phaet was a year or two older.

Also, towards the end of the novel there were a few things that happened - I cannot be specific for fear of spoilers - that seemed out of character, or the motives of the characters were not very clear, so it was as though some of the tension merely served to move the plot along and provide information.

However, overall the world building was good. The main players were pretty well developed and even though the ending felt a bit rushed, the story was generally well paced. The society, history and their relationship with earth was interesting to read and Phaet was a great character that I felt myself cheering for. I’m definitely curious to see what the next installment would bring.

Sci-fi fans will enjoy.

[Note, this was a review of an ARC from the publisher. ] ( )

Ugh, what a disappointment! It started cool with an interesting mc and on the moon with an unexpected plot development. Then everything devolved into Hunger Games in space with a strong anti science, "couldn't have happened by chance" bullshit! ( )