Cover Image: To Each This World

To Each This World

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Member Reviews

This book had a fascinating blend of human generation ship society building and alien interactions. The initial thriller murder mystery draws the imagination and longing for mystery of the reader, but these feeling starts to wither as the book takes forever to get up and running. The worldbuilding feels a bit dense and awkward at the start and it results in slow pacing for what felt like a book with a great plot and cool world.

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To Each This World by Julie E. Czerneda

What a slog! I can’t believe I finished this book. I requested it from NetGalley because the premise sounded interesting. And it was! Humans on new earth, allied with mysterious aliens, get a radio message from other lost colony ships. But the aliens have a secret! So many good ideas in this book but the execution was just boring. I don’t feel like the mysteries were resolved well and the characters were just ciphers. And it was long. This was not the book for me.

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Me parece que va a haber que añadir a Julie E. Czerneda a mis creciente lista de biólogos canadienses que escriben ciencia ficción tirando a hard. No había leído nada suyo, pero las ideas en las que se basa To Each This World me han parecido interesantísimas.


Nos encontramos ante una novela que no es en sí de primer contacto, porque los humanos de Nueva Tierra ya tienen entablada una relación con los alienígenas, pero las dificultades de comunicación entre dos especies muy dispares no son tan fáciles de soslayar. Me encanta la figura del Árbitro, Henry. Henry es un humano que representa ante los Kmet a toda la población de Nueva Tierra y se vuelve fundamental en estos intercambios, ya que por la particular idiosincrasia de los Kmet, solo pueden dirigirse a un interlocutor específico.

La figura de Henry es omnipresente en todo el relato, con su búsqueda de acuerdos, su forma de mediar en los conflictos y con un espíritu de sacrificio realmente envidiable. Me encanta también que pueda recurrir a su “consejo de sabios” particular de una forma muy ocurrente.

Pero To Each This World no es solo una novela de primer contacto, porque también tenemos naves generacionales, portales para viajes espaciales, inteligencias artificiales que moldean su cuerpo como si se tratara de materia viva, traspaso de mentes entre cuerpos humanos y muchas más. Desde luego, por ideas no se queda corta la novela.

Sin embargo, el ritmo es demasiado lento. Desde muy al principio sabemos que la exploración de Henry le llevará a seis mundos y tampoco es que se entretenga demasiado en cada uno, pero se vuelve un poco pesado. Posiblemente sea porque el misterio que de verdad quería desentrañar avanza demasiado lento, en paralelo con la exploración espacial pero con mucha menos velocidad. Y eso que existen tres puntos de vista en el libro para agilizar un poco la narración, pero sigue sin acabar de convencerme.

Se agradece muchísimo encontrar una novela de ciencia ficción que sea autoconclusiva. Aunque tiene sus fallos, sobre todo en el ritmo, creo que merece la pena echarle un ojo.

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This is a rather slow paced book, which I can struggle with, but it works for this story. You’re going to need some patience because it takes quite a while for events to unfold, and questions to be answered. And guess what? Not all of the questions are answered. Which would normally drive me insane, but, again, it works for this story and it makes sense that we don’t get told everything, because the characters don’t know everything.
I think the way that human evolution was handled was really interesting, to see how people adapt to different environments.

Thank you to NetGalley & Astra Publishing House for this advance reader copy. All opinions are my own.

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Thanks to Astra Publishing House and Julie E Czerneda for an e-arc of To Each This World.

I tried, but I DNF'ed VERY early because the writing style was not for me. That's not to say others won't enjoy it, but I won't be picking this back up. The story seemed real interesting with the sci-fi elements - a lost ship being found and people spreading across the universe - but I just couldn't do it.

I still would tell others to try it out and maybe the writing will be for you (it also may not be for you) but you won't know until you pick it up.

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This book was really hard to get into, but I tried until page 50. I won't be returning to finish the book, but that doesn't mean it was bad, just not my thing.

