An engrossing story of what ifs.....When Earth's populous is intergrated with non-human beings is an act of war? Or have they been here on Earth without our knowledge for eons? TRUTH OF THE DIVINE centers on the close interactions of two "people", one human, one ??? Lindsay Ellis has written a story that would come closer to a true meeting....I think. No little green men and no Take me to your leader. Just lives lived along side each other with all of the secrets that must be kept to keep panic and agression to a minimum.

**Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ecopy of this book in exchange for honest feedback**

I am way behind on getting this one posted as I had to backtrack and read Axiom's End before getting into the 2nd book in the series. While I loved Axiom's End, some of the issues that I took with it are magnified in Truth of the Divine.

The plot was a little clunky and while the universe was well setup in Axiom's End, I didn't feel that there was much/enough expansion on the universe to keep me super interested in the plot. I didn't love the character development in this installment either, and unfortunately didn't find myself looking forward to an additional book like I did when finishing Axiom.

Overall, I thought there were some great ideas in here and expansion on topics from the first novel, but it was closer to a 3.5 star read for me because the plot didn't drive me to keep the pages turning.

This is a phenomenal follow up to the author’s debut, Axiom’s End. The alternate timeline continues to be compelling as are all the characters. The amount of passion and raw emotion that you can feel as the reader is what makes the book so unforgettable. Looking forward to the next in the series!

I have loved this series so far and can't wait for book #3 now! Lindsay Ellis's take on the "human translator to space aliens" trope is definitely up there as one of my all-time SFF faves. I see a lot of reviewers saying this book was too "bleak," but the intensity and tone of the book didn't put me off, personally. I think that's more of a mood mismatch on the part of the other readers. I was fascinated by the dystopian world-building, the alien culture, and the interpersonal (and romantic) elements, enough to keep me reading fairly quickly and steadily. :)
There's lots of trigger/content warnings to pay attention to for this one, so be sure to refer to the author's note.
NetGalley provided me with an e-book arc for review purposes.

I wanted to love this book after reading the first, but could not bring myself to finish it. The plot was slow and characters felt disconnected.

TRUTH OF THE DIVINE – by Lindsay Ellis

I love the first book in the series, AXIOM’S END; unfortunately, TRUTH OF THE DEVINE is a DNF for me at forty-two percent.

What Cora goes through emotionally is very relatable, yet it felt inconsistent throughout the portion I read, considering what happened in the first book.

There are moments when the tension builds nicely and then tamped down by a character response that, to me, doesn’t make sense as I reflect on past events.

Though this book didn’t work for me, I look forward to reading what Ellis comes up with next.

Thank you, NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press, for providing me with an eBook of TRUTH OF THE DEVINE at the request of an honest review.

The feared book-in-the middle that slogs a little but ultimately sets up a great stage for the final volume. While at some points Truth of the Divine was very slow (like anything set in the apartment of gloom), Lindsay Ellis has found a great way to develop her characters, and the death of [spoiler] ad [spoiler] sets her up as a baby George RR Martin. I'll get the third volume as soon as it comes out, can't wait to see if the Earth ends up becoming the second red planet of our Solar System.

My thanks to the publisher and author for a free eARC from Netgalley in exchange for a review. Apologies for the lateness of it, I do appreciate authors now giving trigger warnings, or content warnings, of a work of fiction beforehand. That didn't really stop, or slow me down from reading this work right after finishing Axiom's End.

Cora Sabino has dyed her hair blue while working with a reluctant and isolated Ampersand at ROSA. Between a falling out with her aunt and distancing herself from her family, and with the government and military pushing harder for more answers and actions that the amygdaline, won't or can't answer, Cora's at her limit with PTSD and depression.

Ampersand, for all his secrets, offers to help and Cora takes it.

It's into this mess, with humanity debating alien personhood and rights a "Third Option" that leaves human rights a question, that another amygdaline crashes into earth, "Enola Gay" is like Obelus or Čefo a symphyle of Ampersand. A erratic or crazy Ampersand who Ampersand fears.

Cora's own fears and trust are betrayed in the wake of discovery which Enola reveals. She needs help and into her life steps Kaveh Mazandarani a wealth and world famous journalist, who becomes Enola's interpreter. Enola is much different than Ampersand, opener and curious yet still dangerous and unpredictable. Kaveh and Cora work together and fall into a relationship that deepens dangerously and yet is the only stability offered in world unraveling between alien extinction and radical political issues.

Enola and Ampersand are revealed to the world, gaining names Jude Atheatos and Nikola Sassanian (two other asylum seeking ETIs following suit with apostle names ‘Andronicus’ and ‘Junia’) if not "human rights".

Yet offered to Cora and Kaveh by their amygdaline is this: they don't have to stay on earth and wait to see who burns down the world first, they could escape to another world. It's a offer that is more tempting with every tragedy and secret unraveled, and who wouldn't take it when making their world better seems a impossibility?

