Operation: Probably a Huge Mistake but Fuck It
This is pretty much the thought that I had when I decided to read the sequel to Axiom’s End. This takes the interspecies love story from the first book even further without crossing any disturbing physical lines. Of course, Ellis could be waiting for the next book to drop that on us readers...

I have gone this far with this series so I am sure that I will continue because I need to know how first contact in this world is going to end. Just please, no sexual interludes between the bug alien and the human. Please?!

Recommended for: fans of Axiom’s End and/or twisted scifi books

Content warning: self harm, murder

I received a digital ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This instalment is tragic, and shows the evolution and the cost of the relationships Cora has with Ampersand, and the relationship the ROSA group has with the aliens dubbed the Amygdalines.
The book begins as Cora is experiencing crippling anxiety, which she is attempting to conceal at work, as her contributions to the alien program is increasingly minimized by those in charge. Her already shaky self image is crumbling rapidly, and she has no one but Ampersand for any kind of support.
The relationships amongst the aliens is also a cause for much confusion and consternation amongst the humans confining them, and this is brought up repeatedly, as another of the Amygdalines, an associate of Ampersand, arrives rather chaotic on Earth throwing an already difficult situation into a tailspin.
Enter a new human inducted into the very small circle of those with contact with aliens: Kaveh Mazandarani, a respected journalist, who is also on Sol Kaplan’s sh*t list.
Cora and Kaveh connect, and begin working together and romantically involved. As the only two humans functioning as alien interpreters places them in a tiny exclusive club. And the stress and strain upon Cora just keeps getting worse, unsurprisingly, as she finds out Ampersand has not been entirely forthcoming about, well, a lot of things.
Meanwhile, much like our own world, people are reacting with fear and worry, and debating the personhood of aliens—as if a different body shape and different culture immediately connote inferiority compared to a dominant culture! Oh wait…..it does in real life, unfortunately, as we see all around us.

This was a terrific bit tough instalment to get through. Everything about the situations is painful and difficult, and getting worse for Cora, and for the aliens, legally. It's difficult not to think of our own world when Kaveh expresses his concerns about the diminishing legal and other protections for individuals in this fictional world, based on the maneuvering of politicians.
Though I said it was difficult, I still could not put this book down. I loved how Ellis dealt with the mental health of individuals in a pressure cooker situation, and the malleability of truth to everyone involved in this situation.
The ending was a little shocking, but in some ways, considering how Cora and Ampersand have been dealing with things in this book, it's not that surprising that they would make the decision they do at the end. Which means, I want to know what happens next!

Thank you Netgalley and to St. Martin's Press for this ARC in exchange for my review.

4 stars, a slight improvement over the previous work with more ambitious and focused theming

With Ellis' first book, Axiom's End, I enjoyed the work but ultimately thought it was only okay. That was partly due to two reasons: much of the work fell back on in jokes from Ellis' media critic career that I appreciated as a long time fan but which didn't do anything for the book's story and the novel tried to juggle more themes than it could fully pull off. With this sequel, however, Ellis goes all in on one main theme and it's a good one: the the dehumanization of refugees in a post 9/11 world.

Much of this central theme is delivered through the newish character of Kaveh, a first-generation Iranian-American who fled Iran in his early childhood. Through Kaveh, Ellis explores the parallels between how Muslim Americans were treated in the early War on Terror years with how the alien amygdalines are being treated in the book's present day. Kaveh clearly partially draws on the real life experiences of the actual person who inspired this character's name (Ellis's podcast co-host, Kaveh Taherian) and the book is much stronger for being able to incorporate those real world fears about being an outcast and being mistreated by a fearful and xenophobic society with such sharpness. Much of the plot revolves around the idea that now that humanity knows aliens exist, there is a clear attempt by the far right to strip them of any legal rights as a prelude to being able to deny the legal rights of other groups they may hate. Unfortunately the movement picks up a lot of support due to attacks on the amygdalines that reveal just how capable they are of defending themselves from harm.