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Julie Czernada has given us a complex riddle in survival in To Each This World. The Arbiter Henry and his allies has to work with their partners, the alien Kmet to find and bring to New Earth the humans scattered over many planets. Communication is difficult and Henry has started to have doubts about the motives of the Kmet. The mysterious makers of the Portals are also a puzzle and a danger. Read this intriguing many sided science fiction puzzle.

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I absolutely adored this one! I enjoyed the exploration of an alien civilization through sociology, psychology, and linguistics. The mystery is slow burn, which I really enjoyed. This was a thought provoking, gripping novel, and I cannot wait to read more by Czerneda!

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The inhabitants of New Earth, the first Earth colony and home to Earth‘s surviving humanity, formed an alliance with the Kmet, an alien race. They receive news about the location of some of their own colony ships, sent out 200 years previously. Humans and aliens set out to find those colonists. Bad things happen. The true state of the human-alien partnership comes under question during the course of their expedition.

The writing style took some getting used to. Colloquial speech in writing, grammar be damned.

The pacing of this book was too slow, it took me forever to get past the first third of the story. Nearly gave up. There was a lot of idling. But I was also intrigued. Struggled onto the halfway point, still thinking about abandoning it. Muddled on. An low-and-behold, it got good! Great even! The action at the end made me happy. A bit too little, too late though. I appreciate all that world-building and set-up and character development, but I also wish the first half of the book had been half as long!

I cried at the end. Twice! I can‘t give it less than 4 stars, if I cry, right? Despite everything—what a slog.

Henry reminded me of Bren Cameron, just with less dress sense. The sandals were charming though. All of Henry was charming, really. Killian grew on me. And oh my goodness, those PIPs were adorable! And Flip! Loved him. It? Yes, the willy-bits were funny, too. And yes, I would get a sequel, despite the slog. I loved the construction of the portals. More portal mechanics would have been nice.

I received an advanced copy of this book from the publisher or author through NetGalley. All opinions are my own and I was not required to give a positive review.

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Earth is dead and presumably New Earth is all that is left of everyone who left the dying planet centuries ago. New Earth's allies, the Kmet, have provided the technolgy and aid they needed to thrive. Until one day the Kmet announce that The Divider is coming and that the people from Earth who are elsewhere must be relocated to New Earth immediately or everyone and everything will be destroyed.

The best part of this book was the aliens were so very alien. The Kmet and their technology are nothing like humans and our technology, and this gave the Kmet a great deal of power over the people of New Earth. The technology itself--allowing humans to leave their physical bodies on New Earth and inhabit a different, disposable body elsewhere--also kept the power dynamics at the fore and lead to some truly frightening moments of "what if the people caring for your body stop doing that?"

The worldbuilding and lore was detailed and the continuing mystery was fascinating.

Digital review copy provided through Netgalley.

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I was drawn in from start to finish! I really liked that the aliens felt very foreign and developed. The science in this book is easy and interesting to follow as it is explained well.

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I think it’s never a good sign when I struggle to get through a book, or have to work hard to convince myself to pick it up again after a break. But that's what happened with Julie Czerneda's latest. I had high hopes for this as the plot sounded really interesting:

Humans spread outward through the galaxy after leaving Earth. Some ended up on a planet named New Terra, while a series of other ships were aimed in several directions hoping to establish colonies on different planets. They were never heard from again, while humans thrived on New Terra.

Then, aliens made contact with New Terra, and after negotiations, established a relationship, with one human speaking for Earth, the Arbiter (similar to C.J. Cherryh's paidhi in the "Foreigner" series). The relationship was managed through a treaty with deceptively simple language (this becomes a plot point later). The New Terrans had no desire to travel elsewhere, and the alien Kmet were the only ones with the means, Portals, to move about outer space, and most New Terrans were content with the situation.

When it seemed some of the other ships may have landed on planets and successfully established colonies, the Kmet are adamant these humans must be removed because there was something or someone out there who would strongly, and violently, object to human presence anywhere but New Terra. New Terra mobilizes, and the current Arbiter, Henry, heads out with a human pilot and a kmeth aboard a Kmet portal to rescue the possibly several million humans. But things may not be as clear cut as kmeth have made things out to be on their portals, or with their current or treaty intentions.

