From the premise alone, I was obsessed. I love his idea of object holding memories and the idea of traveling in time introducing a fantastical layer. It just feels like one of those ideas and metaphors we have brought to life. At the same time, Down in the Sea of Angels also examines the prejudices and misconceptions Maida faces. How she can be forced to explain herself, perform like an act. I loved how this theme, and Maida's timeline, progresses to examine discrimination and misinformation.

Down in the Sea of Angels by Khan Wong (book cover is in image) is a dystopian science fiction, that follows three individuals, Li Nuan (sold into slavery in1906), Nathan (a tech designer in 2006), and Madia (historian working on objects from the Precursor Era in 2106). An event called the “Bloom” which enabled psionic capabilities in a small percentage of the population, ties these individuals together through a jade teacup.

Touching on the themes of slavery, exploitation, racism, found family and revolution, this novel provides great insight into how humans react to devastation and fear of the unknown. The narration by Eunice Wong, provides clear distinctive voices to a large cast of both male and female characters that is refreshing and not only keeps the reader engaged, but also makes jumping between the three storylines easy to follow. I strongly recommend this book.

Thank you to Dreamscape Media and Angry Robot for the opportunity to listen to this ALC and read the eARC. All opinions are my own.

Book Rating: 5 Stars
Audiobook Rating: 5 Stars
Pub Date: Apr 22 2025

Tags:
#DreamscapeMedia
#AngryRobot
#KhanWong
#EuniceWong
#DownitheSeaofAngels
#YarisBookNook
#Horror
#Fantasy
#Magical Realism
#ShortStories
#netgalley

This is a hard book to characterize, and even more difficult to sum up in just a few – or even a few dozen – pithy phrases. But I’m certainly going to try.

A big part of that difficulty is that it isn’t just one story. It’s three stories that are loosely linked – even though that’s not obvious at the beginning – centered around three individuals who do not know what they have to do with each other any more than the reader does.

They’re also not experiencing the same thing – or even the same sort of thing, although the first and third are closer in that particular than either of them would ever imagine.

But there is one thing that they share from the beginning. All of their stories, all of their histories and hopes and dreams, take place in San Francisco, a place that has carried the hopes and dreams of so very many since long before the city boomed during the California Gold Rush.

In 1906, Li Nuan, 16 years old, sold by her parents into slavery, forced into sex work, whose very existence is proof that slavery was not eradicated by the Civil War, is ‘in service’ to one of the Tong bosses who ‘owned’ pre-Earthquake Chinatown. And the earthquake is coming, the end of the world as Li Nuan knows it. But she’s seeing visions of the quake, the fire that follows, and the death and destruction that results. And those visions have told her that she can seize the freedom she yearns for in the chaos – if she’s willing to do whatever it takes to claim it.

Nathan Zhao in 2006, an up-and-coming tech designer, is busy living his very good life without taking too much care for the consequences to the world he lives on. He’s a good man, a good person, he’s got a great job, is in a happy long-term relationship with his boyfriend, they’re free to be openly gay – which he knows is a privilege – and life is, well, good. The vision that he gets, both of Li Nuan’s past and of the environmental destruction to come in his near future, opens his eyes and sets his life on a different course than he’d originally planned.

The reason that both Li Nuan and Nathan are having these life-changing visions is Maida Sun. Maida is a historian and more importantly, is gifted with psychometry in a future where a significant minority of the population has been gifted with psionic powers of one stripe or another. Maida can see the past of any object she touches, and she’s working on a cultural reclamation project in the ruins of what her post-apocalyptic society calls ‘The Precursor Era’. In other words, us.

And that’s where all the links get filled in – and pushed out into the future. Nathan and his friends buried a time capsule in 2006, a capsule that is uncovered as part of the project Maida is working on. In that capsule, along with photos, memorabilia, a few personal items and a bit of outright junk, is a jade tea cup from the mid-19th century. A cup that passed through Li Nuan’s hands, down the generations to her great-grandson Nathan, and into that box only to emerge a century later under the hands – and into the powers – of Nathan’s great-great-niece, Maida.