I'm absolutely biased here, I adore Lindsay Ellis, and I adore her writing. Truth of the Devine builds upon all the great parts of Axiom's End, and then continues to grow into a fascinating story of its own.

What I read was very good, but I won't be continuing with the series - It's just not my taste in books.

I was pre-approved for this arc, for which I am very grateful. But I wouldn't have picked it up if I hadn't been.

Thank you to the publisher for approving my arc copy.

This book was a beautiful and haunting and upsetting and wonderful. I'm eagerly awaiting the next book in the series. This expanded on the world like a good sequel should and did a great job diving into the kind of trauma a person would go through if they were placed in the same positions Cora. The ending took my breath away and I can't wait for the third book in the series.

I also think the trigger warning in the beginning of the book is a great idea. I'd really like to see more books have similar warnings. Lindsay Ellis is really coming into her own when it comes to her writing. I think people rate this book unfairly because of personal bias against the author and don't give it a fair shake.

As a librarian, I'll most certainly recommend this book and the series to my patrons.

📚 #BOOKREVIEW 📚
Truth of the Divine (Noumena #2) by Lindsay Ellis
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ / Pages: 496 / Genre: Sci-Fi

I was extremely excited to read the sequel to Axiom’s End, the thrilling tale of Earth’s first contact with an alien race and the role the government and the media has in divulging events to the public. In Truth of the Divine, Cora is working for the government as the communication intermediary between the alien Ampersand and the government. But as relations break down between Ampersand and the other aliens on Earth so does Cora’s relationship with Ampersand. A lot of stuff goes down in this story and it’s definitely not as good as the first book. Maybe because the excitement of first contact is hard to beat, but this one just didn’t do it for me. Still worth a read though, especially if you’ve read Axiom’s End..

I really enjoyed the energy and creativity of Axiom's End, so I was a bit disappointed to find that, for me, that energy lagged in Truth of the Divine. I really enjoyed the introduction of new characters, but I struggled to feel a connection with (and understand the motivations and choices of) the cast of characters carried over from AE.

I enjoyed this book, but it certainly earned its content warning. The new point of view was excellent, and this book far outstrips the first in quality of both plot and writing. It is deeply dark, exploring a lot of topics you see lightly touched in in sci fi but rarely delved into, like bodily autonomy, traumatic events and PTSD.

**A big thank you to St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.**

Because it's an honest review that I've agreed to give, I'm sorry to say that I just did not like this book as much as I thought I would, or actually, at all.

I watched Linday's Q&A video about the release of this book and I do remember her saying that she went in an entirely different direction and that if you liked Axiom's End, you probably wouldn't like Truth of the Devine, which was absolutely the case for me. I don't know what the logic is for creating the second book in a series for a different audience, but here we are.

Axiom's End was the monster boyfriend book that I expected from Lindsay, and Truth of the Devine was an unpleasant surprise from start to finish even after the lengthy content warning she set at the beginning.

Truth of the Devine has an agonizingly slow pace, and long-winded side tangents that take over the entire plot. For those who complained that Axiom's End was too formulaic, Truth of the Devine does nary hit a story beat at all. Instead, we get a story that is more than twice as long as it needs to be. Half of the book takes the form of heavy-handed political allegories and woke hot takes. And the other half is just description after description and page after page of our leading lady having panic attacks. I understand that she's experienced trauma. I understand that this is a serious condition that plagues many people. But at some point, you have to reign in this peculiar self-indulgence and MOVE. THE. PLOT. FOREWARD.

It took me two months drag myself across the finish line, and as much as I liked Axiom's End, I think this is a good place for me to part ways with the series. I love Lindsay's video essays, and her debut was stunning. But this my friends, this ain't it.

What to say about this book? It’s better from a technical standpoint than the first book - more compound sentences and Ellis seems aware of some of the criticism of the first book and this book is less like transformers! But. Man. It’s bleak. The last book left me feeling hopeful - and this one left me feeling like I need Prozac.

Things I liked:
1) The new characters. Cora continued to make me want to shake her, but I loved Kaveh and Nikola!
2) Ellis makes a point to talk about pronouns and cultural appropriation. I know there will be some people who will complain that this book is set in 2008 and while we had the vocabulary to talk about these things, as a society we mostly didn’t. But. I don’t care - the book has aliens, it can have respect for other people too!
3) “beloved” - we should call our friends beloved more and I will start doing it.

Things I didn’t like:
1) The old characters - they seemed to be stuck in the same conflict as last book, I don’t need another book where Cora tries to explain to Ampersand and he ignores her. Additionally, Ellis keeps talking about the “old days” when Ampersand was very kind to her - but she didn’t really show it. There is a scene or two, but most of both the books in the series is him being kinda mean.
2) the plot in general. I feel like she set Nils up to be a much bigger character than he ended up being. The plot in general is slower than me getting out of bed in the morning - the same information endlessly rehashed.
3) Any and all discussion about having sex with aliens

I received an advance copy of this book on Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. However, in this instance, my galley copy expired before I was able to finish the book and I procured a copy from my library in order to provide feedback.

