Ok so, I loved the writing, I think Ellis’s prose is crisp and smooth and I loved Axiom’s End. I’m a big fan of Ellis and love her YouTube channel and podcast, but this book was really dark, way darker than the first one and so it hits differently. I think Cora is an incredible heroine but new characters came a long that sidelined Ampersand just a bit. Ellis goes deep on mental health and I highly recommend readers look at the content warnings for this one. Also, aliens as a metaphor, but you knew that already. Anyway, give this a go if you liked Axiom’s End though that book is much better.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this ARC.

Axiom's End was such a great, face paced read through it all that I was so excited to get this ARC.
Truth of the Divine, was a fun read, but the pacing seemed a bit off. It was very slow burn through most of it, then BAM. It dealt with a lot of hard hitting topics, and was done well, in a very understanding way.

Lindsay Ellis is such an amazing writer, and I'm ready to continue on with the series.

TW: Self-harm, PTSD, Suicide

This book is very different from the first book. It explores the mental state of our main characters after the events of the first book. I am happy that Ellis included a trigger warning because this book may be very triggering to people.

The first third and last third of this book is very similar to the first book in this series. I enjoyed the pacing and tone of the first book, so those sections of the book continue that. This series has two aspects that make it interesting. The relationship between Cora and Ampersand (or more broadly between humans and aliens), and the exploration of alien culture while also exploring our own human culture.

However, the middle third of this book is where the book really falls apart. In fact, we do not spend the whole middle section of the story with either of our main characters instead we spend it with a newly introduced character. Although this change of narration felt jarring, I think reading this section from Cora's POV or Ampersand's would have been unbearable. However, I don't think this section of the book will appeal to anyone and adds little to the overall story. I felt that it was overdone.

As mentioned before, the last third of the book suddenly thrusts us back to the tone that the beginning of the book had. This made the middle section seem even more jarring and unnecessary. One section of the ending felt a bit campy, but overall it was okay.

I will read the last book, but I would recommend that most people wait for the third book to be released before reading this one.

I enjoyed Truth of the Divine more than I expected. Building on the foundation in the first book, we encounter more complex relationships, more aliens, and most hauntingly, Cora coping with her trauma. This goes in some very dark directions-- not grimdark H.R. Giger aliens (though there is definitely some of that!) but human tragedy. It turns out that being chewed up and spit out by aliens, your government, and your family really stinks, and it has left an indelible mark on Cora. The human emotion and pain that radiates from sections of this book make it a hard read, but it feels like a stronger novel as a result.

I especially enjoyed Cora and the other characters grappling with their relationships to one another, which make up the second heart of the book. Cora feels an immense attachment to Ampersand, but that relationship is far more complex than mere friendship. The relationship she builds with a reporter is a sort of parallel, equally disturbing but in very different ways.

My biggest complaint would be the jerks who are giving this 1-star on Goodreads without reading it (seriously?). Far after that, the aliens themselves. While aliens having seemingly inscrutable motivations and unexpected social structures makes perfect sense, I never felt like I could grasp, even when things were explained, why these beings were doing what they were doing. Also, the same aliens have multiple aliases, which gets awfully confusing.

Nevertheless, I look forward to the next volume!

I liked this but not as much as the first in the series. It certainly has some high points and some great qualities. I just didn't get into it as much. Nonetheless, I think many Ellis fans will enjoy it. 3.5 rounded up.

I really appreciate the ARC for review!!

I was given an eArc of this book by NetGalley in exchange for a honest review but let's be honest may or may not have built an internet presence as a reviewer to get early access to this book.

I've wanted to read the sequel since I finished Axiom's End. And oh boy did this book not disappoint. Ellis once again shows her ability to take narrative conventions of the "First Contact" story and both deconstruct and reconstruct them in a way that is original and compelling. Every time I thought the story was doing something cliché the story would take a hard turn.

Frankly, Truth of the Divine blows Axiom's End out of the water. Where Axiom's End is an original take on stories like the Transformers movies, Truth of the Divine is an honest look at trauma and self harming urges. The book gets what it's like to want to die in a way that I've only seen in fan fiction previously (this is high praise). The politics of personhood are thoroughly explored and the Third Option movement is a deeply realistic look at what the response to the existence of aliens would look like.

This book moved me to tears and is my new favorite book of the year.