There are still some weaknesses here. The number of different names each amygdaline has can get a bit confusing at times. I also felt that the central relationship between Kaveh and Cora was a little weak. I never fully bought into their romance which felt like it started rather abruptly. That said, the romantic parts weren't actively bad or anything, just a little underbaked. I also felt that Ellis' characterization of the far right anti-amygdaline group The Third Option felt rather tame compared to the real world antics of real world far right groups. While the book correctly has our protagonists identify this group as fascist, their behavior in the book is often subdued and in their worst moments, they engage in a shootout and an attempt to run someone over. These are certainly bad and horrific acts (with some dire consequences), but I would have liked to see more especially when compared to books like Hank Green's An Absolutely Remarkable Thing which did an excellent job characterizing its anti-alien extremists as a constantly lurking menace with how often they stalked and threatened the main character of Green's book.

Overall though, it's an improvement and I was happy to see this turn. I'll be interested to see how this trilogy wraps up from here since the book ended in a rather unexpected way that opens up possibilities for the 3rd book to be radically different from the first two.

Following shortly after the events of Axiom's End, Truth of the Divine has to grapple with different questions. Now that aliens are on Earth, do they have rights? Do aliens have the same rights as human beings? But it also has to deal with more personal questions. After being ripped apart by Obelus and stitched back together by Ampersand, how does Cora cope with that trauma? What does being bonded to an alien mean? Some of these questions get thorough explanation and others do not, but the end result is a better book than the first.

My chief complaint with Axiom's End was that Cora did not get near as much character development as Ampersand, and Ampersand, through his many lies and manipulations, was not a likeable protagonist. Truth delivers on building up Cora, and new secondary protagonist Kaveh to a lesser degree. Instead of just being a walking camera for the reader's POV, Cora grows from simply existing to having a purpose. Kaveh, introduced with a purpose, grows in what motivates him. The aliens fair a little worse off. Truth quickly sets aside most of them to put a laser focus on two. The "dynamic fusion bond" we learned about in Axiom's is explored in more detail here, and relationships between aliens and humans are central to this plot.

The plot, however, is where Truth suffers in contrast to Axiom's. It is never quite clear which way we are going and then ends without resolving many conflicts it put into focus throughout the rest of the novel. We start with the questions about the legal rights of aliens, Truth explores those questions in detail, but we do not quite get to any resolution. While exploring this central topic, Truth introduces some side threads that likewise go unresolved, until one of them becomes the dramatic climax. It was good to see it close the loop, but it was not the loop I expected to see end with this novel.

Truth of the Divine is a better book than Axiom's End, but it is an exchange of qualities. We get better characters and a less satisfying plot. Still, I found myself glued to it for the duration. It may be the curse of the middle volume, but it makes me look forward to the conclusion in a way that I was not quite bought into after Axiom's End.

Truth of the Divine is the second book in a planned trilogy (following Axiom's End). We continue following Cora and the alien Ampersand as they deal with the fallout from events in the first book, including a special kind of bond where they can feel each other's emotions. We get another point of view character in Kaveh, a journalist who has worked with Cora's estranged father Nils in the past. Kaveh stumbles into Cora's path and learns quite a bit about Ampersand and the other aliens in the process. Several groups have taken the silence from the government and the mysterious sightings of lights in the sky to ramp up the fear and panic across the country (sounds familiar, right?). Cora and Kaveh have to navigate this unstable world and deal with the more hidden drama among the aliens.

There is a lot going on in this book but it was really tough to get through. There is an author's note in the beginning that warns of triggers such as excessive trauma and considerations of suicide. I found this book to be a huge downer--Cora and Ampersand dealt with a lot of traumatic events in the first book and (spoiler) things don't get much better for them here. The relationship between Cora and Kaveh was very difficult to read as well. It was well established in this book that Cora (and Kaveh) have dealt with trauma and sometimes have difficulty dealing with it and each other. I think that the point was made a few too many times.

It is pretty clear that this is the setup book for book 3. The story moves forward a bit but the main purpose seemed to be setting up the pieces. It was a hard book to get through. It is hard to like really any of the characters in this book, except maybe Kaveh. I'm interested enough to see what happens to pick up book 3 when it comes out but I'm hoping that Cora sees a therapist and we get a less depressing finale.

