Lindsay Ellis is one of the wittiest people I've come across in YouTube Land but I'm afraid her prose style here isn't pulling me in. The novel reads to me like a favorite dress that's been put in the wash a few too many times and now it's all faded and stretched. The transitions and scene-building in this novel are detailed to the point where they include a lot of things just don't need to be said in fiction--you don't need to tell readers every little thing a character does, for instance, to get from point A to point B--characters can just arrive there in the next scene, poof.

I'm admittedly a totally un-normal reader. I think about prose style and I react to language on the page at least as much as I do to the story itself. And it seems that many NetGalley readers have had zero problem with the style here, and have loved the story, too.

Even if the book is "not for me" I'm thrilled Lindsay Ellis has published a novel, and with her energy and amazing brain I imagine the next book will appeal to even more of us readers, maybe even ones like me.

I finished reading this book at 8am after pulling an all-nighter because I couldn't put it down, and 12 hours later, I'm still in a daze, thinking about the ending.

This book is a GREAT bad time. You're going to suffer, but you're going to like it. The beginning is the part that took me the longest to get through, but once the plot starts to unfold and the character introductions have been made, it's absolutely thrilling. I didn't like Cora very much at the beginning, but Ampersand makes everything worth it.

I adored the exploration of philosophical and existential problems that come with first contact as well as the ordeal that it is to communicate when you're trying to talk to someone who physically speaks in a way that makes it an impossibility for humans to reproduce those sounds without technology. I loved learning about alien anatomy and politics. I wish I could have asked questions of my own.

I have no idea if Ellis plans on writing a sequel, but this story could definitely keep going. Still, even though the ending leaves you wanting more, it stands on its own, which is the best kind of book.

I'd love to say a lot more, but I can't without going into spoiler territory. I may update this review once the book is out. I know I'll want to re-read it and I think the audiobook for this is going to be fantastic.

Damn. I really wanted to like this.

Ever since I found out Lindsey Ellis, one of my favourite YouTubers, has written a book I so wanted to be in love with it, but I was so disappointed. I think my expectations were too high. I had been hyping it up so much in my own head, and maybe that’s why I’m giving it a lenient score, because I want Ellis and her book to succeed. It was the only reason I kept reading, because I respect Ellis as a creator so much. However, I will be honest about what I did and didn’t like as objectively as possible.

My main issue was with the writing. It was just so dry. For a book that’s 384 pages, it felt so much longer, because it was heavy descriptions and info dumps that just left me confused. I still don’t fully understand it because it was such a slog to get through, so I didn’t understand a majority of what was going on. The more I read the more I realised this was going to be a book where I found the idea more interesting than the portrayal in the actual book. That really disappointed me.

However, I do have things I enjoyed. The budding friendship between Ampersand and Cora was the driving force for me. I know a few people didn’t connect with Cora, but I liked her enough, although I do understand why others wouldn’t, but I think that was the writing more than her character. But I love Ampersand. I love his intelligence, and his relationship with Cora was the best.

I like the themes that were explored, but it was very surface level. I think this is the first in a series of books, so I’m not sure if it’s going to be explored more later at a deeper level.

I still don’t understand why this was set in 2007. I know it was a turbulent time, but it literally could’ve worked set today.

Overall, I can’t say I enjoyed it, but I do appreciate it. If I do read the sequel (if there is one) I would only read for Cora and Ampersand’s bond. This is great for anyone into sci-fi, but it’s not an easy read.

It’s 2007, though not quite as we remember it. A leaked memo revealing that the U.S. government might have engaged in first contact has sent the country into a frenzy. The source of this leak is Cora Sabino’s whistle-blower father, Nils, and though she hasn’t spoken to him in years, all the government and media attention has been redirected at her. Cora wants nothing to do with him and doesn’t care whether the leaks are a hoax or not. That is, until she learns that there has been an extra-terrestrial presence on earth for decades and that her own family has been involved in the cover-up.

To save her and her family’s lives, she offers herself as an interpreter to a literal alien, and the alien accepts. As Cora learns the extent to which she and the public have been lied to, she decides to gather as much information as she can. But as she comes to realise that she has agreed to become the voice for a being she cannot ever truly know or understand, she starts to question what kind of future she may be setting humanity up for.