Truth of the Divine, the sequel to Axiom’s End, continuing the story of first contact with extra-terrestrials and a reminder that not all such Meet-ups are cutesy E.T. Stories. Moreover, these two books warn us that the extraterrestrials we meet may not be as concerned with us as they are with each other. We might just be in the way. These books explore communication between species and bonding with them and the chance that we might be an annoying anthill or wasp’s nest to them. As interesting as the first book in the duo was, the second one is in dire need of a sharp editor’s pen. It has all these interesting concepts and ideas, but they get lost in a sea of expositions that seem to head off in every direction.

While I felt Axiom's End was ultimately an unwieldy story, it had sufficient tension to keep my interest and I found Ampersand an exciting enough to have my hooked for the sequel.

Unfortunately, this book exacerbates my main problem with Axiom's End. This series doesn't know what it wants to be. Is it pulp romance with a space age bent? Or is it prestige Science Fiction that Demands To Be Taken Seriously? It feels like this book demands being the former, but the publisher mandated the latter, which is a shame.

A wonderful follow-up to a unique entry in the genre. Ellis has something truly marvelous with this world and this story. I find this alternate-history story to be wholly intriguing, filled with characters that have flaws. A great sequel.

The first book in this series was good, but I liked this better. This one is more about the depth and intricacies of humanity and the human condition than it is about aliens. The relationships are what make this book work well. Lindsay Ellis has a keen ability to use characters and their relationships to build a strong story with a captivating plot. Ampersand and Cora are great characters but Kaveh steals the show here. The pacing is a bit slow in the middle, but it ends with a bang and leaves you wanting more. I look forward to the next book in the series.

Wow 🤯 what an incredible book. I’m not sure where to start with this review because this book defies its genre, I learned more about mental health and the human condition than I did about outer space. This was a huge step up from the first book and was MUCH more intense. The character development is so rich and their relationships were expertly and deeply portrayed. This really can’t compare to anything I’ve read recently, I’m fumbling for other things to say that don’t spoil the plot because so much of the plot is dependent on the issues the characters and society grapples with. Hats off to Lindsey for an amazing second installment!

Unfortunately I DNF this book at about 30%.

While Axiom's End was not my favorite of all time, I did enjoy it and was looking forward to the sequel. I found this book to be very different and did not feel any of the danger/tension that there was in Axiom's End. The writing and timelines felt a bit disjointed and there were too many things going on for me to be invested in any of them.

Thank you to St. Martin's Press and Netgalley for the e-ARC.

'Truth or the Divine' picks up soon after 'Axiom's End'. It starts out almost with a YA Sci Fi romance vibe which was disappointing. I hoped for a more original plotline but the writing is still great. In this latest Noumena installment Cora and Ampersand are dealing with shared PTSD as well as surprising revelations about Obelus. I expected the story to carry on instead of twisting back to Obelus. Honestly I couldn't stay interested in this book. It took me forever to finish. My overall feeling about it is disappointment. I'm sorry but that's my honest review. Possibly a younger audience would enjoy it more.

Lindsay Ellis is a story-teller's story-teller weaving a plot from unusual people and even more unusual aliens and pulling the unexpecting, unsuspecting, probably hugely skeptical reader in and on to the edge of their seat. While I am not sure I can forgive what happens to Kaveh, I am already dreading the wait to see what happens in the third installment of the Truth of the Divine series. Truth of the Divine was another delightful read.

While there is no question that "Axiom's End" and "Truth of the Divine" are fine efforts, they are very long, especially "Truth". I would have cut about a third of the text that wonders and wanders around the disconnect between Cora and Ampersand. I think that shifting Ampersand from his place as an independent and decisive character to one of a nearly invisible blob does not serve the story well. I found the events in the book to overly contrived. I can't imagine what is planned for the conclusion to the story scheduled for release next year.

While AXIOM'S END was a wild, often fun, sometimes anxiety-inducing, but always on-point ride, its follow up, TRUTH OF THE DIVINE, is not as much fun. Dealing with the aftermath of the previous book, our protagonist Cora and her alien companion Ampersand find themselves dealing with the effects of post-traumatic stress. Much of the book is devoted to thoughtfully and unflinchingly depicting these symptoms and Cora's attempts to deal with it in both healthy and extremely unhealthy ways. Add in a new POV character, and you have a much more dour sequel (but middle tales of a trilogy often are), but it's still absolutely worth the read.

Ellis goes for broke with social commentary, making some altogether too relevant statements about the state of personhood and what happens when we begin to allow some discrimination for "protection." Her alternate 2008 feels lived in a real, each deviation from our actual timeline makes sense and is thought through.

