#at least overusing someone because they're strong is fair

[tigger8900]

Victories Greater Than Death, by Charlie Jane Anders

⭐⭐⭐⭐

Tina is an alien. To be precise, she's the clone of an alien war hero, hidden away on Earth until she's old enough to claim her legacy and lead the beleaguered Royal Fleet to victory. But she's tired of waiting and, ready or not, has activated her beacon now. Along with her best friend Rachael and a team assembled from humanity's best and brightest — well, their best and brightest teenagers, at least — she will have to take on the weighty mantle of her former self and somehow, against all odds, lead her crew to victory…or die trying.

This was good YA. It is, however, very firmly YA, and not likely to appeal to someone who reads only adult sci-fi with the occasional borderline older-YA title. I'm bringing that up to be clear about what kind of book this is, not to say it's bad. In fact, I think it benefits from being so profoundly YA; if this same story had been written outside of the YA perspective, without the refusal to accept limitations that defines that category of literature, the themes likely would have been suffocating.

This book has a lot of aliens in it. Something I would've liked to see more of(hopefully we will, in future books) is a deeper dive into their cultures, not just a quirky rundown of how they are but why they're that way. I wish I'd known when I picked the book up that there was a glossary in the back, because it would have saved me a fair bit of confusion and flipping back and forth. More authors should put the glossary in the front, so we have it when we need it instead of being surprised by it at the end!

The one thing that I didn't like about the book was how the story jumped from scene to scene, suddenly being jerked along to the next thing(in media res, even) as soon as the prior thing resolved, and often with retroactive narration to fill the gap. This can be an excellent technique to use once or twice, but it felt overused here. The book wasn't very long, so I feel like we could have afforded a few more lengthy transitions.

What I feel like the story did very well was the cast of characters, specifically the recruits from Earth. There's four of them for a total of five Earthlings, plus Tina. They're all of varied ethnic and cultural backgrounds, bringing different strengths to the team. It's a strong cast to carry the plot through the rest of the trilogy, and I look forward to seeing what the other parts have in store.

[sunnyvaiprion]

3.0 and Aether Raids

 IS announced that after tommorow’s update, there will be new ways of gaining lift (and the battles are closed today, so we cant waste aether and then regreat it) and ... yeah, I’d say everyone has seen this coming, since if you think about it - it’s flat out impossible to make Tier 20->21 leap as of now, and that has to change. 

 But the most straighforward solution (and something that will likely get implemented at some point, since Aether Fountain HAS level, unlike cosmetic items) to that problem would be simply making the fountain upgradable... But that doesnt fall under “new ways of gaining lift” description. And even if it somehow does - “wasting aether on day 1” wouldnt be an issue, so I say no.

 Now, its no secret to anyone that I absolutely love AR the way it is. Now, to anyone complaining about repetitive LynHardtRonicaDDR def - yeah, guys, that’s called “meta” and you cant get rid of it in some shape or form no matter what you do. But unlike current arena - it’s tied to units’/skillsets’ actual performance and team synergy rather than some arbitrary scoring number. I (T16 now, was pretty close to T17 but didnt make it), personally, saw a huge variery of pretty interesting defence setups that dont use these, and even some that do (actually I straight up lost a couple of times, and god, those losses were not against the team above. That’s why I’m not T17). As well as offence teams that use some ‘exotic’ +10 SS units/even functional theme teams built around them. Yes, you can use ‘meta units’ but you dont have to, especially if you have well-built faves. 

 So I would be really upset if they add some kind of limiting factor (such as bonus unit kills they did for arena - which instantly turns offence/defence meta into babysitting/anti-popular-bonus galore, even thought it’s not as bad as BST scoring). I am not entirely against changes and I’m curious of what more cool things they can do (I have no idea why you guys keep talking about light/dark structures when it’s clearly blessings, but okay whatever, that’d be interesting too), but still, I do have my worries. 

Probably should’ve just waited a day, huh? But I wanted to say that anyway.