This book was a bad mix of Sci fi and romance, I couldn't get engaged with it at all, but that was more me than the author. I DNF

A wonderful YA SF tale. It is full of amazing tech of the future that truly transforms the way humans live and a corresponding rich political and social world to go with it. Young love is still consuming and believes it can conquer the world. In fact, I thought it was one of the best portrayal of first, young love I've ever read without it being so much about sex. Of course, there are romantic challenges and enough real world drama to keep things interesting as Earth draws closer to a civil war.

I don't mind if things aren't always explained at the beginning and the writer expects the reader to be able to figure things out as it goes along but in this case I never did figure out what some of the initials stood for or some of the tech. A glossary in the back would have helped.

Other than that, I'm looking forward to the next in the series.

The first few pages made it hard to engage with the premise of the novel. It was focused on world building so much that finding the character was hard. DNF

If you can get beyond the slew of nonsensical sci-fi terms and devices in the first 50 pages that aren’t ever really well explained, then this is actually a pretty interesting world. I would expect this title to appear in a teen section though, since the drama at the centre of it is very teen-centric around a forbidden romance. Also, I found the story was just starting to pick up and I was just getting used to the tech terms and then it was suddenly over. While I’m sure it’s a great lead in for a sequel or two, the first book on its own leaves something to be desired.

Axel Stahl is a normal young man. He has school he's not overly interested in, parents who are often too busy to spend time with him, and a crush on a girl he doesn't think has ever even noticed him. The things that set Axel apart are that he's the failed hope of mankind and he lives aboard a giant space station called the Ring. One day everything is looking up for Axel and the young woman he's been dreaming about, Helen, has been watching him watching her and she likes him. All seems grand until war brakes out on many fronts.

Darksider Earther is at it's core a young adult book about love. Axel loves Helen and Helen loves Axel, they're ready to fight for it against anyone who stands in their way. There was a time in my life that I found scenarios like these engaging and sweet, but now as a parent I fear the pairs naivete and question their feelings. Undoubtedly my next time facing such love in real life, I'll be the bad guy poking holes in the undying love of the young. I'm getting off topic. For me the love fest between Helen and Axel is one I can relate to in the past, but I react in a much more cynical fashion to now. The first two thirds or so of the story revolved around the kids love for one another.

When the true war struck I was engaged even if I found myself not totally understanding how most of the weapons and tools worked. The last third of the book was filled with heart pounding fear as it's far from certain what will happen.

I found myself feeling as though the teen love and war aspect felt smashed together like a car accident. The two parts of the story didn't feel as though they belonged together. The teen love was largely light and airy with defiance and devotion. I didn't feel as though it was evident war would break out at any point. There were some brief mentions of the tensions between Space Ops and the Earthers, but that was largely glossed over in the wave of love. As for the other war, there was little indication to expect it at all.

To be fair to Darkside Earther I have to admit that young adult and space based science fiction are far from my preferred genres. I tend to avoid young adult at any cost. That being said I feel as though a good bit of the stories strong points just don't particularly appeal to me personally.

Darkside Earther is a space based science fiction young adult love story that shows some creativity and promise.

2.5 out of 5 stars

I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

*disclaimer*

I'm the author, discovering an error on the mobi text. The epub was fine. Fixing now.

This book is third book that happens in ‘Great Curve’ and like authors’ two previous novels ‘Saul’ and ‘Syzygy’ this is another great story. As this is a YA book it has more of everything action, romance and politics.

The plot happens in Ring, it is the future for humanity as the earth is over populated and ready to explode. Story starts with Axel, the protagonist and narrator. He is the only human born in the space and as he’s kind of failure he has lots of limitation using technologies others easily use. To me that made him perfect main character. Helen is his classmate and the daughter of a powerful family from the earth and Alex’s crush. At some point it reminded me of ‘West Side Story’ but in a complete different scale and of course environment/time. Two young people fell for each other that should not. And then there are political and personal pressures on both of them as political balance shifts between Earth and Ring.

At start this book might seem difficult as there are lots of new phrases if you haven’t read the previous books but as it goes on, everything becomes more clear and story gets on speed. I really liked the world built in these books and it’s been enhanced in Darkside Earther a lot. This world has so much potential and I can’t wait to see what comes next.