As the second installment of an alternate history science fiction series about humanity’s first contact with intelligent alien life, Truth of the Divine has a lot to tackle. The first installment, Axiom’s End, introduced 21 year-old Cora Sabino – college drop out, estranged daughter of the most infamous blogger on the planet, and the first person to break the communication barrier with an alien being. Now, Cora is working full time as the communication liaison between the alien being known as Ampersand and his American government handlers. Traumatized after everything they experienced, Cora and Ampersand are suffering from an empathic bond that is leaking their terror and pain to each other and letting neither heal. When Cora learns that Ampersand has not always been truthful and has outright lied to her at times, it shatters her trust and fractures the bond they both are relying on to stay stable. On top of the personal trauma, a new alien entity has landed on earth with the intent to find Ampersand. This being, initially known as Enola, attacks Cora and journalist Kaveh Mazandarani – ultimately putting the four of them in a tangled web of relationships, both new and old.

On it’s surface Truth of the Divine is a book preoccupied with two principal concerns – trauma and personhood. How do we deal with trauma? How do we recover from it? What defines a person? What entitles that person to rights? If someone is not human, can they be a person? Are our relationships, our emotions, our intelligence, even our traumas what makes us people? While these are questions that may seem sometimes existential, they get to the heart of a nation or a culture’s values. What Ellis is ultimately asking isn’t just about how we define personhood. She’s asking if our very nature as tribal humans is mutable. Are we defined by the worst of us? Is there a reason to hope that collectively we can answer to our better angels and change to save our world?

While I admire the philosophical bent of her writing, Ellis does get bogged down by it at times. There are lengthy passages that dig into arguments or trauma experiences that put the brakes on plot for a good half the book. This is particularly a problem when Ellis is writing about Cora’s mental illness during the middle of the novel. It’s possible this is a symptom of Ellis trying to tackle so many difficult themes in the same work. It’s hard enough to write a novel about PTSD and trauma without also writing a book about personhood and the fate of humanity in crisis. This divide does more harm than good and ends up sidelining plot and central characters for lengthy stretches of time.

Additionally, at this point instead of staying with the main character who has been the POV for the series, Ellis intermittently switches to the newly introduced character Kaveh. This occurs while Cora and the much older Kaveh are entering a romantic relationship and includes an incident where Cora self-harms and is taken to the hospital by Kaveh. A lot of this portion of the novel is jarring. The hospital scene and it’s lead up in particular, mostly because Kaveh seems so preoccupied with not being perceived as an abuser by the staff or police. No mater how understandable that concern, it’s hard to read a passage from the point of view of the person who has the upper hand in a power imbalanced relationship manipulating the other person and coaching them into telling a lie about falling down the stairs.

While the hospital scene and it’s lead up are a brief minor point in the novel, it is demonstrative of one the main issues with the book. Ellis constantly infantilizes Cora. She is referred to as a girl and young and a child multiple times despite being 21 years of age. While I agree that younger adults still have so much to learn and experience, they are not children. Ellis makes the relationship between Kaveh and Cora way weirder than it needed to be. Kaveh is significantly older than her and could easily be taking advantage of that, but if you make the choice as an author to write that relationship and want it to be positively perceived, why be so weird about it?

At 496 pages and the second installment in the series, I am leery to recommend this to most readers. Fans of first contact novels and the late 2000s who like reading about trauma responses and arguments about personhood being stripped away from classes of people will probably like it. I enjoyed large parts of both of these books, but they are definitely not for everyone. Having said that, I look forward to what Ellis does in the future. She clearly has big ideas and isn’t afraid to explore them.

I found the world-building in this one really compelling, which is saying something because it is the second in a series; I'm impressed that knowledge of the first book wasn't wholly necessary in order for me to enjoy myself with this space adventure. It reminded me a lot of District 9, in that the aliens have landed but the bureaucracy still reigns supreme. Humans still aren't being told much, but that won't be the case for long!