At a point where Maida’s post-apocalyptic world is on the cusp of descending into the dystopia they initially avoided. But only will continue to do so at this terrible, hopeful juncture if Maida can seize her day and her freedom as decisively as her ancestor Li Nuan did hers.

Escape Rating A-: This is one of those stories that made me think pretty much all the thoughts and feel like it brought up all the readalikes. Which is only fair as it’s not one story but three stories and they aren’t as similar as one might expect in a single book.

At the same time, it did feel as if all the stories revolved around the idea of ‘carpe diem’, even though the days that each person in the change needed to seize were very different. Still, when they each grabbed hold of that day out of hope for the future, they each moved the story forward into the hope that they reached out for.

A virtuous circle rather than the vicious cycle that begins each of their stories.

Li Nuan’s story is the most harrowing – not surprising considering the conditions under which she was brought to California. Nathan is honestly having a lot of fun in his part of the story – at least until he sees that his world is not only due for a great big fall – but a fall that he’s likely to live to see and and can’t continue his own personal revel toward the cliff even if he can’t do much to fix the wider world.

But the story is centered in Maida Sun’s early 21st century post-apocalypse. Initially her world seems filled with hope of a brighter day for everyone – even if most people are still cursing the ‘Precursors’ (meaning US) for leaving such a big damn mess to clean up.

Still, the human side of Maida’s world is filled with hope. The ‘Collapse’ of the Precursor civilization in the 2050s, the climatic changes, the wars and death and destruction that followed, set humanity up for a more cooperative future – with the help of the great ‘Bloom’ of auroras that surrounded the planet and gave rise to psionic powers among a percentage of the population.

But by Maida’s 2106, the new normal has been normal long enough, and the devastation of the collapse is just far enough back in time and memory, that some people are starting to think that the ‘good old days’ were better than they were – at least for THEIR sort of people. Whatever that might mean. And, because humans are STILL gonna be human, there’s always someone just watching and waiting to take advantage of that impulse. By creating a new scapegoat, giving a new generation someone to hate and fear, and telling as many big lies as they can to weaponize society so that a new authoritarian regime can rise and start the whole terrible cycle all over again.

It’s hard to miss the historical parallels, because the playbook being used is old and familiar and all the more frightening for being followed right this very minute. What gives Down in the Sea of Angels its hopeful ending is that Maida Sun and the psions are finally living in a time when more people seem to want the world to get better for everyone – or alternatively that she and the psion community have the truth on their side and the opportunity to nip the forces of regression, repression and evil in the bud before the tide has turned completely in their favor.

More than a few of all of those thoughts I mentioned at the top before I close. One of the reasons this story worked as well as it did is that San Francisco is a bit of a liminal place and its history as well as its reputation for being a bit ‘out there’ for multiple definitions of that phrase fit the story. (For an entirely different fantasy featuring San Francisco’s liminality take a look at Passing Strange by Ellen Klages.)

Maida’s particular early 22nd century was fascinating because it didn’t follow the usual patterns for post-apocalyptic stories – or at least there was clearly a delay between the apocalypse and the dystopia – or we missed the first wave of dystopia and this is the attempt of a second dystopia to take hold. It’s a very different post-apocalyptic vision from either The Annual Migration of Clouds by Premee Mohamed or The Knight and the Butcherbird by Alix E. Harrow and the contrasts are quite interesting.

As much as the rising tide of authoritarianism in Maida’s time resembles both the rise of Nazi Germany AND the present political situation in the United States, the way that the anti-psion sentiment is created and promoted by the powers-that-be owes more than a bit, in the fictional sense at least, to the anti-mutant sentiment in the X-Men movie series.

I’ll confess that I picked this up because I absolutely adored the author’s debut novel, The Circus Infinite – and I was hoping to get a similar feeling from this book. In the end I did enjoy Down in the Sea of Angels very much, but not quite as much as Circus, and I think that’s because of the split story lines and how long it took them to figure out that they were part of each other. Howsomever, I did absolutely love the audio narration by Eunice Wong, and it was lovely to hear her voice again, telling me a marvelous story.

