The First Herald is a darker sci-fi with a full backstory and a complex histor and a lot of action as well as some mystery. I love sci-fi but i do admit that the compelxity of the story made it slightly difficult for me ro follow it, there is a glossary and a list of characters in the beginning of the book which did help with understanding, however i felt that the characters were only explained in the beginning in the list and not so much in the story itself. The characters were builded nicely and i loved how the characters struggled with mundane things such as old age, sickness, death, the haunting of the past and bitterness in a relationship. I also enjoyed the transcrip chapters however they felt a little out of place and maybe a timeline would have helped with this? The writing was nice and the world building complex but interesting. The end was a bit of a disappointment in my opinion and It felt somewhat laking maybe? All in all i did enjoy reading this.
ARC provided by Netgalley

The First Herald is a dark sci-fi with rich backstory and complex history that this book only just breaks the surface of. This can make reading at times challenging, but a comprehensive glossary and character list at the beginning is a very helpful guide. This book has serious themes reminiscent of No Country for Old Men: aging, how the choices of family impact everyone, corruption of power, just to name a few. The characters were very interesting, and I was hooked on this story from the start. I loved Zach Eld. He is one complicated man with a very tough job. I'm not sure what exactly the setting was: in space, on a solid planet where this part of it mechanically floats, or something else...? I went through most of this book thinking it was taking place in space, but I don't really think that's perhaps correct.
There is a bit of a mixed media feel with transcripts from conversations. These were some of my favorite parts of the book. I wish these had been dated somehow to provide a more concrete timeline, but they were clearly in chronological order outside the time of the base narrative.
I did struggle a bit with the ending. Mainly, when the reveal happens, why does it matter? I didn't feel like I knew enough about the current political situation to truly empathize with what motivated these characters to make such life and death decisions since so much of the plot focused on a criminal investigation.
Overall, The First Herald was a good dark sci-fi novel set in a complex world I'd be interested in revisiting.
Thanks to NetGalley, Victory Editing, and Carol T. Luna for this ARC!