My only complaint is while I loved our new POV character, Kaveh, I felt we spent too long stretches of the book in his head, rather than Cora's. She never fully disappears from the book, but much of her emotional state is communicated through Kaveh's POV, and I would have liked more from Cora herself, especially with regards to her relationship with Kaveh.

Even still, this was an exciting follow up, and I'll be counting the days until I get my hands on Noumena #3.

In trying to sort out my many, many thoughts and feelings about Truth of the Divine, Lindsay Ellis’s second book and the sequel to Axiom’s End, I don’t think I can get much further than what I said to my roommate a few days ago, as the two of us were chatting in our shared kitchen.

I was telling her that I had spent most of that day powering through a book I was supposed to review for my blog, and that I was hoping to finish it by that night. She asked me if the book was good, at least.

“I wouldn’t call it an enjoyable read,” I said after a long pause, “but it’s definitely an interesting read.”

Truth of the Divine is the second book in the Noumena series, and as with most sequels, it’s a little bit difficult to summarize without giving away plot spoilers, but here’s my best attempt. The book deals with the consequences of the massive political upheaval that occurred in book 1. Our protagonist, Cora, is acting as the official interpreter between her alien friend Ampersand and the government agency keeping tabs on him. At the same time, though, she’s navigating the new bond between her and Ampersand, which allows them to sense each other’s feelings. Between her new ability to feel what her alien refugee friend is feeling, and her own trauma from the events of book 1, Cora is, to put it lightly, straight up not having a good time. And that’s not good, because with the secret of the extraterrestrials now out to the public, the world needs her more than ever.

Enter Kaveh, a journalist and author who’s worked a little too closely with Cora’s own father, Nils Ortega. He’s out to prove that the aliens count as “persons” and are thus entitled to full human rights. When he learns a little bit too much about Cora and Ampersand’s situation, Cora has no choice but to trust him. Together, they try to do something that’s looking less and less possible with every passing day: convince the world that Ampersand and his fellow extraterrestrials deserve to be met with compassion, rather than hostility.

I won’t beat around the bush here: this is a very difficult read. There are content warnings at the start of the book. Read them. And take your time reading the book, because believe me, it’s a lot to take in in one sitting.

Truth of the Divine explores, in raw, excruciating detail, Cora’s PTSD stemming from the events of the first book. It depicts suicidal ideation, self-harm, panic attacks, and other heavy topics that, again, are listed in the content warnings. None of these things are taken lightly, or included just for the sake of it, but they are certainly present. It makes the book very difficult to read, but it also gives the reader a really good sense of the emotional toll everything is taking on the protagonist.

The book also expresses a kind of existential despair that I think will ring true for a lot of readers in 2021, in the midst of a global pandemic and a climate crisis. I was surprised by how familiar so much of this book felt. I saw the world facing unprecedented historical events, global unrest, mass panic, and an impending extinction event, and thought, hey, that sounds familiar!

Is that good? That’s probably not a very good sign, is it?

Seriously, though, I would urge readers to be careful when approaching Truth of the Divine, because it depicts some really heavy, really intense emotions and situations. But I think that it also has the potential be cathartic, even helpful, to readers who may have had to deal with some version of the emotions the characters experience in this book. I certainly appreciated it.

The other big storyline in Truth of the Divine is how the world at large is responding to the knowledge that there are aliens on Earth. How do we define a “person?” If aliens count as people, are they entitled to full human rights? What would it mean to extend full human rights to aliens? Do we need new laws pertaining to aliens – laws that account for their unique abilities? And if we deny them rights, will that open the door to further restrictions on the rights of actual human beings? All of these questions and more are explored as the world tries to figure out what the hell to do about the aliens in their midst. We see people respond to the situation in typical human ways. Some turn to conspiracy theories, authoritarianism, and bigotry, while others show remarkable curiosity and compassion.

(As an aside, this book includes several passages from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as well as the UN Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, and as someone who just handed in a thesis on international refugee law, those passages evoked many strong reactions in me. I don’t know if it would have been better or worse if I had read it while actually writing my thesis.)

But enough about the heavy stuff. If you’ve read Axiom’s End, and/or you’re a fan of Lindsay Ellis’s, I know which question is at the front of your mind. It’s a question I was also asking before I picked up this book. It’s what everyone wants to know: Do Cora and Ampersand fuck?