This was really interesting.
Three and a half stars, not because it was a bad book but because it just wasn't for me. This review comes from a person who is way more into the time travel/history aspect of this book rather than the sci-if dystopian side of it. That being said, I thought this was a good book!

The story line had me right from the beginning and wasn't what I was expecting but engaged me from the start. I loved the historical aspect and the connection between the three MCs throughout this book and seeing each perspective was really eye opening.
A good book but not quite my cup of tea. Worth a read if you love any of the above themes I mentioned!

𝐀𝐑𝐂 𝐫𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝐰
𝐃𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐞𝐚 𝐨𝐟 𝐀𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐥𝐬
𝐛𝐲 𝐊𝐡𝐚𝐧 𝐖𝐨𝐧𝐠
𝐑𝐞𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐬𝐞 𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐞: 𝐀𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐥 𝟐𝟐𝐭𝐡

- - -

Thank you, Netgalley, for the ARC.

I love dystopian books! I was so excited to read this one. Three individuals linked through a jade tea cup. One from the future, one from the past and one from the present. Sounds interesting, right?!

My favorite POV was of the woman from the past. She went through so much and remained so strong.

I just thought it was too detailed sometimes. I don't need 5 pages about the world-building. It could be explained on one page. This book could be shorter.

If you love time traveling, dystopia, politics, then this book is for you.

Wong effortlessly weaves together a tale of dark and light in this story that takes place over three timelines. Whilst this is a story that stares directly at the most difficult and horrible aspects of humanity, throughout it there is a message of hopefulness and a world that could be better through consideration and a sense that it is through the building of community that we will see the change we desire. The future timeline is presented in such a way where it feels like an inevitably but one where our actions in the present can create something that feels collaborative rather than disastrous.

I really enjoyed how well-developed the science fiction aspect of this story was and the three timelines felt equally strong and engaging.

A fantastic story and an enjoyable reading experience.

Down in the Sea of Angels by Khan Wong is a science fiction novel that bridges characters across time, and this is a particular sci-fi trope that really tickles my fancy, and I do want to start this review by saying that it’s a really hard trope to pull off effectively. You run the risk of leaning too heavily on one particular time period and letting the novel suffer as a result.
In Down in the Sea of Angels, I found myself drawn to the story of Li Nuan the most. Her story was compelling and heartbreaking and I wanted to stay with her for almost the whole story. By contrast, I found that the other two characters just didn’t have the same pull. I’m not quite sure whether it’s because of the setting or whether I just personally didn’t find the others compelling.
This had the effect of making Down in the Sea of Angels feel lopsided and not quite well polished. The dialogue often contains a lot of exposition and there is quite a bit of telling in places where more depth could have been added by showing. Good but not great, worth the read if you think it’ll be for you.

A glorious examination of how we interact with history, what makes family, and how humanity reacts to environmental disaster and a worldwide humanity decimating illness 👀
This is beautifully written, really thought provoking and utterly original. Covering three different time zones (one historical, one near future and one future / post-disaster event) it follows a different individual in each time frame, and in all honesty I could have read a book on each of them.
Given the state of <gestures vaguely at everything> right now, this wasn’t always the easiest of reads, but it was the kind of book that I had to write down quotes from, because it was so well written.
Very hard to talk about it without spoiling anything, but it is as time harrowing, and others hopeful. Also it made me want to visit Burning Man, and I hate anything that doesn’t have plumbing and / or mattresses!

review - 3.5
This book follows three people in three different timelines. In the 22nd century, Maida Sun is part of the rare population that was gifted psychic abilities following the 'Bloom' event. In 1906, Li Nuan is sex trafficked and seeks to find freedom. And lastly, in 2006, Nathan is a designer who has a revelation about child exploitation and environment and shows how a capitalistic society contributes to environment degradation. These characters are connected by a green jade cup which is passed through generations.