So, a tight timeline to rescue a huge number of people in advance of some kind of amorphous danger, intrigue on New Terra between human factions, and an increasingly strained human-alien relationship built on secrets and possibly lies.

It should have been riveting. I wasn’t riveted. In fact, I found myself struggling through the story more than enjoying the narrative. I never got a good handle on the worldbuilding such as
-the working arrangement between kmeth and humans on board the Kmet portals
-the use of human cloned bodies is not explained to my satisfaction at the book's beginning and only really becomes clear as the story progresses,
-the political beliefs amongst the New Terran committee whom the Arbiter reports to
-More critically, l could not build a picture in my mind of the geography, so to speak, or relationship, of New Terra with its surrounding space past its atmosphere. Were there space stations? Killian, the pilot working with Henry, implied there was a human spacer culture and I kept wondering, where is it based?

What I did like:
-the teams of specialists supporting the Arbiter and the pilots. This makes sense as the jobs are complicated, and frequent consultations would be necessary as Henry travelled to the possibly colonized worlds
-the parallel narrative on one of the colonized world as we follow one of the humans, a Seeker, exploring the world. I found Beth to be a compelling character, more so than Henry
-Flip, the polymorphic entity working with Henry, is the best.

So, despite interesting elements, this book didn't really work for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and to DAW for this ARC in exchange for my review.

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Really enjoyed this book and the general writing style. I did think the book could've been slightly shorter. But that's my only negative comment - if you even want to call it that. Overall, a great read.

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A very enjoyable sci-fi read with multiple alien races that truly were strange enough to feel alien. Imaginative technology that opened up so many possibilities. Compelling characters. Overall, a solid sci-fi read. There were a few things that bugged me, dragging it down to 4 stars for me.

SYNOPSIS:

Humanity fled an uninhabitable Earth to a planet called New Earth. Over a century ago humanity sent out 7 sleeper ships to colonize other worlds. After a disaster destroyed all of humanity’s spaceships and space stations, the human race became much more cautious about space travel. Then, the Kmet came. An alien race that came and formed an alliance with humanity. They offered humans advanced technology and access to portals that allow you to travel vast distances in seconds. When humanity used the portals to visit one of the sleeper ships’ worlds, they discovered some threat had wiped out at least one of the human sleeper ships’ colonies. The Kmet warn that any humans on worlds other than New Earth are in danger from a mysterious threat called The Divider. Thus begins a frantic race to find and evacuate any remaining human colonies from the sleeper ships.

Humanity has been allies with the Kmet for decades, but they still struggle to understand them. Now, they’re beginning to wonder if the Kmet can really be trusted. Are they really trying to protect humans from the threat of another alien species? Are they trying to use humans to protect themselves from an alien enemy? Or are they the threat to humanity? One thing’s for sure, if our characters don’t find answers fast, humanity may not be safe anywhere.

THE GOOD:

The aliens in this book really did think, perceive, communicate, and function in ways that are totally alien and different from humans. This is rarely done effectively in sci-fi. Attempts to communicate with, understand, and negotiate with these aliens were truly fascinating, clever, realistic, and very well written.

The advanced technologies, both human and alien, were all inventive, downright bizarre, and very fun to imagine. There were shapeshifting sentient AIs and at least one of them had a great sense of humor. (Who wouldn’t love an AI whose favorite spaceship shape is a cartoonish flying saucer?). Portals that allowed people to travel lightyears instantly, albeit with some potentially nasty space-sickness side effects. Technology that allowed space travelers to communicate with and share their very perceptions with the minds of experts and advisors lightyears away. Specially made doppelganger bodies that space travelers could use to travel without their real body ever leaving home.

The mysteries in the story kept my interest. I was constantly making predictions and spinning theories. The story managed to keep surprising me over and over again. Once I got through the slightly slower start, I was on the edge of my seat until the last page. I love it when a sci-fi book keeps me constantly thinking.