Truth of the Divine picks up where Ellis' first novel, Axiom's End, left off. In an alternate-2008, George W. Bush has resigned in disgrace following the revelation that not only has First Contact been made with alien intelligence, but that the US has been harboring fugitive aliens in secret for years. Cora Sabino, who established herself as an advocate for the rights of the visiting aliens during the events of Axiom's End, begins the novel in service to the CIA as an "interpreter" for Ampersand. Cora's in a bad situation in Truth of the Divine - the events of the previous novel have left her with PTSD, and she experiences frequent panic attacks. She's underpaid and under-employed, and the government seems disinclined to provide her with health insurance. Ampersand is the only being who seems to have any interest in her well-being, at least until another arrival event upends their tenuous equilibrium. The newly arrived Enola (named for Enola Gay by a particularly savvy anti-alien politician) won't remain secret for long, and as political tension rises around the issue of the legal status of literal aliens, Cora's personal hardships only get worse.

Truth of the Divine is both a political/sci-fi thriller and a very personal, character-driven story. Cora's journey through the miasma of an untreated panic disorder feels as uncomfortable and precarious as you could expect, in a way that feels deeply authentic. As a character, Cora is barely scraping by, and at times she's not the clear winner in her battle with anxiety and depression. I appreciated Ellis' foreword about sensitive content - those who have experienced suicidal ideation for themselves may find certain passages to be a little bit too real for comfort.

While it is ostensibly an alternate-history work, the response of extremist organizations to the presence of alien entities and the legislative battle over whether they can even be considered "people" feels very of the moment. As many of my favorite science fiction works have done, Truth of the Divine uses the trappings of science fiction to hold up a mirror to humanity. I can't say that I would recommend starting with the second novel in the series - there are certain events and ideas which would be difficult to understand completely without the context of the first installment. However, I can say that the Noumena series is shaping up to be one of my favorite science fiction series of the last decade. It is absolutely worth reading.

***eArc provided by St. Martin's Press & NetGalley in exchange for an honest review***

As the story of Axiom's End continues, more complicated than ever, Lindsay Ellis proves time and again that she has pitch perfect control over the Noumena story. With the introduction of a new POV character in Kaveh, we gain a new perspective that allows our understanding of the aliens and the politics of America to deepen.

The way that Ellis writes about Cora's profound PTSD from the events at the end of Axiom's End, is steeped in understanding, care, and a profound need to explain. All of which I think come together in really nice, albeit painful, ways. And god is Kaveh one of the most interesting characters in science fiction in a long time.

Not to mention the aliens, themselves. between the first half of the book's care with Ampersand (absolutely my darling) to the creation and filling out of Nikola (wow, thanks I love him), Ellis continues to make all of our extraterrestrial friends feel alive, complex, and just like people.

Non-spoiler review: a great sequel that manages its heavy themes without getting too lost in the depression spiral. The second narrator is a much-needed break in this book to keep the pace moving at a good clip and the tone balanced. Also, it's just nice to have nice things even if those nice things are only temporary. For something set in the recent past, it is a very timely story.






Spoiler Review: *Jesus Christ Super Star guitar* WWWWWWWHHHHHHHYYYYYY????? Ellis, my dude, my sis, my dear, why must he die? Everything was going great. There was crispy rice and hopefully a Pulitzer on the way - why do you insist on hurting me. I mean, Cora. Yeah, Cora.

For real though, I liked what Kaveh brought to the story as a new perspective on Cora and Ampersand as well as a non-government person in on the aliens. I especially liked the new angle the book has on alien civil rights where we, the audience, are on the ground floor as legislation is being drafted.

Finally, I like how Ampersand is being humanized in this book both as we get to know him and also as an extension of the pair bond he and Cora share. This aspect is the probably what I most look forward to seeing develope further in the next books.

This series is a hard one for me to rate and review, as I love the writing and the way that the author wraps you into the story through her language. But I don't know if I am a fan of the directions this story is taking. I'm hovering between 3 and 4 stars on this one.

In the first book I had issues with the main human character coming to fall in love with the main alien character. It didn't feel believable, or earned. In this one, Ellis continues down this rabbit hole while introducing a human love interest where once again a relationship develops that doesn't feel believable or earned.

The thing I like about this series is that the plot direction pulls surprises and twists, which I find lacking more and more in a lot of science fiction stories these days. Small action elements catch you off guard, and I really have no idea where this series is going to end which keeps it exciting. The only element that I don't find surprising is the love story that at times it can feel like the author is hitting you over the head with in it's obviousness.

That said, the characterization could be a little stronger in this series as I don't feel that the character growth is earned or believable and I have a hard time seeing how the characters we experience in this book have grown from the ones we experienced in the first book. The author also takes this story in very dark directions and makes her characters deal with a lot of serious subject matter. To a point where it started to feel a little excessive. I know a lot of people consider the novel A Little Life to be misery porn, which is a viewpoint I do not agree with in regard to that novel, whereas with this book I find it to be an apt description. Readers who are easily triggered beware.