While some of the characters were super cool (Aster!!) this book unfortunately fell short for me.
The premise was very good but there was so much unnecessary info dumping which made it a difficult read. Some chapters would be super fast paced and the next was super boring.

I'm excited to see what else the author writes however.

Listen. I love me some sapphic romance, so when I saw this book, I was very hyped. While the book did deliver on some fronts, overall I felt that the execution, especially the characterization, could've been better. Instead of a stand-alone, if this had been a duology, I feel would have had more time with the characters and this book itself would not have been SO long.

Redsight is pretty fucked up. The amount of times that Korinna, the main character, has blood pouring out of her eyes, her fingernails falling off, the skin of her hands disintegrating - that is undeniably horrifying. And she is just blasé about it, just accepts it every time. I guess that's almost like a metaphor for my ultimate feelings of this book: creepy, creative, and downright fantastic ideas that never quite go as deep into it as I would like.

I tore through the first half of this book. I loved the lore of the three different orders and how dark and mysterious they were, and I loved how brutal so much of the story was. Aster's true self? The idea of a redseer entombing themself? Horrifying, in the most engaging way. I'm also a fan of political sci-fi, and so this truly had it all.

Where it lost me a bit was in the characterizations. The idea of Aster was incredible, but she herself was just kind of . . . there. For a millennia-old being, she talked like a twenty year old and as the reader got to know her, as she became more than an idea, she just never felt fully-formed or as interesting as I thought she should be.

That's actually my main issue with all three POV characters, but it's especially emphasized in Aster just based on the build-up of her character. They were all just there, or, in Sahar's case, barely even there, really. The loss of so many of her order didn't result in the emotional punch that I think it was going for if only because none of those secondary characters nor Sahar herself really felt developed. Korinna was great in her backstory and how trauma shaped her, but her actual personality was quite bland.

So it should come as no surprise that the romance left me cold. I never really understood why either of them was romantically interested in the other, and why they bonded so very, very quickly.

I actually think this book may have benefitted from being a series, or at least a duology. That would have given it time to breathe, time for the characters to actually develop and form, and while I did really like the ending of the book, it would feel more earned and ethereal had there been perhaps a brutal ending to book one and then really revelling in the darkness and risk of the world. As it was, I struggled to connect emotionally and was a bit letdown in the end. But based on the concepts and how much I enjoyed the first half of the book, I think Meredith Mooring has potential as a strong sci-fi writer with dark imagination and female-focused sci-fi, so I'll be keeping an eye out for what she writes next.

Thank you to the publisher, Solaris, and to NetGalley for the ARC.

Korinna is a Reedseer, a blind priestess who can manipulate space and time, but she’s the weakest in her order, and her only goals are to stay alive and stay out of trouble. Her placement on an Inperium ship, where she is to be used as a weapon, reveals that she’s not as weak as she’s been lead to believe. In fact, she’s super powerful, and her entire world is upended when pirate Aster Haran takes over the ship.

Aster is fulfilling a vendetta against the Imperium, swallowing everything in her path. She’s fueled by a darkness, but she knows things about the world that Korrinna doesn’t, and the priestess is drawn to her. Torn between her allegiance to the Imperium and her feelings for Aster and growing knowledge about the world, she’ll have to make a difficult choice, one that will risk the fabric of space and time.

This one was a massive undertaking (for me as a reader and for the author as a writer). It was pretty long, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. It’s a fantasy space opera with complicated politics, complicated characters, and a solid, sapphic story. I thought it would take me way longer to read, but I was invested in the characters from jump.

3.5*

This promised a sapphic space opera and though it delivered on most fronts, I found the ending to be a little confusing and lost.

There were a lot of good ideas at play across the story, from the magic users, the drama between the characters, but it all felt a bit rushed by the conclusion.

Let me just start by saying that the representation in the book is great. Sapphic Priestesses, a blind Main Character, multicultural/BIPOC characters... I need more diverse reading like this in my life!

The world-building in this book is also wonderful. There are so many details of the life designed for the characters and their worlds, including magic systems that are not your usual boring trope.