The characters (human, alien, and AI alike) were undoubtedly well written and compelling. Extremely well written dialogue and interpersonal interactions. The characters were all believable and three dimensional. Every single one was so very interesting to read about. All the main characters were diabolically brilliant, sneaky, hilarious, brave, full of heart, and so very capable of making mistakes. They all had to make incredibly hard choices and unavoidably morally gray decisions. There were some decent romances (one straight, one sapphic). I liked them, but they weren’t central to the story.

There were three protagonists and the story jumped around, alternating between following each of them. Two were fantastic strong female characters, one of whom was queer pilot with downright awesome girlfriend and a love of adventure. The other female protagonist was a true explorer: brash, brave, and quick on her feet. The male protagonist was a diplomat and leader with the weight of multiple worlds on his shoulders and an AI best friend (lots of friendship feels there). All three of them were almost terrifyingly impressive and wonderfully imperfect. Each character had flaws and strengths that made sense together, both flowing naturally from their personality.

The competing political factions, priorities, philosophies, even among the humans, added another layer of realism to the world. The best part was that all of the factions and arguments had at least a little bit of a point.

It’s a long book, but it’s also a complete story that probably needed to be long to do it justice. It had a bit of a slow start, but it was all necessary groundwork for when the story really took off. It wasn’t too long before the story picked up and then I was in suspense ‘till the end.

THINGS THAT BUGGED ME:

The dialogue, negotiations, and human-alien interactions were extremely realistic. Most of the book felt very realistic and believable. But, that made the few unrealistic details and events in the book bug me all the more. (I can’t really get into them without spoilers, but most of the details I thought were unrealistic weren’t actually that crucial to the story. There also weren’t very many details I found unrealistic.)

The characters had to make some really tough, ethically dicey calls. There were times where any possible choice was morally gray. This made the story all the more compelling and realistic. There were a few decisions made by one of the main characters that, in my opinion, went a bit too far and undermined that character’s likability. It just got a bit too dark for my taste at times. At the same time, the choices were so complicated and dicey, that I can’t even necessarily say that those choices weren’t the smartest or the least terrible ones available.

For example, I don’t find it realistic that an entire colony of people (with a population of millions) would be totally okay with leaving their pets to die in the apparent imminent disaster. I find it preposterous that not one person refused to evacuate or raised trouble because of it. Especially when, as far as they knew, they had plenty of time to transport themselves and their pets. I also find it too dark to refuse to let people take their pets with them in an evacuation. (To be fair, I’m not sure if the main characters would have had the power to sway New Earth’s ruling body to change their minds about that policy.) This detail wasn’t exactly central to the story or a major focus of that plotline either.

THE ENDING:

Bittersweet ending. No cliffhanger. This is a standalone with everything wrapped up at the end. While everything was wrapped up well, it didn’t feel unrealistically neat and tidy. There were some parts of the ending that only kind of made sense to me. That being said, it was still a satisfying conclusion with fairly satisfactory answers to the story’s many mysteries.

THE VERDICT:

A really good sci-fi read. Not perfect. Or, it might be more apt to say that it wasn’t perfect for me. There were some details that bugged me. There were a few times where the story was a bit too dark for my taste. There were a few times where one of the main characters made decisions that were a bit too morally questionable for the character to stay likable in my eyes. Nevertheless, It was still a good read.

WARNINGS: death

I received a free eARC via NetGalley. I am writing this review completely honestly and voluntarily.

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This book was a disappointment, I’m sorry to say. It’s an excellent set-up - the blurb had me very excited - but it’s not handled well in my opinion.

The premise: humanity sent out sleeper ships a few centuries back to find colonies, and (as expected) haven’t heard from them since. In the time since, they’ve made contact with aliens called the Kmet, who possess the ability to travel instantaneously. Understanding the Kmet is difficult, but it’s clear they want some kind of partnership with the humans (what they call “the Duality”) and they’ve formed a cordial arms-length partnership. But then a message arrives from the first of the sleeper ships, telling Earth that they’ve reached their destination and started their colony, and the Humans approach the Kmet to ask if they’d mind giving them a lift to say hello to their long-lost cousins.