This series will definitely not be For Every Reader, but as someone who is very inexperienced in the scifi genre, I've been really pleasantly surprised by how much I am enjoying Noumena. In this installment, Ellis has definitely ironed some of the clunkiness out of her writing, and she's truly brought her characterization to another level. I loved the addition of Enola/Nikola, and I am literally in love with Kaveh. Honestly, Lindsay is doing a great job and I'm looking forward to the next one.

I didn't care for this book. I hadn't read the first book in the series but that wasn't a huge problem, the book was still understandable. Of course, being in the middle of a series, there was just too much left unfinished for my taste.

I couldn't get into the story because I felt like the author was pushing way too hard to let me know how woke they are. There also was just too much political talk. Bored, bored, bored, was all I could think.

Again, this was just not for me. Others may enjoy it.

Any review of this book will mention these two things to describe the book:
1. It is a first contact novel; and it is, it is about aliens coming to the earth and humans finding out about it for the first time.
2. It is an alternate history book. It is set in the mid 2000s, and President Bush was disgraced and President Cheney has taken his place.
But the book is about much more than that. It is about conspiracy theories, and outrage culture, and personhood, and discrimination, and politics, and interspecies relationships, and much more.
It really makes you think.
You would probably understand this book better if you read the first one in the series, but you can read this one on its own and enjoy it.
Make sure to read the trigger warning section at the beginning of the book before reading as it does deal with serious issues that may bother some.

DNF…I was so hoping this would be better than the first. But I was really disappointed. I wish we had stayed with Cora’s POV and not switched to a new character. I think being inside her head again would have been even more interesting this time.

I am torn as to my ending impression about this book. I was really intrigued at the ideas that the author brought up about the "Third option" and the othering of creatures/people. How the law can be used to deny things from those deemed unworthy. However, I found that Cora's PTSD and anxiety issues were so all-encompassing that they eclipsed the forward movement of the plot. She was illustrated very sympathetically and clearly, but when large chunks of the narrative were dedicated to her ongoing mental crises, the larger discussion suffered.

I quite enjoyed the second of this series by Lindsay Ellis. I think it developed both the characters of the first novel and the philosophical ideas that were raised. We spend a significant portion of the narrative outside the perspective of Cora, the POV character jn Axiom’s End, which I think helps with the growing world we find ourselves in. I do think the book suffers a little bit from “middle of a trilogy” syndrome, with lots of things left open for a potential third novel. The themes of the novel and what it means to be human absolutely resonate with what is happening in our world today, and even though it is ostensibly a period piece (set in 2008) it feels like these are arguments that could be happening today. I don’t know what that says about us, that things haven’t changed all that much in 10+ years.

I enjoyed the first book for what it was and am generally a fan of Lindsay Ellis’s other work; however,I found the second book in this series rather lacking on purpose and direction. From the jarring use of multiple names for multiple characters (though I understand the purpose for plot purposes), the complex ideas that needed to be re-explained multiple times, the human drama that sometimes drags, the alien drama that almost always drags, and the strange pacing, I felt that TRUTH OF THE DIVINE didn’t know what it wanted to be. Because of that, I found it a real struggle to finish despite by fast attack at the beginning.

Still, there were still some fun-to-read segments and I was really invested in Cora’s human relationship (at first), it just feels that, overall, this could have used more time in the percolator. 2.5.

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for providing me with an ARC for a fair review.

I received an eARC of this book prior to publishing via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are mine.

TW: this book and review mention subject matter that can be triggering.


Oh boy, this was a difficult one. I signed up to read and review this because I somewhat enjoyed the first book. I love Lindsay's youtube videos and wanted to support her in her new career as an author. Since I do not request books often anymore, I try to only ask for ARCs that I will genuinely like. I hate writing negative reviews, but I also refuse to lie.

Truth of the Divine continues the story of Cora and Ampersand. It is a much darker book compared to Axiom's End, due to the trauma that the two main characters endured. The topics of PTSD, suicide, suicidal ideation, and self-harm are part of the main focus of this book. I appreciate that Ellis took the time to add a warning to the beginning about these and other potentially triggering subject matter.