I was intrigued by the premise and the plot did not disappoint. However, I wish there was more shown of the 22nd century and how the world was after the Collapse. It felt as we were shown only glimpses of it. Out of all the characters, Maida was the most interesting to read about. Her rare ability and personality was quite fun and she was a loveable character. Li Nuan's chapters were disturbing to read and personally, I think at times were too graphic. I would've liked Maida and Li Nuan's chapters to be longer. There was so much more about Li Nuan that could've been explored. Nathan's chapters are the reason I felt the pace was slow at times. His timeline is closest to us and hence talks a lot about the capitalism and the upcoming doom that will come because of climate change. How, an individual can contribute so much to save the environment and yet the environment will be ruined anyway because some people are too selfish to care. However, I wasn't that big of a fan of how he was written. Sure, people in 2006 may have not known everything about child labour and climate change, especially since it was still debated whether climate change was a real thing or not, but Nathan came off a bit childish and even privileged. Therefore, his chapters made it a bit hard for me to remain engaged. One really good thing about this book is how beautiful the writing was. It flowed smoothly and the descriptions were well written. Overall, it was good but had potential to be better.

EArc courtesy of NetGalley, spoilers ahead.

While I did find several of the parallels to today in this book slightly scary, I still enjoyed myself reading this book.
I am slightly obsessed with the concept of psychometry as a psychic power, I think if they were real it would be my new go to choice of power. Particularly because I have always been a fan of looking at bigger issues though the lens of the small stuff, i.e. a jade teacup.
I felt so proud of Li Nuan for taking what she deserved whenever & however she could, and the same of Nathan for leaving behind his tech-bro arc.
Though getting psychic powers during the inevitable climate collapse is a bit far fetched I would go for psychometry as a power. It'd be useful for figuring out what belongs to people, and fun since I am proper nosy.

3.75 stars

Down in the Sea of Angels had such an intriguing premise — a psychic connection across time through a mysterious object and a richly diverse cast. I was drawn in by the potential for emotional resonance and speculative depth, but unfortunately, the execution didn’t fully land for me.

The structure of the story, jumping between three timelines and characters, felt ambitious but often left me feeling disoriented rather than immersed. While I appreciated the effort to interweave these lives, the pacing was uneven, and some character arcs didn’t feel fully realized. I found myself far more engaged with Maida’s story than the others, and I wish the emotional threads had been more consistently strong across all timelines.

Wong tackles important themes — exploitation, environmental collapse, and the fight for justice — but at times, the messaging overshadowed the narrative. I wanted more show, less tell. The prose is thoughtful, and there are certainly moments of beauty and insight, but overall, the novel struggled to maintain momentum and emotional impact.

This will likely resonate more deeply with readers who enjoy quiet, introspective sci-fi with a strong social conscience. While it wasn’t a perfect fit for me, I respect what the author was trying to do and appreciate the risks taken.

i really, really enjoyed reading this book. as a slow reader, i was surprised that it took me only four days to devour it - somehow, wong manages to merge beautiful prose and captivating descriptions with deep and thought-provoking reflections while making the reader fly through its pages.

☕️as a fantasy and sci-fi lover, i think this is both accessible for beginners because it features some elements from both genres without being too info-dumpy or heavy on the lore/worldbuilding and, simultaneously, it’s engaging and intriguing enough if you’re a more seasoned reader of the genre!

✨what i personally loved the most about this book was that, while fully engaging in reflection and critique of our current state of things regarding capitalism, consumption and environmental exploitation, wong also provides a beacon of light and hope by means of the 2106 timeline up until the end of the novel: as long as there are some of us left, the fight will continue. only through community will we ever achieve anything close to harmony.

🌈the portrayal of friendship and the importance of support networks was gorgeous and i ended up crying when i reached the final chapter (sorry, but you cannot include a whale character named Grandmother and not make me emotional, that’s totally on you).

🫂 in addition, this is also a perfect contender if you’re planning to participate in aapi month in may. i couldn’t recommend this enough 🤎

Three individuals separated by 200 years are linked by their physical connection to a jade teacup in this dystopian sci-fi novel. In 1906, 16-year old Li Nuan is a victim of (sex-)trafficking, fighting for her freedom in the slums of Chinatown. In 2006, a man working at the Burning Man’s festival confronts the societal inequity and climatological collapse of his time, as he’s composing a time-capsule that is to be buried during the festival. In 2106 in a post-climate-collapse future, a woman with the psionic ability to “read” an objects history looks into the past of a jade teacup, whilst being scrutinized by the authorities for her skills.