The Kmet go into an absolute panic. There is something out there that the Kmet will only call “the Divider.” Only on Earth, protected by the Kmet, can humans be safe, and it is imperative that the colonists are gathered up and brought back to Earth as soon as possible.

Here’s where I think this book fails. Some (not all) of the sleeper ships founded successful, thriving colonies, and they’ve been established for centuries. They’ve developed in isolation; they have their own cultures and customs. These worlds have been their *home* for generations. And suddenly someone shows up from Earth and says “you all have to pack up and leave *right now* on my say-so.” It’s going to be one hell of a challenge to convince them to leave, and an incredibly traumatic experience as well.

Yet this isn’t what the book is about. It’s only barely touched on. What the book is *about* is the Kmet, and trying to understand their motivations and what the threat is. Which is fine, as a story, and interesting enough … but I simply didn’t care because I was aware of all this incredibly massive, generationally traumatic event happening to literally millions of people that’s just … ignored.

It is perhaps unfair to judge a book for what it *isn’t* rather than what it *is*. But in the end the most important question in reviewing a book is “did I enjoy this?” In this case, the answer, sadly, is no.

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To Each This World was a great take on aliens and humans interacting, one which I quite enjoyed! Let us chat about it!

What I Loved:

►The characters! First and foremost, the characters in this story were fabulous. They are dealing with a lot during the story- more than any human beings should have to, really. And the fate of many worlds ends up in their hands, which again, is a lot. But they managed to feel completely human and relatable all while dealing with these tremendous, world-altering tasks. I also loved how they were able to bond with each other and others around them.

►The stakes, like I mentioned, were crazy high. Like, could not be higher, basically. Would the Kmet really be on the side of humans, at the end of the day? Could humanity as a species be wiped out? So many nail-biting scenarios! And it was clear that the author was not afraid to take risks, so I never felt that anyone's safety was guaranteed, at any point.

►Once things got going, I was wholly invested. I'll talk about this more, but while it started off a little on the slower end, things got pretty wild by the midway point, even sooner. And then, I just had to know how things would turn out!

What I Struggled With:

►It just kind of felt long and/or dense at times. It is a longer book, so there is that. But especially at the beginning, I just kind of felt overwhelmed at times, and like maybe it was a bit too long? Regardless, I still really enjoyed the book and this certainly wasn't a dealbreaker.

Bottom Line: Once this story started going, I was completely absorbed in the fate of the characters and world.

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Every year I find a new science fiction novel I’m obsessed with, and I think To Each This World might be it for 2022! Czerneda takes concepts that could be considered overdone – first contact with aliens, sleeper ships, interstellar travel – and makes them unique and exciting. I love sleeper ships – so I might be a little biased – but Czerneda turns the concept on its head! The idea of rescuing the sleeper ships’ descendants, supposedly the safe refuge, is fascinating.

I liked all three of the main characters! Henry is such an interesting man, and reading about him coping with enormous pressures was stressful. Killian and Beth were both great female characters – although there’s a particular nickname Killian goes by that irked me. There’s both an F/F and M/F romance, although romance isn’t anywhere near the book’s focus. Finally, the alien species in this book feel genuinely strange and not just like a differently shaped human.

Czerneda is a biologist, and you can tell! The science is plausible but is easy to understand in context. The book is also well-written! My only critique is that the book was a tad long. Nevertheless, this is a definite recommendation if you enjoy smartly written but still accessible science fiction. I’m looking forward to reading more of Czerneda’s other works!