Like many, I am a fan of Lindsay Ellis’s work: both her video essays on media, narrative, and film theory, and her It’s Lit! series for PBS Digital Studios, and was excited to learn she had written a novel. Axiom’s End is a first contact story, set in an alternate 2007, that was pitched as Arrival meets The Three-Body-Problem. And with one of the major themes being that of communication and language – how governments communicate (or don’t) with their people; the limits and vagaries of language; how do you communicate with something whose language and culture is completely alien, how do you relate to it enough that you can interpret it into something everyone can understand, what gets lost in translation? – Arrival is certainly a good comparison. It also taps into the paranoia and distrust of authority that is as relevant now as it was when the book is set, all the way back to the 90s with shows like The X-Files. This does mean that it feels like the story could’ve been told in any era, as there doesn’t seem to be a specific reason that it has to be set in the period it is, but that’s a minor niggle.

The most important part of the book, of course, are the characters of Cora and the alien (who is given the name Ampersand) and the relationship between them. Almost by necessity, Cora is easy to relate to. She is a young woman who’s drifting in a job she doesn’t much care for and doesn’t really know what she wants to do with her life, smart, snarky, and in way over her head. Those who are familiar with Ellis and her work will definitely recognise her voice in Cora. By contrast, Ampersand is inhuman in every way – appearance and biology (this is definitely not your ‘basically-human-looking-but-with-a-funny-forehead’ variety of alien), culture and language; impossible to anthropomorphise, even though we and Cora inevitably do because, as Cora herself admits, we’re human and that’s what our brains are designed to do. The relationship between them is well crafted, beginning as wary, awkward allies and developing into something approaching friends, but never letting you forget about those differences and how they’ll likely always be a barrier to them understanding the other completely. Ellis also shows her film school background (she studied Cinema Studies at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts and earned her MFA in Film and Television Production, with a focus in documentary and screenwriting, from USC's School of Cinematic Arts), striking a good balance between cerebral and cinematic.

It’s not perfect: the pacing is a little uneven – starting off quick before slowing down for a large portion of the middle and then speeding back up again toward an ending that felt a little abrupt (I’m unsure as to whether Axiom’s End is intended to be a stand-alone or the beginning of a series, but if it were to become a series there are definitely dangling plot threads waiting to be taken up) – and certain characters turned out to be less important than first implied. Flaws aside however, Axiom’s End is a great read that’s both entertaining and thought provoking.

Axiom’s End by Lindsay Ellis is an entertaining and thrilling first contact story! Set against the backdrop of the Bush Administration in 2007, Cora is a college drop-out living at home with her mom and 2 younger siblings. Her dad is a fictional Julian Assange character who’s found asylum in Germany and runs his wikileaks-esque website “Broken Seal” and her Aunt worked for a government agency which has been harbouring a group of alien refugees since the 70s.
This is a hard book to summarize, and I know I won’t do it justice, so I won’t even try. I will say that it has a compelling story, with unique aliens, government conspiracies, and an exciting conclusion. Axiom’s End reminded me of Independence Day – it’s a fun adventure with likeable characters. The relationship between Cora and the alien, Ampersand, was really believable and grew slowly from a convenient partnership to a caring friendship. I’m looking forward to seeing how this relationship evolves in the next book.
Overall, this is a great sci-fi story from a debut author. I can’t wait to add this to my personal collection and I’ll be watching for the next book in the series.

In 2007 a whistleblower leaks that the U.S. has been in contact with extraterrestrial intelligence. Even more shocking, this isn’t something new, it’s been going on for decades! What else is the government hiding? AXIOM’S END is following Cora, the daughter of the whistleblower who winds up getting a first hand experience with the alien race through the alien she calls Ampersand. With the government on their tail and several other interested parties, Cora winds up with a lot of responsibility for the future interactions of man and alien.

I had mixed feelings about this one. The book's premise immediately had me interested and wanting to know what was going on. What was truth, what was a cover up? Not knowing who or what these alien invaders were and what their interest was in Cora and Earth in general kept me really intrigued. In the novel as a whole Ampersand's character and hearing more about his alien society remained the most interesting part. The author has some excellent descriptions and being local to where I grew up, it was fun to have local settings depicted so well!