The answer is no. And no, that’s not a spoiler; it is explicitly stated in the content warnings that they will not fuck in this book. I’m sorry if that’s disappointing. However, Cora and Ampersand’s relationship does evolve quite a lot in this book, and in really interesting ways. We also get to meet other aliens, and see them develop complex relationships with other humans. Keep in mind that the central question in Truth of the Divine is that of non-human personhood. The question of whether or not humans can form complex interpersonal relationships with the extraterrestrials is pretty significant to this issue. If you weren’t sold on human/alien relationships after Axiom’s End, I think this sequel will convince you. If were were already sold on it, then I think you’ll enjoy this book.

I would be lying if I said that I had fun reading Truth of the Divine. I can’t sit here and say that I tore through it, or that I was always excited to sit down and read it, or that I wish I could spend more time living in this world. But what I can say is that I couldn’t stop thinking about it after I finished it. My heart still twists with love and sympathy whenever I think about the characters that exist in this universe, and the challenges this world is facing. This is a deeply human story. It’s an honest look at human nature, at human societies, and at the difference between those things. It’s painful and raw and dark, but so honest and so inspiring at times. It hurt to read, but not necessarily in a bad way.

The middle section after they decide to rename Enola to Nikola is a bit confusing because the characters keep using both enola and nikola inconsistently.

The best thing about Truth of the Divine is the cover.

Now, the cover *is* absolutely gorgeous. Truly, truly beautiful. And I wanted so badly to find within its (digital) binding a book worthy of that cover. Unfortunately, Truth of the Divine isn’t it.

Truth of the Divine (by Lindsay Ellis) is the sequel to Axiom’s End and the second in a planned “Noumena” trilogy. Axiom’s End was a 2020 release and Ms. Ellis’s first novel, and that inexperience came through in that first effort; the writing was uneven, characters frequently thin, and the story could be called “tropey.” Nevertheless, I gave it three stars, and I hoped that the next volume would both see Ms. Ellis improve as a writer and flesh out some of the interesting threads found in Axiom’s End. However, after supposedly working on Axiom’s End for several years, her writing pace picked up (with this book 2 coming out in summer 2021 and book 3 coming in summer 2022) and the storyline suffered.

I read a digital ARC of Truth of the Divine, provided for free by NetGalley. Because this is an ARC, I’ll assume that the typos and grammatical errors will be fixed before full release, but that won’t solve the troubles of Truth of the Divine. I’m going to try and avoid too many
____
SPOILERS, but I will say that the book goes right back to the First Contact well, swapping in a new (male) character as the main human point-of-view for much of the story, along with a new alien companion to go with him. As for our heroine from book one, most of her storyline consists of her struggling with severe trauma following the events of the last book. Perhaps that struggle could have been compelling if well-portrayed, but mostly it made the story a big bummer. The new male character’s interactions with the heroine are also extremely troubling; ultimately, while there are certainly plenty of characters to dislike, there are really very few people to root for in this book. Nils (the heroine’s absent father) remains a completely unlikeable, larger-than-life character, whose name comes up time and time and time again but who ultimely does very little. As to the overarching storyline, it’s clear that the humans’ interaction with aliens are a ham-fisted metaphor for how we treat others of different cultures—especially since the author has numerous characters make that same point multiple times—but there’s nothing new or interesting there, just variations on what we already saw in the last book.

I could go on, but I think it suffices to say that I kept waiting for it to get good, and I’m still waiting. The book was really just a bummer, and it failed to offer rewarding tidbits to balance out that sense of general disappointment. As beautiful as this cover is, I won’t be getting a copy for myself, and I expect I’ll be skipping book 3.

3.5/5
I received an ARC from netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
The second installment in Lindsay Ellis Noumena series truly elevates the original story. It dives deeper into the interpersonal relationships between alien and human as well as the politics of extraterrestrials. Ellis does not shy away from the real life consequences of Coras and Ampersands relationship such as the PTSD caused by the events in the first book, how having multiple simphiles affects their relationship and how it distances her from her human friends and family.
The writing and storytelling has improved between her first novel and this one. The content explored I found much more intriguing as a reader, a sentiment I rarely feel about book series. I most likely feel this way because tonally Truth of the Divine reads more like Adult fiction where Axioms End felt more on the YA spectrum. Thematically the slight genre shift makes sense to me in terms of Coras mental state and journey, it's not a bad thing.
I found the beginning and end were really strong and interesting but it does have some pacing issues in the middle.