Thanks to NetGalley, Astra Publishing House, and Julie E. Czerneda for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

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To Each This World is a hard Sci-Fi novel. A great story filled with political intrigue, mystery, adventure and imaginative world building. A great find and glad I read it.
The main character Henry, is the Arbiter, the most important individual on New World. His main responsibility is being the go between Humans and the Alien species called the Kmet. Humans have entered into a pact or Duality, as it is called, between the two species.
The Kmet have given some technology to humans and the use of Portals that allow space ships to transit long distances in the blink of an eye. However, everything could be in jeopardy when a probe reaches New Earth with a message that a seed ship, sent centuries earlier, has arrived at its destinations and the humans there are prospering.
The Kmet on the Portal is beside itself. It insists that the other humans be rounded up and returned to New Earth before the Divider finds them and destroys them. As the Arbiter, Henry must assist with this task. Yet, he has many questions, and foremost is who is the Divider and why are they dangerous.
This book is one of the most original I have read in a while. I loved that the author presented Aliens as Alien. Nothing like humans and hard to understand, not only in speech but in motive. It felt plausible and the pacing was perfect. Yet, in the end it was the characters and the world building that made it such a good book.
There is just one negative for me, the writing style, which made the story hard to follow at times. I also struggled at first to get invested in the story. However, the characters of Henry and Killian were just so well developed and I fell in love with them and it made it up for so much.
Despite my one grip, if you are a Sci-Fi fan and like a more traditional story then this is a book for you. It is well worth being at the top of your TBR list.
I received a free copy in exchange for my honest review. For more of my reviews, and author interviews, see my book blog at www.thespineview.com.

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ARC received in exchange for an honest review.

200 years ago, six sleeper ships were sent to colonize distant planets. Now one of their message probes reached the New Earth.

A lot has changed since then. Earth has found alien allies that allow them to use portal technology to gather resources from all around the galaxy. There is only one rule. All humans have to return, no colonizing.

Now that there is proof of human colonies in space, the aliens want them all moved back to Earth or there will be consequences. The arbiter of humanity takes the task upon himself to get everyone "home" and out of this mysterious danger. He will have to overcome cultural divisions that accumulated over generations of separation. But more importantly, he will need to cooperate with the aliens that remain a mystery after 37 years of coexistence.

I really enjoyed the story and how we slowly uncover the mysteries. I enjoyed how it all came together. Maybe the ending could have been less rushed, but I found it very satisfying.

The aliens were properly alien. There was so much to learn about them. I loved how hard the communication between them and humans was. They weren't some super intelligence that right away understood us and could communicate perfectly in our language. There were blunders and miscommunication on both sides.

We have six worlds and six different scenarios. Weird planets, weird cultures. Humans that were shaped in very specific ways by their environment. And even the humans of Earth were already changed by new technologies and certain events. Here I might talk about one negative of this book. The language is a bit hard to read at times. The 'd shortenings were used everywhere. In the case of the colony person's POV, it's obviously on purpose, but maybe it's on purpose for the whole book to suggest humans in the future also talk differently from us?

We have three POVs altogether. One is a character from one of the colonies, Beth. She appears right in the prologue and shows how different life can be in a different environment. Then we have the Arbiter, Henry. I really liked his characterization. He is this likable guy that carries a lot of power on his shoulders. He needs to make some hard decisions and despite seeming always strong to the observers; we see how he is cracking under that pressure. Lastly, we have the pilot, Killian. She is very determined and quite rebellious. I enjoyed her relationship with Henry and I am glad that for once, male and female alone in space can just stay friends.

Another character that should be mentioned is Flip, a synthetic construct. He is often used as a comedic relief but also brings a lot to the conversation about what it means to be a human.

Some parts were a bit slow, but I am not sure if they could have been cut. I think it added some tension seeing characters do some repetitive stuff or having to wait before they can continue with the mission since we know there is a time limit. There is a lot to learn and understand about the new technologies and the aliens. At the beginning it left me a bit confused, but everything gets explained with time.

All in all, I really enjoyed reading this book. I rate it 4,5 but feel that it deserves to be rounded up to 5. It is definitely an impactful book that I won't forget and I will certainly read more from the author.

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I tried reading this book but it couldn't keep my attention. The premiss sounded good but i just couldn't get into the story.

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