What I liked:
This book was a mixed bag for me. Although I really liked the themes the novel addresses, and liked parts of the stories individually, I felt like the whole was so much less than the sum of its parts. It’s a novel with strong ideas, which I appreciate. There’s a lot to contemplate after you finish the final page, and the novel is written in such a way that it makes these themes accessible to readers that are relatively new to them. I liked the plot well enough, and enjoyed puzzling along with the characters to unravel how their stories might become connected.
In terms of accessibility: the book is released in e-book, paperback and audio. I can recommend both the audio and the e-book, but the audio in particular has excellent narration that elevated the story for me.

What I didn’t like:
For a novel that’s hinges on the idea of connections through time, the connection between these three storylines felt incredibly flimsy. Switching between timelines often felt more like interruptions in the flow of the story, than adding to it. I also had a strong preference for some of the stories over the others. Maida’s story was probably the most interesting to me, and I’d have preferred it to have taken centerstage, whilst offering the other two stories more so as flashbacks. Li Nuans story has the potential to be incredibly powerful, but does not get enough page-time to delve into the atrocities that it “namedrops”. That made it very hard to read for me personally. We get glimpses at horrific sexual- and racial violence committed against minors, but there’s too little time to explore it with the care and attention it needs. I would’ve loved a full novel on Li Nuan, but as a smaller part of this narrative, I felt the incredibly heavy topics weren’t handled with the care I’d have wanted.
Nathan was just insufferable as a character. He came across as incredibly naïve to me; a grown man, only now realizing that social injustice and climate-impact are a thing…?! I understand the story that was being told here, but it had too strong ‘woke-privileged-teen-in-adult-man’s-body-vibes” to me.
Again, it overall made it into an unbalanced whole that was less than the sum of its parts.

What didn’t help:
On multiple occasions, the marketing draws comparisons to the work of Emily St. John Mandel. It’s in the tagline, the press releases and even the title (Sea of Angels/Sea of Tranquility seems almost deliberate). I don’t think that comparison does Down in the Sea of Angels any favours. I have to admit that it was a big part of why I requested an ARC, as Mandel is one of my all-time favourite authors, but that parallel was part of my disappointment in Sea of Angels. It simply lacks the nuance and literary mastery that Mandel has honed over years of writing, and selling it as “for fans of Emily St. John Mandel” might just not get it in the hands of an audience that is going to love it.
Something similar can be said about the cover. The bright and colourful art would be more fitting for a cozy-sci-fi, which is a tonal mismatch to the actual story’s content.

Many thanks to the Angry Robot and Dreamscape Audio for providing me with an (audio-)ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Three separate individuals are inextricably linked by one jade cup. A young girl trafficked from China, a fellow attending Burning Man and a psychic, I mean psionic, lady who’s new job is in jeopardy because of prejudice.

✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧✧

Plot
Unfortunately, this was a DNF for me, and I’m actually disappointed with myself. This is such a wonderful premise, but I got bored.
Out of the three characters, I feel that Nathan’s could have been removed all together. Despite how well it was written, I couldn’t bring myself to care about his Burning Man adventures or the new relationships he was forming along the way. I liked his connection to the cup and Li Nuan, but other than that I didn’t really understand his part in the story.
I really liked the premise of Maida’s story, especially with the potentially implications of her special abilities, where these came from and the impact of prejudice on her role. But that’s where my enjoyment stopped. Again, I just couldn’t care about her at all. Maida’s era being set in the future would also have benefitted from some world building, which I felt other than glimpses was missing. We know there’s been an apocalypse of some sort and this has changed the world, but I felt that it ended there and I was left wanting to know more.
And lastly Li Nuan. She probably has my favourite of the stories out of the three, and hers is incredibly bleak. I did find her transition from one prison to another interesting, but I wish there had been some light at the end of this tunnel.

