Substrate Phantoms by: Jessica Reisman, Release Date 5/16!

When I was first looking into this book, I was most intrigued by the idea of a "haunted space station" and how it was supposed to be a thriller. The novel ended up being about so much more and although I'm a little disappointed that it wasn't about what I initially thought, I admit, that I think it still ended well.

Substrate Phantoms is a high fantasy, sci-fi novel. There are definitely tons of science fiction aspects and themes (such as space, aliens, etc.), but the author created her own world, with her own animals, and almost own language and because of this I feel like Substrate Phantoms is more of high fantasy novel than anything else. The world was pretty well-developed for a 300 page novel with as much action as we got. But, there were still some questions to be answered and some more I wanted explored. I really enjoyed the plot line and the action scenes, but what I felt most lacking was the character relationships, and the writing style.

The first half of the book, had so much of the author throwing us into the story, and not telling or really explaining what was happening, that it was almost a little confusing to understand what was going on. I almost feel like the first half of the book was told in two different languages: partial sentences in English and the other half in this mysterious language. So by the time I made it to the second half of the book, it was easier to move through and understand. But, because of this, it made the beginning hard to get through. I think this was a huge missed opportunity on the writer's and publishers behalf. I think if they wanted to keep the book short, then a small glossary, or even a map would have been a neat addition, while also being helpful. It took me two or three days to get to the 50% mark, but then just one day to finish the rest of the book. I pushed myself mostly because I felt a sense of obligation to finish (and because I have THE WORST time DNF'ing a book), but not everyone will feel the same.

Another thing that dragged down the first half, was the lack of relationships between characters. In the first half, it felt as if there were hardly any familial relationships, or friendships, and absolutely zero love interests. In a way, the beginning felt like one big information dump without any information being clearly explained (if that makes sense). As there were hardly any really intriguing conversations, or moments that made you laugh to help you step away from the complicated sentences.

I also wasn't a huge fan of the writing style. I don't know if maybe it was just me, but I found that I had to read several sentences over again to find out what was actually being said. And some were so filled with this other language that I just admitted defeat. In addition, I wasn't a fan of the author using a lot of (what I like to call) SAT words. There were several words that we just don't hear day-to-day, and maybe the characters are so smart that they use those words all of the time, but when you're learning about a new world, and basically another language, more difficult words makes it rough to get through sentences.

Overall, a good read, but one that you won't be able to fly through.


Breakdown:
Character Diversity: 4/5
Character Relationships: (beginning) 1/5 (end) 4/5 = 3/5
Plot: 4/5
Writing: 3/5
Character Development: 3/5
Pacing: (beginning) 1/5 (end) 3/5 = 2/5
Romance: Basically N/A
Overall: 3.16666


*I received this book in exchange for an honest review. However, this in no way effects the contents of this review or my opinions.