Title: Winter’s Orbit
Author: Everina Maxwell
Genre: Science Fiction
Page Count: 432
Published by: Tor Books
Date Published: February 2, 2021
You can find it here: Bookshop.org
Synopsis
After Prince Taam’s death – his widower, Jainan, and his cousin, Kiem, are forced into a hurried, arranged marriage in order to keep rising hostilities between their two worlds under control… as ordered by the Emperor. When evidence arises that Prince Taam might have been murdered, these two enemies will have to ally as they navigate court, try to solve a murder, and prevent an interplanetary war.
But as they peel back the layers of political tape and examine the data surrounding Taam’s death, Kiem learns Taam may not have been who he thought and this very investigation is awakening forces that will stop at nothing to keep these secrets quiet.
Overall Thoughts
A three star rating is tricky. For a lot of people it indicates a “bad” rating, but for me, a three star read means I liked it, it was fine. I always try to rate the books as I, the reader, experienced and enjoyed them. In the case of Winter’s Orbit, I can totally see this being a fantastic read for the right reader … unfortunately I don’t think it’s being marketed properly towards that reader.
This is a heavy sci-fi, heavy (read HEAVY) on the politics space-centred drama, but the heralded romance, while definitely there (and my most enjoyed aspect) didn’t play the significant plot I was expecting based on jacket blurbs and press packets. Truthfully, I really dislike political dramas, especially sci-fi political dramas where everything is set in space with hovercrafts and overly technical details of flight craft and launch portals and anti-gravity and inter-galactic space treaties and artificial intelligence contract auditors and … I was sincerely so, so bored.
Loved the romance and the two central characters, but this story drowns in the political drama and couples with an entirely too slow plot, which left me tuning out my audiobook for great chunks. BUT if political science fiction is your jam, then this is the adventure for you – being a well written, 400+ pages of detailed space policy. If, however, political plots make your eyes bleed, I’d avoid.
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