My Favorite Books

The Walking Drum
Ender's Game
Dune
Jhereg
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
The Curse of Chalion
The Name of the Wind
Chronicles of the Black Company
The Faded Sun Trilogy
The Tar-Aiym Krang

Tuesday, April 12, 2022

Review: Rust

Rust Rust by C.J. Stilling
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

First Contact doesn’t go as planned; human vs alien (aka Ellumae) nearly wipe each other out. When a final peace eventually arrives, those responsible for the most death and destruction are exiled (together) to a remote planet. In the background are the long gone “Dawn Bringers” (aliens responsible to seeding life in the universe before disappearing and leaving enigmatic artifacts behind). Given that the aliens are actually parasitic entities that can take over a host’s body, it would be tough not to compare the story to “The Host’ by Stephenie Meyer … and it does have a lot of similarities; however, the science introduced in this story is much better and the love story is more of a slow burn until the end (it does have a few twists that are predicable, if somewhat gratifying when they are finally confirmed). The Title takes its lead from a strange alien contagion (aka Rust) found on this new world that appears to have a connection to the original Dawn Bringers (and perhaps even humans and ellumae) that threatens the colony of refugees and our Heroes are in the thick of it trying to figure out a solution while also trying to to kill each other. All in all, it was enough to keep me engaged and reading chapter after chapter all the way to the end.

I was given this free advance reader copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

#Rust #BookSirens #KindleUnlimited

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My Ratings Explained ...

  • [ ***** ] Amazing Read - Perfect story, exciting, engrossing, well developed complex characters, solid plot with few to no holes, descriptive environments and place settings, great mystery elements, realistic dialogue, believable reactions and behaviors; a favorite that I can re-read many times.
  • [ **** ] Great Read - Highly entertaining and enjoyable, exciting storyline, well developed characters and settings, a few discrepancies but nothing that can’t be overlooked. Some aspect of the story was new/refreshing to me and/or intriguing. Recommended for everyone.
  • [ *** ] Good Read - Solid story with a 'good' ending, or has some other redeeming feature. Limited character development and/or over reliance on tropes. Noticeable discrepancies in world building and/or dialog/behavior that were distracting. I connected enough with the characters/world to read the entire series. Most of the books I read for fun are here. Recommended for fans of the genre.
  • [ ** ] Okay Read - Suitable for a brief, afternoon escape … flat or shallow characters with little to no development. Over the top character dialog and/or behavior. Poor world building with significant issues and/or mistakes indicating poor research. Excessive use of trivial detail, info dumps and/or pontification. Any issues with the story/characters are offset by some other aspect that I enjoyed. Not very memorable. May only appeal to a niche group of readers. Recommended for some (YMMV).
  • [ * ] Bad Read - Awkward and/or confusing writing style. Poor world building and/or unbelievable (or unlikeable) characters. Victimization, gaslighting, blatant abuse, unnecessary violence, child endangerment, or any other highly objectionable behaviors by Main characters. I didn't connect with the story at all; significant aspects of this story irritated me enough that I struggled to finished it. Series was abandoned. Not recommended.