Cora wasn't a character that I really connected with. While I do enjoy a flawed character, I think what kept me from really connecting was that I often did not understand her motivations for what she did. Additionally, the frequent setting changes and sometimes repetitive conversations as more people are brought into the know made the middle of the book feel a bit slow to get through.

Still, I remained curious to where the story was going. In the end I remained a bit conflicted as some things are wrapped up, but some questions were left unanswered and the final lines left me feeling that the ending was a bit abrupt.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for a review.
Who would have thought that a first contact story set in 2007 could be exactly what the world needed?
Ellis's writing was witty and enjoyable making it easy to connect with and consume. There were some words/phrases that I felt were overused and the occasional tell rather than show. I appreciated the large vocabulary and explanations of scientific terminology that the casual reader may not be familiar with. I did struggle to visualize some of the descriptions used but that may just come with the territory of aliens.
The story felt like a 3 act movie (and if this story ever became a movie I would definitely buy a ticket) and was quick to engage the reader. The characters were not always likable and I liked that. In a story were humanities flaws are evident the characters should not be flawless, selfless angels of superiority.
The ending felt complete but still left the reader pondering which is an excellent way for a Sci-Fi story to end.
Overall, very pleased with Ellis's debut novel and I hope to see more from her in the future!

I enjoyed this book quite a bit, the combo of sci-fi action and sort of platonic romance was interesting, and the plot is fast-paced and full of action, even if it did require some suspension of disbelief at times.

Axiom's End is a fairly riveting tale of first contact. As the main character tries to make sense of what exactly is happening and how large the stakes are I was drawn into the what if myself. It was interesting trying to decipher the what the motivations were behind such alien creatures that made it impossible to read. The author did an excellent job on conveying the wonder/anxiety and mad dash for survival. Only a few niggling points on how the plot unfolded clumsily with unclear choices made by the human characters that didn't seem backed up by their personalities.

I enjoyed this book quite a lot. Great characters and a good narrative. I recommend it and look forward to more if this continues as a series.

Axiom's End is the debut novel from culture critic Lindsay Ellis, known mainly for her YouTube videos analyzing/critiquing movies and other parts of pop culture. Ellis' videos are done in a really entertaining fashion and I've enjoyed when I've been linked to them, so I was interested in trying out her debut in the genre I love when it popped up on NetGalley. Of note: the book is marketed as a stand alone (apparently the publisher only bought this novel originally), but it is apparently part of a series, and ends as such. So that might affect your reaction to this novel and whether you want to try it in the first place.

And Axiom's End is a really interesting start to a new series - it's a First Contact novel featuring a strong heroine, interesting aliens, and an alternate version of 2007. It isn't some tremendously original take on the First Contact subgenre - again to the extent that anything is original these days - but it takes a bunch of classic genre tropes - young woman on the run with an alien; aliens with moralities that don't quite mesh with human ones; government/military short shortsightedly making things worse with aggression; second set of more antagonistic aliens chasing the first....etc. As with any novel, the key is how this novel puts these things together, and Axiom's End does so in an interesting way, with some strong characters and surprising plot twists, although the ending is incredibly and awkwardly abrupt.

One last note before we go in depth - though the novel is enjoyable and not a tragedy in any form, it also doesn't have the same comic type of entertainment as Ellis' YouTube analyses, so if you're looking for that here, you won't be satisfied.

Final Note: I'm going to talk about the aliens to some extent in depth in terms of their characteristics, even though I won't go into plot points here. So if you want to go into the book completely unspoiled, you may want to skip the rest of the review.

----------------------------------------------Plot Summary-------------------------------------------------------

Cora wanted nothing to do with her father, investigative journalist/notorious-leaker Nils Ortega, who abandoned her mother and siblings to flee the United States after reporting on leaked government documents on his website. But a month ago, in August of 2007, her father released the leaked "Fremda" memo, which revealed the US Government had been in custody of an alien species for years - a species which had previously never shown any hint of language. And just before that, a "meteor" hit California, known as the "Ampersand" event, and suddenly Cora's father's name is back on everyone's lips.

And then a second meteor, known as the "Obelus" event, hits California just as Cora was starting her first day at a temp job. Just after she found her family in the crosshairs of a Federal agent. And if that wasn't bad enough, Cora soon finds her house invaded by something that looks definitely inhuman.....