However, for me, there were whole swathes of sections that were packed with lots of detail, but nothing happened. Sometimes, there is too much telling, rather than showing.

Then, the end. Literally.
You're swimming through the details and the subplot when suddenly, almost out of nowhere, it's the end. I was not ready for it!

Overall, this is a good read for any space opera fans who like women-led action and an escape from their patriarchal-drenched daily lives.

*I received a free copy of this book from Rebellion/Solaris via NetGalley, and I'm voluntarily leaving a review.*

Billed as "space opera filled with sapphic romance, space pirates, a blind witch and powerful priestesses," I was expecting a lot out of this book and unfortunately despite having so many of my buzzwords I didn't love this book. I was expecting more of a The First Sister vibe and instead I got a Some Desperate Glory vibe. Though in saying that, I seem to be in the minority of people who didn't like Some Desperate Glory, so maybe this would work better for others.

I think this world is really interesting, though it's definitely falls into the Star Wars-esque genre of space fantasy. There are blood witches, old gods, pirates, an evil big bad, a blind main character and a sapphic romance. It's fast paced and full of action. There is a lot to love on the surface. I love the concept of exploring the way foundational myths create a society, as each of the three main religions we see in this world have the same/similar history but have gone in much different directions.

Unfortunately, I found myself losing interest pretty early on. I tend to be a world and/or character driven reader. If one or both of those things are done well, then I will be hooked nine times out of ten. While I do think the world is interesting, there was a lot about it that didn't make sense or felt hand-wavey, and while sometimes that works for me, here it started to grate, especially as some of the plot points became repetitive. I also found that I had a hard time distinguishing between the voices of the main characters. Korinna is the most fleshed out, but even her character felt fairly one dimensional. I loved that we got blind representation and it seemed to be well done to me; however, I struggled to buy into her which made it hard to buy into the book as a whole.

Overall I think Mooring had some really interesting ideas here, but to me it felt like a lot of aesthetics/vibes and not enough meat, which made the execution fall flat.

Thank you to the publishers for providing me with an eArc of this book. I apologise for the late review. I was trying to give it the best chance it had. Unfortunately, I did have to DNF this book in the end. I honestly didn't like the writing. It failed to hold my attention and just fell flat. I didn't connect with any of the characters or find myself engaging with their stories.

While the book was not for me, I hope it has found its audience now that it is in the world.

This was a pretty cool sci fi book, and I loved the rep in it. It felt a little too complex at times and lost me in the middle, but I still enjoyed reading it. Thank you to Netgalley for the eARC!

I find it hard to talk about this book because I really did not enjoy it, and you know maybe it´s not the book. I had the feeling the plot was all over the place, jumping from one action scene to the other without much time to figure out what was going on. Which is Another big issue I had with this story, the world-building. I can tell that the author had a really good idea but we are thrown in the middle of the action and I, personally, spend most of the time confused about how exactly this world works.
My other issue was the insta love, the characters act like their relationship has been going on for a long time, while less than a month has passed and the two had less than three scenes together.

Started promisingly but the writing didn’t get better, lazy and ultimately space pirates don’t do it for me. DNF 27% :(

In theory, this should have really worked for me. Blind priestesses that navigate space ships with their mind? Women turning into lizards and eating people? Space cults? Sapphics? Sadly, I found the execution lacking and the prose was very clunky. The book suffered the most from having a weak protagonist and a lacklustre romance. The most interesting aspect was the worldbuilding to me which was well done, so I'm looking forward to what the author does next, but this one was a miss for me. 2.75/5 stars.

⭐⭐⭐💫
🌶️🌶️
🌌🚀✨🐍🗡️

Redsight is a sapphic space pirate horror science fiction novel that is both intriguing and horrifying at the same time. Three goddesses. Three priestesses. Three women are drawn together with opposing aims: the Lightbringer engineer, the blind navigator, and the star eater space pirate.

This book is full of self-sacrifice, spaceship invasions, saving entrapped goddesses, and changing the way the space world works. There is a sapphic romance, a very opposites collide, with a thousand-year-old age gap, one seeing, one not, one who literally sheds their skin to navigate spaceships with tactus, and one who turns into a serpent and eats stars.