Book two of the Noumena series also introduces two new main characters, Nik and Kaveh. If you read my review of Axiom's End, you know how much I disliked pretty much all of the humans. Kaveh is a major improvement. If the story had started with him, instead of Cora, I probably would have enjoyed both books more. I also really loved Nikola and how different he was from all of the other amygdalines introduced so far.

Axiom's End was more focused on the first contact/alien arrival. Truth of the Divine dives into the aftermath of what that could lead to. Thus, we spend quite a bit of time focused on the political going-ons and the discussion of what the definition of a person is. Normally, I find these discussions to be interesting, but by the 50% mark my brain had almost checked out. I also got annoyed by the way certain things were explained because it came off very "look guys, I'm woke" and it just felt disingenuous.

If I had not requested this book as an ARC, I wouldn't have finished it. I have a big section on the page of notes I took while reading that just says "BORED" that I doodle around while trying to focus. The idea for this story is great. I just don't think I click with Lindsay's writing style. I was admittedly more lenient with the writing in my review of book one. First books are always hard, so I gave a pass for the things that bothered me, with the hope they would improve in book two. They didn't. I hate repetitiveness in books unless it has a reason. I got to a point while reading Truth of the Divine where I decided if any form of "animal brain", "animal rage", or "alien brain" was used again that I was going to drop this book and write my review without finishing it.

"Cora is whiny, annoying, impulsive, immature, and somehow painfully realistic. She low-key kinda reminds me of Bella Swan, and while reading I felt like I was crazy." (from my review of Axiom's End)

This got worse. SOOOO much worse. The difference between Cora and Bella though, is that I like Bella. Don't get me wrong, Bella is also a difficult character, but she's a teenager. (The more I think about this series, the more I can see it as fanfic of Twilight.) Cora is just stupid. I know she's dealing with severe trauma...but that girl has no common sense or the ability to learn.

This book has been so frustrating. All of the elements of something good are there, something just went wrong. I struggled to finish it but was intent on doing so. I wanted to make sure to give it a fair shot...who knows it could have gotten better. Sadly, it didn't. Usually, a book ending is a sad thing. Finishing this book though has left me feeling relieved.

Rating this book is also another challenge. I feel like a 2/5 is too low. I gave Axiom's End 3/5, but I enjoyed it more. So, I'm officially giving it 2.5/5, but for Goodreads, it is getting 3/5.

I believe this is meant to be a trilogy, so since I have read and reviewed one and two I will probably try to force myself to read the final book (only because I am a completionist).

When I saw an opportunity to read this on Netgallery I jumped on it, and surprisingly got it! I read "Axiom's End," while usually not my cup of tea it did have me interested in where the story would lead.

Hoo boy this one was action packed! It is a pretty heavy read, dealing with self-harm, suicidal ideation, addiction, ptsd, racism, etc. I had to take a break about half way through but it did pull me back. I loved Kaveh in this, I'm a sucker for kind optimistic characters. I felt for Cora in this one as she struggles to deal with events that happened in the previous book, and shit still continues to get to real for her in this book.

I just finished reading so I feel I haven't processed it fully yet but I can’t wait for the next book!

I always love seeing more from Lindsay Ellis! She's one of the rare breed of YouTubers/internet personalities to make a genuine transition to being a quote-unquote "real writer," and I'm so happy to see it, (Not to knock the cult of the YouTube vanity self-help book but... this isn't it. Thank god.) I'm so excited about this series, and so grateful to have had the chance to review Truth of the Divine. Thank you!

While it has been over a year since I read the first novel in the series, I don't remember it being quite as dark as this one. It definitely had ethical questions posed and some darker scenes, but this book dove headfirst into the hard subjects. And while some might prefer easy reading when the world is difficult, I appreciated that the author spoke to issues we are seeing in the world today. It was mirrored perhaps a bit too close for comfort, but that's the point. There is the idea of "personhood" and what it means in relation to aliens being so different, and rightly so, our main characters point out that there isn't much of a stretch to think this same line of thinking could be applied to humans. It hit home as a neurodiverse mother to neurodiverse children. At times, the thoughts and actions of some humans in the book made my heart hurt, but the author does an excellent job writing it. In fact, the writing is a step up from the previous book. She really did her research, spoke with others on subjects she had no experience with, and covered mental health issues with tact and truth.