Soon, Cora will find herself on the run, with nowhere to go, involved with the very aliens her father has spent the past month trying to reveal to the world - and whose appearance is upending the old world order. And Cora will find herself - not her father, but her - the only person able to discover the truth of what's out there and the only person able to make choices that will determine the survival of more than one species......

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Axiom's Edge is a story that follows Cora as she tries to figure out what's going on with the aliens, the government and everything. We see glimpses of the world through news and blog clips that ended each chapter, but otherwise this is entirely Cora's story. Cora is a tremendous heroine, a young woman whose life is upended by her father's quest for truth - or his quest for recognition and attention, depending upon whom you believe - and who just wants to somehow have some sort of normal life. Naturally as the heroine of this book, that isn't happening any time soon, but Cora's combination of intelligence, empathy and emotions make her a strong lead who its really easy to care about. She's very much an ordinary person caught up in a whole mess not of her own making, and Ellis does a great job writing her as such that you really are hoping for the best for her.
It's also a first contact story - which tend to go one of a few ways traditionally: 1) the aliens can be straight out hostile; 2) the aliens can be friendly but we can be hostile, making it for our heroes to have to stop humanity from getting ourselves killed; or 3) the aliens can be hostile as a result of misunderstandings (or well, a proper understanding) of humanity which can be changed over the course of the story.

Axiom's End plays around with all of this by making it not clear which category above we really fit into. The aliens have, as they aren't humans, a strange sense of morality, which could seem to put us in any of these categories: they fear humanity for what humanity does to each other to some extent (due to some obsolete information), they fear the actions of military-minded government agents who might force them to use powers beyond our abilities; and well, some straight out think of humanity as worms. But in a clever note, the aliens do not have what TVTropes would call "Blue and Orange Morality" - while it may feel as such to humans like Cora - the aliens do have a frame of mind that is understandable: they come from a species which evolved to believe itself as superior and the only possible intelligent race, and their equivalent of a leadership finds anything that proves otherwise to be a threat that must be eliminated. At the same time, humanity isn't at that level yet, so to the aliens, we aren't persons, we're just there.

And then there's the group of Aliens, and the Alien in particular - named Ampersand - who Cora meets. They broke from their kind over disagreements over such a purge of other species - or were forced out - but still contain the same prejudices to some extent of their original hierarchy. Being the alien equivalent of "woke" - oh god I'm not using that word ever again, let's just say "enlightened instead" - doesn't make them any less alien to humans or make them better equipped to treat humans - such as Cora as equal partners. Even more so when their own group and species has its own caste system of sorts which doesn't let them treat each other as partners. You can uh, see the allegories being made here, I hope. And Ellis makes this whole situation works really well as Cora discovers these truths about the aliens and her and Ampersand have to deal with it as the plot moves on. It's really well written work and I do want to see more of where she goes with this.

On the negative front, the setting and premise behind the setting of this book was a bit jarring for me. As noted above, the book takes place in an alternate version of 2007, with some real world politicians as background players - George W Bush is the President - and some pastiches of real world people having more significant roles - Cora's father Nils Ortega is essentially Glenn Greenwald, although he has his own wikileaks-esque website to make him a bit like Julian Assange as well. And so a major background element here is Nils leaking the existence of the aliens and the government cover up of it, which causes a political scandal which helps tank the stock market/economy (given the year of the setting and an aside in the book though, it's not the only cause) and takes down the President.

But uh.....why would such a scandal, even if it was believed, really have that effect? The same politicians from back then are still here in the legislature and it's hard to believe they'd care enough to force a resignation given, uh, you know, what we've just seen here. And honestly, why would people really care that much - it's not like the actual actions of the aliens are ever leaked, and even then most people just would sort of shrug, to say nothing about those who get their news from entirely partisan news sources who would just believe spin anyhow. According to Ellis' youtube channel, this book was originally drafted in a much different form 10 years ago so maybe that could explain this mentality, but you'd think such a plot point would have changed in revisions since then? It's not all that important but it broke my suspension of disbelief just the same.

