Wow. This was really an unexpectedly fun read and provocative, at times bordering on brilliant, at times dissonant as the magic momentarily dispersed before sucking the reader back in. I got hooked and eagerly await a further unrolling of the scroll. Great job, Lindsay. Thanks!

Cora Ortega is a hot mess. She's dropped out of college, killed her beater of a car through neglect, and is about to lose her shitty job.  It doesn't help that she's probably being followed by the CIA to see if she has any contact with her dad, the guy who leaked the news that the government was holding aliens somewhere, leaving her mom, younger brother and sister and her on their own while making himself a media star.

Not that she knows anything about that, or even if it's true, which is ironic because she's very possibly humanity's best hope for survival, or will be when an alien who came to find the others kidnaps her and implants her with alien tech, making her the only human who can talk to him. Understanding. takes a bit more.

Lindsay Ellis has written a thoughtful and engaging novel of first contact complete with the usual suspects, a government conspiracy hiding the truth, a media figure leaking it, aliens hiding from their own government's, and a bond between human and alien that changes them both. Recommended.

i'm familiar with ellis's work on youtube, i've been watching her for years. it's because of this that i was even remotely interested in this book, mainly because the premise is so strange and hard to define. very obviously a debut and draws from many of her pop culture loves. worth the read. thanks for providing me the arc

I cannot remember the last time I saw such a large cadre of enthusiasts anticipating a debut novel , but Lindsay Ellis’s fan base has seen what she can do in film and TV and is eager to see what she can do in the novel. I think they will be pleased.
Young Cora Sabino’s life was torn apart when her estranged whistleblower father Nils revealed that extraterrestrials had landed on earth and the US government had been aware of their existence for years. Nils fled overseas to escape the authorities who were trying to arrest him for disclosing classified material, but the authorities have not given up searching for him. As the book opens, Cora is being followed to work by men she suspects of being CIA. When aliens apparently try to invade her own home, Cora flees to her aunt Luciana, who had worked with the group reputed to have engaged with the invading aliens. Cora’s mother and siblings are taken into protective custody by the US authorities. Cora herself is ultimately abducted by Ampersand, one of the aliens, and agrees to act as his intermediary in dealing with humanity. She soon learns that there is at least as much dissension among the aliens as there is among the humans, and she and Ampersand find they must work together despite the differences between them.
Given her background in visual media, it is not surprising that Axiom’s End is vivid and seems tailor-made for the screen. The first part of the book focuses on the struggles among the humans, and it is full of thrills. The latter part focusses on the battles among the aliens, with their complex and, well, alien loyalties. Fans of good space opera will be rapt during this latter part, but it was somewhat protracted for my taste. In addition, as the book unfolded, the aliens kept coming up with a few too many unexplained powers, like becoming invisible or healing human injuries, but once Ellis has you under her spell, it is easy to suspend your disbelief for a while.
The best SF is more than dramatic encounters and exciting battles, and Axiom’s End also tackles the kinds of questions that make fans like me keep coming back. Cora and Ampersand are from two different planets, two different species, but they face the same issues. Who can I trust? Can I trust my family, my government, my own people? Given those questions within my group, can I ever trust members of a completely different culture or species? Can I even know someone outside my own “tribe”? How widespread is life in the universe, and why is it common or rare? These questions emerge in the book and are explored by both species.
Overall, the book is a promising debut. It may be Axiom’s End, but I predict it will be Ellis’ Beginning.

I have been a fan of Lindsay Ellis for years and was beyond excited that she was writing a book. I really had no idea what to expect but she delivered! I've not read a whole lot of books like this but it's a great combination of contemporary, science fiction and even some social commentary. I cannot wait for the next book in the series!!!

Solid first-contact debut. Lindsay Ellis is a master at analyzing pop culture media, and the book avoids the worst parts of a usual modern-day sci-fi tale:
• It stays personal, focusing in large part on the developing relationship between Ampersand and Cora and how we can make connections despite incredible differences (instead of blowing things up. But don't worry, things are blown up).
• Cora is a more human and more normal protagonist than we usually get— certainly not a Dan Brown-esque hero. She's not a Mary Sue, which was welcome. She's not a prodigy of science or martial arts. Other characters are not stunned by her beauty. She has myriad imperfections. She flunked out of college. She's not particularly informed. She has a fraught relationship with the adults in her family, especially her father, a Snowden-like character.
• There's a subtext about how things get lost in translation and how damaging lies can be. I think this is where the setting, the early 2000s, makes a lot of sense.

There were also some elements that troubled me as a reader:
• The core relationship of the book didn't get enough screen time for me, especially when Cora is virtually ignored while in the government bunker. As a result, the closeness between Cora and Ampersand felt rather forced.
• While I think some of us can relate to aspects of Cora's character, but I found it difficult to connect with her despite a fair amount of Cora self-reflecting near the beginning of the book. Hard to say what I wish had been different.
• Cora's father comes up again and again the book but ultimately plays a very minor role. This was disappointing, but I'm fairly certain it's a wind-up for a sequel.
• It feels like there's a mismatch between the voice and the plot. The book reads/is paced like a mainstream thriller, especially with the "government spooks are out for you" but the relative lack of outrageous heroics combined with a focus on the relationship between the protagonist Cora and the alien Ampersand gives it a different feel. That contrast is neat, but I'm not sure it worked.
• As one of the other reviewers points out, the ending is a curious departure from the emphasis on consent.

SHE'S FRIENDS WITH THE ALIEN, GUYS.

This book is good. There's so much linguistics. So much xenocultural exchange. So much weight on the relationship between one college dropout with abandonment issues and one lost alien with PTSD. First Cora finds herself kidnapped, but then she BECOMES FRIENDS WITH THE ALIEN. SHE TEACHES IT TO HUG. SHE ENDS UP PLATONIC SOUL BONDED TO THE ALIEN.

I stayed up until 3 AM reading this accidentally. It was effortless. If there's ever more in this series I will eagerly consume it. So yeah. I liked it a lot.

I expect that this will be pretty well received. It has an interesting plot, as well as ideas. The dialog is a little clumsy at times, but good pacing, and decent characters. And there's some humor. A pretty good first-effort scifi tale. I hope there's more to come.

I really appreciate the ARC for review!!

I wanted so badly to love this book, but the entire time I was reading it, I felt like it was fighting me on that front. Sci-Fi is one of my all-time favorite genres, and unfortunately, I just think this one was too flawed for me to fall for. I'm not sure how to describe it - like there's too much and not enough going on all at once. Maybe a little pretentious? But I think there is going to be a sequel and I'm interested, at least, to see how the story progresses!

I requested this arc because I really enjoy Lindsay's film criticism on YouTube, and hoped that would be enough to overcome the sci-fi, as that remains one of my struggle genres.
Unfortunately, I couldn't connect with the characters, at any point. I could buy into trauma leading to an emotional connection between Cora and Ampersand in the macro - but upon a mild second ponder, what would attract him to Cora? And I'm speaking mentally, not in judgement of her (oft discussed) rachet root situation. I just felt we lost so much of her character while she acted as interpreter for Ampersand - there isn't a lot of room for development when your MC's main function in the story is to be the mouthpiece for another.
I also didn't understand why this needed to have the backdrop of the financial crisis - the NINJA mortgages still exist in a world also grappling with first contact (!?), you don't need both problems to blow up the stock market.
I don't want to harp on, as this is a debut, and judging by the other reviews posted so far, I am the outlier - but it really didn't work for me.
Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an arc for review. This has in no way influenced my opinion.