The one flaw I had with this book was that it was quite long and drawn out. But otherwise, I really liked it, despite the gorry stuff.

Thanks to Netgalley and Rebellion/Solaris for a copy of the ebook. This review is left voluntarily.

I am dnfing the book 28% in - it's not holding my attention, the plot feels boring and simultaneously confusing.

'Redsight' is a space opera packed with action and interesting plot-twists. When I read that this title was perfect for Gideon the Night fans, I knew I had to give this book a try. I had high expectations and it delivered. I can't say much without spoiling the plot, but I loved the characters, especially Korinna, and their development, the queerness, the setting and the in-depth themes the book explores. All in all, a must read for sci-fi lovers!

*Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review

The writing was good - but unfortunately this book was a DNF for me. I was late for reviewing the arc, so borrowed it from the library and just couldn’t finish it.

I felt like this story had a really cool premise, but not as good an execution. the worldbuilding is so complex, so intriguing, but it took me a long, long time to feel like I understood it (and the plot, since they're so connected). I also found the writing repetitive, particularly when the main character bled, it felt like the same expressions were repeated over and over again for something the reader knew already. The ending was also confusing and rushed for me. Another thing that bothered me was the relationships outside of the romance - like they were just forgotten by the main characters. What I did enjoy was the romance, it's very intense and it moves the reader to the core. The emotions of the characters are very strong and vivid, I believe that's the best part of the book! Especially when talking about trauma, the pain is just... visceral. Really well done.

What is it about nuns? This book played into the DnD monk paladin trope that just makes reading about warriors devoted to a higher power too much fun. At first glance, this had all the elements to be a great read; queer-normative space opera featuring blood magic and own-voices disability rep. Count me in.

This was a sturdy premise and had the potential to be great but unfortunately too much was squeezed into too little time. This could have easily been stretched into three books, giving readers more time to get to know the characters and the significance of the world around them. As it is, we barely scratched the surface of the greater world and the side characters didn’t exist as more than cogs to serve the protagonists’ demands.

In the first third of the book, I found the characters to be more reactive than active, especially in the case of the primary protagonist, Korinna. Life just happened to her and she went along with it. This remedied a little as the novel went on but the majority of the plot unfolded in the last fifty pages and threw off the pacing of the whole thing.

Korinna reads very young in the early chapters and it could almost be considered YA until the obsessive romance and the bloody deterioration of her entire body kicked in. The detailed descriptions of how Korinna’s body reacted to her magic were wild, evocative, and by far the strongest part of the text. Similarly, I was drawn in by the unhinged jaws and I think Mooring should have leant into that horror element more.

In the end, Redsight was filled with space travel and intergalactic warmongering with a great magic system curled around its centre. I wasn’t as taken with it as I wanted to be, but I’m looking forward to see what Mooring writes next.

eeehhhhh. i simply don't think the writing is very strong. boring and kind of dry. premise is good but that's not enough to make a good story.

Thank you to Netgalley and Solaris for sending me an early copy of this book! All opinions are my own!

What a gorgeous story absolutely full of the beauty of humanity and the universe at large! The symmetry of this book left me in awe, and I adored watching everything unfold and fall into place. It was so satisfying to watch all the pieces fall into place like it was ordained by one of the goddesses themselves.

It started off pretty slow for me, but the uniqueness of the worldbuilding and the issues within kept me hooked. Korinna was intriguing from the start and was so easy to root for. Then you add in the other main characters and the intrigue just grows. It was so fun to watch them come together but it was also wonderful to watch them grow and learn from the universe around them and the powers within them.

There was plot twist after plot twist. There was morally gray characters and decisions that had to be made for the good of the universe. There was unique magic that was both science and physically/medically based that was so fun to learn about. Not to mention the magic being disability based with the Redseers! (And own voices for Mooring). There was such a heartwrenching sapphic love story. This book has it all and then some!

Definitely get your hands on this book, you will not regret it!