REVIEW: The Dawnhounds (Against all Quiet #1) by Sascha Stronach

on
Published Date: June 14, 2022
Genre: Sci-Fi/Fantasy
Rating: ★★⍣☆☆




REVIEW

This book was first self-published in 2019 and won the Sir Julius Vogel Award for Best Novel in 2020. These are given yearly at the New Zealand National Science Fiction Convention for achievement in New Zealand science fiction, fantasy, horror, and science fiction fandom. I received a copy of this from NetGalley in return for an honest review. 

SYNOPSIS

"The port city of Hainak is alive: its buildings, its fashion, even its weapons. But, after a devastating war and a sweeping biotech revolution, all its inhabitants want is peace, no one more so than Yat Jyn-Hok a reformed-thief-turned-cop who patrols the streets at night.

Yat has recently been demoted on the force due to “lifestyle choices” after being caught at a gay club. She’s barely holding it together, haunted by memories of a lover who vanished and voices that float in and out of her head like radio signals. When she stumbles across a dead body on her patrol, two fellow officers gruesomely murder her and dump her into the harbor. Unfortunately for them, she wakes up.

Resurrected by an ancient power, she finds herself with the new ability to manipulate life force. Quickly falling in with the pirate crew who has found her, she must race against time to stop a plague from being unleashed by the evil that has taken root in Hainak."

MY THOUGHTS

There were some great things in this book that I enjoyed quite a lot. The author put a lot of work into the worldbuilding, to a point where the actual plot seemed to take a backseat. But the actual world was quite unique and fascinating. I don't think I have read a book that included tech, magic, and biology like this did. The mushrooms were really cool but I do wish we got more of them. The characters were also very well done. I loved the LGBTQ rep and the characters themselves felt fully fleshed out. However, that is where my enjoyment ended. 

There was a fantastic prologue that gripped me right from the start. But I am so confused as to how this fit in with the rest of the book. I think this book suffered in the fact that there were too many ideas and none of them seemed to be fully explored. The ideas were there but the execution created a confusing mix of unfinished plotlines and hard to follow narrative. When I first finished the book, I thought that I may not have understood the plot or that I had accidentally skipped a chapter or two, but after reading other reviews, it seems like I am not the only one who was confused. 

Overall, this was not a bad book by any means, I just think it felt a bit incomplete. It was short, while at the same time it was a slog since it was difficult to follow at times. I do wish that some of the ideas, like the immortality aspect as well as the gods attempting to cleanse the world. Both of those things, which felt like they should have been the main plot, were not explored nearly as much as I felt they needed to be. Many people have enjoyed this book, so perhaps this is just a case of a book that didn't work well for me.

Comments

Post a Comment