Aside from that, Axiom's End has a bizarre ending where the main conflict is resolved, but the book just seems to end abruptly mid-conversation. Fortunately, the conflict's resolution is satisfying and this isn't the end of this story, so I will be more than happy to revisit Ellis' creations whenever the sequel does come out. I look forward to reading it.

Overall enjoyable read. The narrative flowed and the protagonist was very relatable. Ampersand was my favorite character, and I loved the growth between "him" and Cora. Although I read somewhere this was a Beauty and the Beast retelling, and I certainly hope that is not where it goes in later books (if there are any). The plot was easy to follow, despite all the otherworldly bits and place-hopping.

There were some minor flaws with some of the reasoning, and I don't fully feel like the inclusion of Nils was necessary. I didn't get anything out of those scenes other than giving the main character "daddy issues." However, there were some great underlying moral and ethical dilemmas posed, and while she doesn't hammer you over the head with them, it gives the reader a deeper meaning to think about.

I will be continuing with it if it is made into a series.

Axiom's End is a fascinating look into what may actually occur during first contact with an extraterrestrial intelligence, framed as a SFF novel set in the mid-2000s. Ellis does a fantastic job digging into the potential pitfalls and opportunities that would occur during these initial interactions, forcing the reader to confront their potential biases towards un-human intelligence. It took a little for me to feel comfortable with Ellis' prose and language flow, but once I was in, I was hooked. Like many reviewers, I felt like the story went a little offtrack right at the ending (no spoilers), but overall I thought Axiom's End is a fantastic novel, approaching an oft-used topic in a unique and fascinating way.

Cora Sabino is the daughter of the internationally known conspiracy theorist, Nils Ortega. Nils has fled the US for Germany because he wants to avoid the surveillance of the FBI. Nils has preached for years that aliens are among us and the US government knows it, but won't tell anyone. So, when the aliens really land, and Cora gets caught up, things get a little crazy. A spaceship flies through her California city, leaving shattered glass in its wake, and then another one crashes near Altadena. Her aunt, Lucinda, a former CIA member, is on the run from the CIA, along with the other people on her team, the ROSA (Refugee Organizational and Settlement Agency) Group and shows up at Cora's house. That evening, Cora discovers someone...or something...in the house. And then,the next day, she finds an alien footprint in a yard near their house. And, when her family is taken away by black SUVs as she watches from a safe distance, Cora knows something big is happening. Cora meets Ampersand, a bird-like alien who gives her a device that allows them to communicate and Cora discovers that aliens are not as strange as one would think. Cora and Ampersand spend the rest of the book being chased by government agencies or another group of aliens bent on killing Ampersand and his group of aliens. I liked the premise of this book much more than the reality of it. I think the author had a great idea, but just could not pull it off. The ending just made me want to through it across the room -- a huge emotional scene turns into nothing.

The opening of the book reads a bit awkwardly but as it goes on the writing smooths out and the narrative kicks into place. I like Ellis's YouTube channel and this first novel is exactly what I'd expect from her. It's quite good and astonishingly niche.

I thought this was an intriguing idea for a sci-fi novel that takes place in the recent past and mixes fictional and real persons regarding the first contact of an alien race. Of course it has super-duper powers, and of course a relatively naive 20-year-old woman is at the center of trying to communicate with the aliens -- actually, just one of them -- and trying to save the Earth from total extinction. There are some heavy issues that are debated, such as the Great Filter (http://astrobiology.com/2020/03/observational-constraints-on-the-great-filter.html) and whether we will ever understand aliens and they us given that we could come from such wide frames of reference. I found the novel enjoyable, thought-provoking, and with some more-than-cardboard characters that drew me into the work. Highly recommended.

I was very excited to read this since I'm a big fan of Lindsay's video essays. I'm happy to say this is an ambitious, yet well-written debut. Right from the start, I thought the format and framing was really interesting, connecting the main story to historical context and following what the whistleblower father is up to while everything unfolds.

Cora is a great complex and well-developed character to lead the story. I felt her relationship with Ampersand was really rich and complicated, to the point where I'm sure it could be interpreted in a lot of different ways. However, since their relationship was so strong, it made any of Cora's other relationships with her family or her aunt really pale in comparison.

The descriptions of the aliens were really unique (or at least they seemed that way to me). I couldn't exactly picture them, but some of their distinct features really stuck out in my mind and that certainly differentiates them from the typical alien type.

