BOOK REVIEW: Aurora Rising

Review by Yuli Atta 

It's been around a week since I finished this book and the one thing that I can't get out of my mind is the feeling this book left in me.

I can't even put it properly into words but enjoyment-wise this is a 4-star read but writing-wise it's a 3-star read and I've rated it 4 because I rate based on my enjoyment most of the time. So, now I've decided that my rating should be 3.5 stars and just round it to 4.

However, there were a few things when it came to the writing that I have to note. First, I don't know if this is supposed to be a character-driven or a plot-driven book BUT when it comes to the writing, there is just something missing. Since this is sci-fi, I would've liked to have more descriptions on the technical side of things, you know, the science part. For example, when they were flying the ship and were fighting, the descriptions were... Vague to say the least. If I wasn't paying attention, I wouldn't have known they were fighting.

I also didn't like the lazy way of showing us the society and rules. They have these black pages with some info about the world and while it could be argued that it's the creative way to do it, I'd say it's the lazy way. You could've put it in the text and it would've still been good.

This is me nit-picking but why the hell did we have to have an alien elf? What's up with all of the elves and fae in books these days? Well, he is an alien and I like him because he's misunderstood but I can't say his arc is my favourite. His story is a bit cliche but I kinda liked it.

There were mates there. Yay. (Sarcasm)

Also, I believe that their system is very flawed. They have crews of about 6 people and each of them has a different role but we were never told or shown if all of them have been trained in everything or not. We just know that each of them has one ability they excel at and a secondary ability they are good at but not that good. So, what if they lose some of their crew, who's going fill in for that role? How is it that everybody managed to get an exact number of one brain, one tank and so on? Isn't it more logical for some roles to be more people than others? Not to mention that if both of the people who specialize in healing, for example, die the who is going to be their healer?

I liked the alien diversity but I'm pretty sure all of the characters are straight. Which I don't usually care about but I know others do.

I did enjoy all the alien stuff in the book because I love futuristic themes like this one but it could have been done better.

I'm also not saying anything about what loved and such because I don't have that much to say. I enjoyed the writing because it was quick to read and I finished it in two days. I enjoyed the plot but its startling similarity to Skyward didn't escape me. Skyward is better.