Empress of a Thousand Skies (Spoiler Free Review)

Rating: 55% ⭐⭐                  Pages: 314

Author: Rhoda Belleza           Publisher: Razorbill

Genre: Science Fiction           Release Date: Feb. 7, 2017

Disclaimer: Let me start this out by saying that I did not enjoy this book. I really wanted to like this book, but it did fall short for me for reasons I will later explain. Also, my reasons for disliking this book are not that the book I read was bad. There were things that didn’t click with me personally. I also wouldn’t NOT recommend this book. I think that many people would enjoy it, but I just wasn’t one of them. If you did like the book I read, then I’m glad you enjoyed reading it! Everyone should read the books they enjoy, but there are some unfortunate occasions where we don't read books we enjoy. If you disagree with me, please respect my opinion. If you do want to share your opinion in the comments, please keep everything respectful and mature. I want to make sure this blog is a positive place for everyone to talk about the books we love, and a place where we can have good conversations with each other. Thank you for reading this super long disclaimer and I hope you enjoy the review!

Sigh. 

The concept of Empress of a Thousand Skies really interested me, and sounded extremely epic and fun. The last princess of the Ta’an dynasty, Rhee, has a mission. It is her destiny to take back her throne on her sixteenth birthday from the Crown Regent she believed was involved in her family’s deaths. Just as the time comes for her revenge to take place, Rhee is attacked and barely escapes. Our other main character is Aly, a reality show star who is blamed for her murder. From there, our characters are on the run, in hiding, trying to keep the galaxy from going into a full-fledged war over things that didn't happen. This story is one full of action and space politics, and just a really cool idea overall!

However. I was not a fan.

There were plenty of things I think were great about this book, but did not necessarily make it enjoyable for me. I think the writing was very good and you could see lots of potential. The other thing I really liked was the world building. I will explain later about how I feel the world building was executed, but I can say now that this world is vast and complicated and super interesting. There is so much history and you can tell how much work the author put into constructing this world. I’m so curious about the relationships between planets (there was an intergalactic war that had just ended at the start of the book) and the lives of the people on them. It just was a super neat world and one I would’ve loved to explore more.

Another super cool thing about this story was the 1984 vibes. This book touches on the topic of 24/7 surveillance. Something called a cube is hooked up to your brain, as I understand it, and is basically a smart phone that also records your entire life. There's mention of how organic memories were so much stronger than the ones you could just replay in your head. At first impression, this technology seems pretty incredible and useful. At second glance, you see all the threats to people's privacy. A key part of the story is how these cubes can be hacked and altered, or ravaged. I loved this part of the story and found awesome. It was a similar warning to George Orwell's in saying that the more we allow ourselves to be taped and recorded, the less privacy and more possible problems. 

My main problems with this book probably sprouted from the length. At 314 pages, this is a super short, fast-paced sci-fi novel. But I think, had this book been expanded, it would have been better overall.

Going back to the world building, I felt extremely confused at parts. A map was provided at the beginning of the book (ahhhhh I love maps) as well as a list of alliances between planets. But what I really desired was a timeline. Throughout the book I was not very clear about the past events and the space traveling got very messy. By that, I mean that there was lots of travel to other planets that, while reading, I felt was a little unnecessary and just made it confusing to the reader. I think if the book was longer we would have time to dive into this amazing world and become more familiar with it. Also, the plot, I felt, was very predictable. It was still a crazy turn of events and added so much more excitement to the story, but it took the “obvious plot twist” I would say.

Onto the characters, I did not really form an emotional attachment to them at all. As our protagonist, Rhee just seemed very impulsive and assumed a lot without much reason. I didn’t connect well to Aly either. They both felt a little like every other YA protagonist you would read about. This author is so good at world building that I know she has the potential to really dig deep with these characters and make them more unique and likable. I feel like I'm sounding confusing, but I think of it like this: imagine this awesome view. AMAZING view. A sunset with the ocean and the clouds are becoming rainbow before your very eyes. Now, imagine there was a giant wall of plastic between you and that view. Through the plastic, the colors aren't as vivid and you can't get any closer to the view then you already are. It isn't as beautiful. For me, I felt like something was blocking me from connecting with these characters, but I'm not exactly sure what it was.

This story was also dual-point of view. An unpopular opinion: I really enjoy dual POVs most of the time. This time, however, I felt like it took away from the intensity of the story. Right before stuff got real, we would be snatched away from the storyline. This was a way to keep us reading, and I, if I were an author, would probably do the same thing. The problem I had with this was that the two main characters didn’t meet in the story. They were connected in a  way that Aly supposedly killed Rhee, but they never met each other and their paths never crossed. If they had met at some point, I would have felt better about the dual POVs. I feel like the purpose of the dual POVs is to give two different or semi-different views of the same thing, not two completely different stories. I was not invested in the story or the action for this reason.

Simply put, this book was not for me. It did not hold my attention and did not draw me in. It is not a bad book, though! Lots of small parts were incredibly thought out. I think it could be a very good read for other readers, as the plot and writing is very intriguing. Empress of a Thousand Skies just fell a bit flat for me. If you are a big fan of science fiction, though, I would indeed pick this up and see if you like it! I do not know if I will continue the series, but if you are, I can tell this story will get bigger and better as it goes along. 

Lots of love, 

                      Ellie



PS. Have you seen the cover for the sequel? Check it out! It's pretty gorgeous. :)