Summers Grey, Polaris, and Sage are on a mission to find missing dads!

In “Sound of Light” Magneto and Cyclops have gone missing when looking into the source of the recent production of Mutant Growth Hormone (MGH). Since Dazzler was used as a source of MGH production against her will by Mystique AND her dad is also missing, she is contacted by S.H.I.E.L.D. to find out what’s going on.

To help Dazzler, Emma Frost signs up Sage from the Xavier School and Logan has Rachel and Polaris join form the Jean Grey School. Shenanigans ensue when none of them can get along nor trust each other (it’s a SHIELD Grey Xavier mixer yo!). They constantly bicker, are paranoid of everyone, especially each other, and stumble into leads throughout most of the book until they become BFFs and save the day!

I’m a big fan of Aconyte Books and really want to support them. This is the first of their Marvel books I’ve read and hope to read more from their catalog (there’s a checklist in this book and I’m dying to put more checks). Also, this author wrote a fun story about Dazzler laced with lots of rich material from the Marvel setting and formed an interesting conflicted team, exploring the characters though their flaws, which is pretty impressive.

It just took too long to get not very far. Firstly, Dazzler was repelling and arrogant character throughout most of the book. You want to empathize with her because of this traumatic experience she had, but she gives us nothing to like about her. Right in the beginning, first chapter, she’s already turning down drinks with her bandmates to “be alone.” At first, that wasn’t a big deal to me, but when I’m hitting 45% and she’s still has done nothing but push everyone away from her I find myself not enjoying being with her either. There were times that I put the story down for felt like not coming back, it was such a drag and very little was happening.

I kept at it, though, thinking it had to go somewhere, and at about 60% though the characters finally start warming up to each other and the story finally starts to do something. Then they just smash and flash their way to the end of the story.

To be honest, the story is more about the characters learning to trust others after dealing with past trauma. The mission is just the thing that forces the characters to be together and deal with these issues. This wasn’t apparent to me in the beginning which could have been why I felt that the story wasn’t really going anywhere. But having finished, this book is definitely more focused on an exploration of characters rather than just an adventure story. Maybe going in with that knowledge beforehand can certainly help you approach the story from the right direction.

Overall, it was okay (which is 2 stars from me). I’m not sure if reading other books from the “School of X” line would have helped me get more into the book but I don’t think I’d recommend this as a first pick for people just hopping into Aconyte Books. And even though this is my first Marvel novel from them, I think other stories might be better to start with. However, if you’re like me and want to hit up that “World Expanding Fiction” checklist, better to hit this one sooner than later, otherwise you might keep putting off “Sound of Light.”

Thank you Aconyte Books and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for a honest review.

#Marvel #MarvelEnt #Aconytebooks #review
About Marvel Entertainment
Marvel Entertainment, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, is one of the world’s most prominent character-based entertainment companies, built on a proven library of more than 8,000 characters featured in a variety of media for over eighty years. Marvel utilizes its character franchises in entertainment, licensing, publishing, games, and digital media.
For more information visit marvel.com. © 2022 MARVEL

I’m very middle of the board on this book. I was engaged enough to finish it. I would probably only recommend this book to people who like marvel novels and especially like the X-Men.
I am a very casual x-men fan so this is normally not the marvel novel that I would pick up I did enjoy the story I did like the references to the X-Men timelines from the comic.
The story was engaging I did like the team of characters that was created. I just feel like I would’ve enjoyed this morph I was a bigger fan of X-Men and dazzler it was still very good.
Thank you NetGalley and Aconyte books for trusting me with this arc.

I wasn’t really hoping to love this book, but sadly, I didn’t. But I didn’t hate it, either. I think the writing just wasn’t for me. That’s the biggest part. Though short chapters made this a very quick read once you got into it.

I loved the characters together. As a team, Dazzler, Sage, Polaris, and Rachel really worked well——once they figured out how to. With a lot of mistrust and arguments throughout the book, the women finally learning how to work together was like a breath of fresh air for me.

I’ve never read X-Men comics, and the only movie I’ve seen is Wolverine: Origins because an actor I like was in it, but after this I am interested in checking out more of Polaris, as well as Emma Frost. These two were definitely my favorites throughout the novel. While Emma wasn’t a main focus, she owned every scene she was in.

I’d like to give a massive thanks to NetGalley and Aconyte Books for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

#Marvel #MarvelEnt #Aconytebooks #review

About Marvel Entertainment
Marvel Entertainment, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, is one of the world’s most prominent character-based entertainment companies, built on a proven library of more than 8,000 characters featured in a variety of media for over eighty years. Marvel utilizes its character franchises in entertainment, licensing, publishing, games, and digital media.
For more information visit marvel.com. © 2022 MARVEL

This was another NetGalley find, free copy for an honest review.