There is an additional POV character, which may not appeal to some, but I felt it was necessary for this book. Cora is not in a good place, and to spend nearly 500 pages in her head would have been difficult. It also means we get more time with Nikola, who very quickly became my favorite character. He is all the curiosity and wonder to Ampersand's brooding. All of the characters are so well fleshed out, each with their own past trauma and baggage. They felt like real people living in this alternate history (and yes, people include aliens). I also appreciated that there were fewer callouts to the time period, as it got a bit tedious in the first book.

If I were to have one complaint, it's that the book suffers a little from middle book syndrome. While it covers necessary topics and character growth, it sometimes felt like a long walk to the finale. But despite the length, I felt engaged the entire read, and I will definitely be finishing the series.

Thanks so much to NetGalley, St. Martin’s Press, and Lindsay Ellis for this eARC in exchange for an honest review!

I adored this book for a multitude of reasons. Does it have flaws? Surely. That doesn’t change the fact that this story is filled with heart. Truth of the Divine, at least to me, was a strong follow up to Axiom’s End. There are so many issues covered in between these pages (which does have a trigger warning in the beginning due to writing about suicide and mental health) that this becomes so much more than a book about aliens and the inability of humanity to adapt to that which makes them uncomfortable or confused. Naturally, we will not handle aliens well on a grand scale because so many humans don’t even really understand how to deal with differences here on Earth. Ellis takes us deeper into the emotions of both humanity and alien alike to show that, yes, there are differences, but none so vast as to be insurmountable. There’s a lot to be said for being an open-minded being.

I was looking forward to this book in a big-time kind of way, and I’m happy to say that I was not disappointed. I’m so beyond ready for the third book already! Is it out yet??!?

In Truth of the Divine, we meet Cora Sabino working as an official communication intermediary between alien Ampersand and the US government. The events of Axiom’s End have resulted in her being newly diagnosed with PTSD and struggling to manage her symptoms without access to treatment. Although citizens of Earth are now aware of the presence of ETI’s (intelligent extraterrestrials), the government continues to withhold details causing further turmoil in an already unstable political climate. As Cora’s relationship with Ampersand becomes more fraught, they are forced to work alongside investigative journalist Kaveh Mazandarani after he stumbles upon suspicious activities late one night. Together they attempt to change the escalating narrative surrounding what constitutes personhood as the decision to deny rights to ETI’s has serious implications for human rights as well. This second chapter of the Noumena series takes a serious tonal shift and delves heavily into the effects of trauma and the toll it takes on a person’s health, not only for Cora but also for Ampersand. I highly recommend reading the Author’s note at the beginning of the novel for content warnings before getting into the story.

Some things I loved:
- New character, Nikola. For me this character brought a lot of levity to some otherwise dark subject matter.
- How the story is delivered. Interspersed within the narrative of the book are news articles or an exchange of emails which for me really elevates the story and creates a greater sense of the world.
- Focus on mental health. In my experience, F/SF doesn’t generally dwell much on the trauma characters face and the real tole it takes on a person. While I like to see more discussion of mental health in F/SF, I did have to put the book down briefly at times because there was a lot to process emotionally.

Some things I’m not sure about:
- Cora’s mom and siblings are barely mentioned. I get that she’s upset with her mom and needs space after the events of the first novel, but it’s weird to me that she doesn’t account for them at all before making a pretty staggering decision in the final chapters.
- This book is told in duel perspective, leaning heavily towards Kaveh. Functionally, I understand the need to spend more time with him; he is largely moving the plot forward while Cora struggles with her mental health. Regardless, I really missed Cora’s character; but I guess she’s really not that person anymore.
- Cora’s relationship with Kaveh. This is something that I’m still processing and can’t really get into without spoilers.

I really enjoyed Truth of the Divine and highly recommend the Noumena series overall. I just have some questions about that ending and since this book hasn’t been published yet, I can’t talk to anyone about it. Gah!

It was so exciting to have gotten a chance to experience this book early. Thank you to NetGalley for the e-arc of Truth of the Divine. All opinions are my own.