#96 The Loneliest Girl in the Universe

The Loneliest Girl in the Universe by Lauren James 

This is one of those books that has been on my radar for ages but i didnt pick it up for ages and instantly regretted it when i did read it. The Loneliest Girl in the Universe follows the story of Romy who is the sole survivor of the Infinity a ship that is on a long haul journey to Earth II where upon arriving Romy will be responsible for setting up a new civilisation. Romy's parents where hand picked astronauts for the Infinity mission but after falling pregnant Romy became the first child born in space. After her parents die in a freak accident at the age of 11 Romy becomes the commander of the Infinity and is left all alone in space decades away from Earth II. The story takes place 5 years after the death of her parents when Romy is 16.

Romy has daily communication in the form of emails from a NASA employee, Molly and this is pretty much her only social interaction. When Molly contacts Romy to inform her of another mission that will be catching up to her due to it being a higher tech ship. The ship contains J who begins communicating with Romy immediately. Their communications are a few months behind each other so they dont get to read each others replies for ages as it takes so long for the signal to transmit, this was a really nice touch. When there is a war on earth Romy loses communication with Molly and only has J for company, they are both worried about what is happening on Earth and have very little answers. As their communications continue Romy notices a few red flags and begins to question the validity of J and whether he is everything he seems.

Such a unique, thought provoking page turner with such an unforgettable and resilient protagonist. Romy's character growth is ridiculously well done, her constant anxiety and questioning of things made her so believable as well as her trauma surrounding her parents death. I really enjoyed a lot of the mundane details such as her daily life and how she spent her days, it made it all the more interesting to read. Romy's relationship with J was surprising, it was a bit cringe in parts but the idea that they would be the only two people responsible for a new civilisation and only had each other to talk to made everything else that followed more realistic. If you only had each other to relate to then of course you are going to be forced together. It bugged me a little that he was so much older than her (6 years difference) it read as a little creepy at times but did make more sense as the story went on (no spoilers)

The story has quite a few twists and turns and was very tense towards the end. I didnt initially enjoy where the story went as it felt like a 5 star book up until that point but the more ive thought about it the more ive realised that there were few places for the story to go and im now more ok with it.

All in all this is a smartly written sci-fi with thrilling elements as well as coming of age. The mental health representation in here (in my opinion) was SO well done, it explored general anxiety, panic attacks and nightmares which might be triggering for some so i thought id mention it. Romy is badass in her own way, her sense of survival is commendable and shes highly intelligent. Overall I enjoyed it very much, it was so intense at points and i couldnt put it down.

#95 The Final Empire

The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson

I finally did it! I finally read this absolute beast of a book. I read it a few years ago but wasn't a big fan of fantasy then and just couldn't wrap my head around the story, flash forward 6 years and fantasy is my favourite genre so it was only right that i gave this series another whirl, especially after reading Skyward and Starsight and loving them both so much.

The Final Empire follows the story of Vin who is raised by her brother as a thief, she also has the abilities of an allomancer meaning she can use the power of ingested metal to alter other peoples feelings. When her abilities are discovered by Kelsier who is a vigilante type character who is determined to take down the empire and the antagonist the Lord Ruler. Kelsier is a mistborn meaning he can burn metals by ingesting them which grants him supernatural abilities as a result.

Kelsier takes Vin under his wing and teaches her how to ingest more metals to unlock and use other abilities. He also sends her on a dangerous mission undercover to attend fancy balls in order to spy on members of the court and to gain information that might be useful. The skaa are very oppressed in this world and have been living in the shadows in fear of the empire and the Lord Ruler. Kelsier is the figurehead for the skaa rebels that he has gathered as a secret army to take down the Lord Ruler, hes very talented and charismatic leading the army to believe they have a chance as defeating the empire.

The characters are really well written, each with their own distinct personality and flaws they read as very real and relatable. I particularly enjoyed Vin as a character, her growth throughout the book was really well done. As Vin grew up on the streets she has this no nonsense trust no one attitude and it was great to see Kelsier break down those walls and become a father figure to her. The main strength of this novel and it was no surprise to me was the astonishing world building, it is so vast and rich and you can really picture it as you are reading. Allomancy as a magic system was really unique and cool and unlike anything ive ever read about in fantasy before, it was probably the most unique thing about the book as there was a lot of standard tropes that you find in epic fantasy novels although i must say those tropes were executed superbly. The villains are really interesting and well done i must say as a huge fan of villains, the inquisitors are bogeymen type characters that are highly skilled and quite frankly a bit creepy. The Lord Ruler himself did not disappoint when he made an appearance after a highly built up characterisation of terror.

This book is a very quick read despite its 700 + pages, i flew through it as it was so easy to become captivated. Its so well weaved and intricate. I would recommend to everyone. Sanderson has really proven himself to be a master story teller. Im going to try and read the rest of his Mistborn series and move onto The Stormlight Archives. I never thought i would be this invested in an epic fantasy series as i am this one.