Thank you to Power Chord Publishing and to Netgally for providing me with an e-ARC. All opinions are my own.

Man I’m sorry I don’t wanna be mean but this was the hardest book I’ve tried to get through since The Stand by Stephen King. Even so, I got 809 pages into that and could barely get to 230 pages of this. DNF’d at 61% and I swear I tried really hard—it was on my to-do list every day for a month and a half but it was like beating my head against a brick wall 😭

PROS:
• The dystopian premise with immortals and different mortal colonies is cool.
• Some of the proposed aspects of the immortals are interesting, like their reduced need to eat and sleep.
• I suppose in a way Riva is a badass female role model …

CONS:
• Half the time we’re not given information in an order that’s conducive to understanding the story smoothly. For instance, terms aren’t explained initially, or bits of lore are suddenly introduced and have big plot implications even though we hadn’t heard of that lore before, leading to the feeling of being blindsided. Like an Omni Box? The Eye?
• The other half of the time we’re being told repetitive or glaringly obvious things like how the character feels, or how they feel about other characters, or what they want to do, or other stuff that we could already deduce. It’s like the author always points out “2” in 1+1.
The plot mainly consists of the MC running back and forth between like 3 locations.
• Those locations and the characters aren’t well described. Oftentimes I had trouble visualizing what these characters and settings were supposed to look like. It got especially muddy during action sequences later on.
• Characters have the emotional intelligence of pre-teens, or younger. They’re constantly shouting at each other at the drop of a dime, interrupting each other, having outbursts, welling up with tears, being racked with guilt, rocking themselves, etc …
• Characters are incompetent. I cannot believe any of these characters could make it in their alleged roles, especially the antagonist, whose bigotry and temper were so terrible that he wouldn’t make it as a base level employee, let alone a commander. For example, minor spoiler, the second or third in command doesn’t think it’s odd that he had a meeting with a mortal woman who had been in charge 100 years ago, but who barely looked older, until our MC points it out after the meeting. The same dude also couldn’t come up with a cover story for our MC even though he had time to think up a lie…
• The immortals are similarly unbelievable as >100 year olds. They act like … grade school children, by and large. For example, when our MC introduces herself to one of the immortals, the sister of another immortal she met, this happens: “His sister toed the floor with her boot, hand fidgeting inside her pants pocket.” This woman is like an octogenarian, and her actions are not a ruse.
• Pervasive issue of unnatural writing, for example: “Riva plucked the blonde hairs from the lid with irritation.” Or: “She pressed her lips together, but a sigh escaped.” Gives the mental image of her blowing a raspberry unintentionally… Or “They hit their unwilling targets of flesh.” Or “Crew dove and scattered, directionless and stumbly.” Or “Her voice oozed pain, like honey drooling from a freshly torn comb. Their situation was just as sticky. Her commander’s stinger was legendary. She felt it best not to attack the hive directly.” It’s like this for the whole book.
• Pervasive issue of amateurish writing. For example, the author overuses exclamation points, and, in the prime example of this, uses 7 in one half page (130 words)! Not even in a row though, all in separate sentences, so like half the sentences in that half page ended with “!”… Another example is the author’s frequent use of people losing consciousness for scene breaks. Another cliche is how the unique beings of the world are differentiated by their eye color.
• Especially awkward writing where dialogue and character interactions are involved. They’ll notice things and say something, and then react physiologically??? The timing is very stilted. Here’s an example: “And she was looking right at him. “Riva!” he called. Edam shuddered, more affected by her countenance than he expected.”
• Extreme suspension of belief necessary. For instance, heavy on the plot conveniences, like the fact the Andys all look like our MC and the second or third in command. Or the fact one of our main characters lives in Riva’s old house, or the mere fact her old house is still standing! Also, “After they disappeared, pets and wildlife died.” Like what??? How’s that supposed to make sense? The world building is unconvincing—the pinnacle of which is the idea that immortals would all be peaceful and live together in harmony and create a utopia 💀
• Idek what to call this but this issue is a group: The use of the term “brouch” to mean bed/couch. Automated doors being called Door and talked to.
• Lack of humor. I don’t think I laughed once while reading this.
• The writing level and character complexity would make this like a middle school grade book, but the cursing and content and occasional scientific sections bar off that audience. As a book for adults it definitely falls short.

NEUTRALS:
• The scientific or technical jargon sections.

OVERALL: problematic writing, excessively emotionally unstable characters, boring and repetitive plot, and unrealistic world. Read at your own discretion … 1 / 5.


“Riva’s anxiety spiked and spilled all over her friend.”
Ah yes, this entire book is essentially characters spilling their emotions onto each other.

Worlds Apart
Sci-Fi
L.L. Keyes
⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

• ᴍᴜʟᴛɪᴘʟᴇ ᴘᴏᴠꜱ • ᴡᴀʀ • ʙɪᴏ-ᴡᴇᴀᴘᴏɴꜱ •

I found the start of this book very slow. From the very first page there were a number of scientific terms, processes and theories given in the form of a journal entry and it was too much of an info dump for me.

I wish more of the plot was based on Riva, the underground settlements and her role.

I liked the immortals and how different they were. It was interesting to see how much they had advanced in 100 years with their technology etc.

This book felt a bit odd at times, almost as if the author couldn't quite decided if they wanted to write a sci-fi book or a fantasy book.

I did like the race against time. The characters mentioned a few times that the whole book took place over a week but honestly, it felt a lot longer than that 😂.

The action and fighting scenes were good but sometimes it was hard to picture where the characters were etc.

As I was reading, I wasn't sure if I would like the book or not but I actually quite enjoyed it after about 30%.

I will be reading the next book.

*Thank you to @Netgalley, the author, and the publishers for providing this ARC. This is my own opinion and an honest review, which I am leaving voluntarily*

The idea of this book is very interesting. I really enjoyed the "mortal versus immortal" aspect. However, the world building was weak. I actually checked to see if I had somehow missed the first book, but I hadn't. It needs some more build up and description of the world around it. I had a hard time visualizing the story, especially certain aspects such as the rooms they were in and the technology. The story also seemed to drag on without much action. When action did occur, it was short lived and somehow extremely easy for the main character to navigate.

Mediocre writing meets terrible character and dialogue. Interesting idea and concept horribly executed by high school level writing.