763: Dreams Bigger than The First One
In this episode, I had to remember the first adventure so that I could start the sequel…
Friends, friends, friends.
Welcome back to Teatime Reading where there are books in progress.
A little while ago, I wandered across the name Charlie Jane Anders with their book All the Birds In The Sky. While I never ended up reading that book, it must have primed me to leap at the chance to get an early read of their first foray into YA fiction: Victories Greater Than Death. It was an entertaining and thoughtful take on spacefaring science fiction with Tina, Rachel, Yiwei, and Elza being the characters that were most interesting to me.
When I started to listen to the sequel, it took me a little while for me to remember the events of the first book. After all, it had nearly two years since I read the first one. However, I was dramatically more invested in Dreams Bigger Than Heartbreak as opposed to Victories Greater Than Death. Part of the beneficial shift was the greatly increased focus on Elza and Rachel. As I gradually remembered the events of the first book, I realized how much I was invested in Elza and Rachel as fully formed characters in their own right.
Elza competing to be an intergalactic princess was incredibly moving while Rachel’s loss from the first book pushed the dynamics of the larger friendships in unique and unexpected ways. I haven’t even gotten to the challenge of Tina’s pact of nonviolence while she was quite literally the genetic clone of a legendary warrior.
The political machinations of both the Royal Fleet and the Compassion continued to unravel and peel back, all the while as a larger threat loomed over the entire chessboard.
Dreams Bigger Than Heartbreak was emotional, intense, and fast-paced. If the first book was intricate, this book ramped up the complexity in several ways. I liked that we got new point-of-view characters, but I was disappointed by the diminished role for Tina since she was so integral to the origin of this group and the events of the first book.
Representation and empathy continues to be a spectacular strength for the author, as all of these characters feel real and nuanced and whole, with their respective sexualities and identities.
The story progression of this book was a little haphazard, but the characters kept me invested, and by the third act of this book, I knew that I would count down the days until the third and final book. I won’t go into any specifics, but I was blown away by the last few moments of this story, even though I knew there was a whole book remaining.
At this very moment, I’d say that I care most about Elza, then Rachel, and finally Tina out of the three primary characters, but I anticipate a lot of shuffling around in the next adventure. The world-building, the politics, and the danger all have made this series far more captivating than I could have expected when I first accepted the invitation to read so many months ago.
It is a remarkably conscious and engaging series so far, and I hope you give it a go.
Until next time, keep your bookmarks close.
Peace, Love, Pages.
Note: As Always, Affiliate Links are here for your convenience at no cost to you. All reading was at my own expense.