As a long-time X-Men fan, this was a lot of fun. I haven't spent a ton of time in Dazzler's head since her solo series ended in 1985 so it was interesting to hear what she was thinking and feeling. Comic tie-in novels often have to straddle an awkward continuity point as they have to ignore or explain away the thousands of issues the characters have appeared in. This one did a great job of managing this, mostly centering around the events of the 2012 run of Uncanny X-Men and following up on Dazzler's time as an Agent of SHIELD.

I found some of the characterisation a little off, Rachel Grey/Summers seemed very weak (though this is post-Phoenix and everyone's powers are a little wonky) and Polaris spent a lot of time mentioning being Magneto's daughter while not wanting to talk about it at all.

It's a very continuity-rich story, written by an obvious long-term fan with deep cuts like SHIELD's spin-off organisations SWORD and ARMOR. There were also some continuity references I was less familiar with like Tempus and Triage from All-New X-Men so I'm off to discover more!

#Marvel #MarvelEnt #Aconytebooks #review
About Marvel Entertainment

Marvel Entertainment, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, is one of the world’s most prominent character-based entertainment companies, built on a proven library of more than 8,000 characters featured in a variety of media for over eighty years. Marvel utilizes its character franchises in entertainment, licensing, publishing, games, and digital media.

For more information visit marvel.com. © 2022 MARVEL

This was probably the weakest of the Marvel Aconyte books that I've read. It was still fine, but all of the characters just felt unfortunately flat, which is a shame, because I was really looking forward to reading a novel with Polaris and Dazzler.

Although this does reference events that happen in volume three of the Uncanny X-Men comics, reading them is not necessary to enjoy this book. The author does a good job of providing enough background for even casual Marvel fans to understand Alison's backstory and motivations. The references to comic book events were like fun Easter eggs to be found for comic book readers and Dazzler fans.

#Marvel #MarvelEnt #Aconytebooks #review

I received this book in exchange for an honest review.

About Marvel Entertainment
Marvel Entertainment, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company, is one of the world’s most prominent character-based entertainment companies, built on a proven library of more than 8,000 characters featured in a variety of media for over eighty years. Marvel utilizes its character franchises in entertainment, licensing, publishing, games, and digital media.
For more information visit marvel.com. © 2022 MARVEL

This book was such a wonderful read with a well written storyline, a plot that flowed smoothly from page to page and characters that were created with such great detail and depth that I remained totally engaged throughout the entire book!.

Sound of Light takes place in a vague undefined period of X-Men continuity after Avengers vs X-Men, but before the Krakoa era. The focus of the story is Dazzler, Lorna, and Rachel's journey to find their lost parents and avoid a new catastrophe for mutants.

The plot was somewhat basic, and the antagonists were fairly one note. There were high notes among the character interaction, but it felt like the protagonists were aged down to further the plot. The author did a level of homework on a couple of the characters in question. At times the character and relationship beats struck home and at times they missed.

I'm a big X-Men fan and I found this team, a unique team but really worked really well together. I loved the premise and was fully invested in what was going on. It had the spirit of the X-Men that I enjoyed and I does what I was hoping for. The characters felt like the comic counterparts and I was glad I was able to read this. Amanda Bridgeman does what I was hoping for and I enjoyed the way she wrote this book. It worked in a entry in the Marvel: School of X series and I look forward to more.

"“Their security was next level,” Sage said. “I detected all sorts of scanning systems. Perhaps they picked up on abnormal brain activity in Rachel.” She placed her hands on her hips, shoulders softening a little in defeat. “They knew we were mutants before Polaris pushed that table against the door.”

It’s great to see a book with Dazzler in the lead- especially when she’s working with an all female team- Polaris, Sage, Rachel and Emma together make for great reading, and there’s a fun plot that includes some classic X-characters.
My only grumbles are from an editorial/continuity perspective- Sage is believed to be from Afghanistan, not Eastern Europe, and Cyclops definitely doesn’t fire lasers from his eyes- they’re beams of concussive force that do not give off heat. I was also a little puzzled about some choices that were made- most of the X-Men had never met Ali despite being a stalwart of the X-Men, and little things like Emma being in a white costume rather than a black one didn’t fit the time period of the book- although I won’t grumble as I much prefer her in white! All in all, a fun read- I’d have loved to see Mortis turn up!