The ending is a bit weak and didn't total land for me, although maybe that's just the way it's supposed to be, staying open ended for the reader to form their own opinion. Overall, I was really hooked and it was very intriguing and suspenseful from beginning to end.

I really liked the premise of this as it reminded me in part of the plot from the movie Arrival. The story begins a bit slowly as we're introduced to Cora, our main character, who is just kind of unmotivated to do much in life. However, that rapidly turns around and the pacing picks up once she encounters the aliens and becomes an interpreter. While I never completely warmed up to Cora, I really enjoyed seeing her friendship with the alien develop. The alien is by far the most interesting character in the book.

We do get to learn about the alien society and hierarchy, which was interesting and confusing. We do have a good amount of terminology thrown at us, and I'll admit that I didn't entirely remember everything and the identities of the different aliens. In general, I felt like there were some somewhat complex concepts and ideas in this story, so it does require some close attention at times.

I really liked the focus on interpretation. Cora really strives to accurately translate things while also providing human context and softening sometimes harsh ideas. There's also an interesting exploration of being human and how dominating cultures/species press beliefs and other societal ideas onto others. There is also a good amount of talk about consent throughout the book, so I appreciated that.

I felt satisfied with the ending, though as other reviewers have mentioned, it does take a bit of a departure from the themes in the rest of the story. I do think that this feels like a debut book with some sometimes uneven pacing and serviceable prose. That being said, I think that this would lend itself well to being adapted into a show or movie.

Overall, I do think that sci-fi readers will likely enjoy this book.

I obtained an advance copy of this for review from the publisher via NetGalley - thank you! All opinions are my own.

My video review can be seen on my channel (around minutes 6:46-11:21) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zt6Eg6BAjlc

An interesting, and not at all bad, book. In the end, it's a well written first contact story that's unlike most of what you've seen before, so it's worth the price right there. The knocks come from the amount of exposition dumped in large blocks, essentially two people talking to each other or excerpts from articles/speeches. It kept the story from being as dynamic as it could've been. It's a solid debut, and I think fans of Ellis' other work will be very pleased.

Axiom’s End is not the first book about first-contact that I’ve read, and it won’t be the last. It was one of my most anticipated releases of 2020—so my expectations were on the higher side. The story had a lot of promise in its premise from the beginning, and I ended up having an inordinate amount of fun reading this novel. Plus I thoroughly liked Ellis's take on first-contact.

Axiom’s End was good. It deals with first contact alongside an alternative and politically tumultuous version of 2007, where a memo about aliens gets leaked to the public. During the ensuing fallout is where the story begins and where the main character, Cora was introduced. From the start, the premise was a pretty exciting one, and I thought the author did a good job with developing the different parts of the story. In particular, I liked the details about Cora’s connection to the memo—through her estranged father—because it added tension to the earlier parts of the story even before aliens got involved. It also added a personal edge to the conflict, and I thought it presented an interesting contrast between Cora and other characters in the story—particularly for those who weren’t her family members—and how different their reactions to the memo were.

I also enjoyed Ellis’s take on aliens. The ones features in the story were kind of cool to say the least, and they were by far one of my favorite aspects about Axiom’s End. Since Cora becomes an interpreter for one of the aliens, there were plenty of details about them—such as how they looked, some of their societal norms, the reason why they were there, and their technological advancements. It was an interesting bit of world building that fleshed-out the aliens.

Cora was a pretty entertaining protagonist, and I enjoyed reading from her perspective. I liked how the author approached her character, including her conflicted feelings about the aliens as well as her father. It grounded her character amongst the extraordinary circumstances of the story. It was also an interesting emotional contrast, with the fear, confusion, and determination she experienced throughout much of the story. I did enjoy the few scenes Cora had with her other family members though, particularly with her aunt. Cora’s father was a different story. Some of his tactics and writings leaned more towards manipulative, and it was clear where his concern was focused.

Overall, I enjoyed Axiom’s End. There was a lot to like about the story, and the end wrapped up the plot in a satisfying way. I will definitely check out more work by this author in the future. Have you read Axiom’s End? Do you plan on reading it?

Disclaimer: this copy of the book was provided by St. Martin's Press (publisher) via netgalley for this review, thank you!