Characters
Nathan – I’ve also written about the plot aspects, but his character didn’t really resonate with me either. There was a big anti-capitalism focus throughout his travels, which while an important and serious topic, felt like overkill, even with the link to climate change in Maida’s story. I enjoyed his relationship with his partner, and they were both very sweet, but I didn’t care about anyone else.
Maida – I really liked the idea of her story. However I found Maida very flat and uninteresting herself. I didn’t feel that she had any real personality beyond her skills or any real drive to improve anything for herself or the secret society that she gets embroiled in.
Li Nuan – another interesting story with some insight into her thoughts and feelings throughout, but I wish we’d learnt some more about her life before being trafficked to America.

The Good
The premise is really good. I love the idea of three interconnected people from different times, especially when its linked through an object.

The Bad
I found the characters flat and uninteresting in themselves. While their plots were good, the characters themselves didn’t quite live up to it.

The Ugly
Nothing ugly.

The Wrap Up
This is an excellent idea split egregiously into three separate story lines, all without the world building and character development to make them stick together with any kind of pizazz.

It’s been a while since I’ve picked up a science fiction novel that merges past, present, and future into its narrative constituents. While I do find that sometimes plots of similar ilk can be confusing, Down In the Sea of Angels managed to keep its varying timelines referential to one another without having them blend too heavily, and as a result the distinctive voice of each protagonist remained unique and individual.
Speaking plainly, this novel is definitely for history nuts who also happen to like science fiction. It reminded me a lot of The Chrysalids or Cloud Atlas in that it is definitely futuristic and speculative, but it also has this overlayer of the past influencing the present and future in strangely imaginative and sometimes terrifying ways. Personally, I found a lot of interest in all of the characters’ timelines, but Maida’s was definitely my favourite.
My one gripe is that because it is dealing with three protagonists in three separate timelines, the exposition was exceedingly heavy as each main character was introduced. This made the beginning of the book a little bit of a slog to get through, but I’d still recommend it as an overall story.

Fairly solid novel that shuffles between three different time periods in San Francisco (past, present, and far future) that all revolve around a jade teacup, and how three individuals in each (related in a way you can probably guess but I won't stop you) deal with conflicts in their lives, most of which involve oppression in some major way. Lovely read, and worth your time.

3 individuals centuries apart, psychically linked through a teacup, experiencing different horrors of their time.

The cover of this book absolutely doesn't do it justice of how dark and intricate this book is. We're mostly in San Francisco and this book covers everything from severe climate crisis to moral and ethical obligations of working in industries that are harming the climate, to being enslaved and powerless. If you want both a historical and futuristic sci fi/magical realism, this book is absolutley for you.

I loved this book. Set in 3 time periods including the future it is a wonderful story of human relations, corruption, anguish and survival. Lots of strong female leads and diverse relarionships. Thank you to the author. Thank you to #netgalley and the publisher for an ARC. Highly recommended.

the story is told from three different points of view, all in san francisco: li nuan, a chinese immigrant sold to a local mob boss and prostituted at sixteen years old; nathan, a designer at a tech company in 2006, and maida, a psychic who can sense the stories of objects by touching them. I loved how each character was so unique and how, together, they really told the story of the city from three different perspectives. the interlocking narratives were very well done and helped to drive home the point that the past is never truly gone and informs our lives every day.

on a fundamental level, this book was well-written. the descriptions were so vivid, I really felt like I was at burning man, or turn of the century sf, or the far future. it made the absolute horrors of the brothel, and li nuan's ability to survive through them, hit harder. all of the characters were compelling and I found myself really wanting to keep reading to see the conclusion of all of their stories.

there was a little bit too much info dumping about the future world and I think that ending wrapped up too nicely, but other than that. the story flowed well. I love how unique the story is-- from the focus on different types of psychic powers to the trippy view on all time as occurring in the same moment. I'm so glad that people are still writing books like this and that they're still getting published. angry robot is one of my favorite indie presses out there. thank you to them and netgalley for the ARC!

read for r/fantasy bingo 2025: lgbt protagonist

I love a good dystopian novel and as I loved the author’s previous book, The Circus Infinite, I was really excited to read this new novel.
The premise sounded brilliant, three characters living in San Francisco at different times but all three of them are linked together by a Jade tea cup. The main POV is Maida, a young woman with psychic abilities living in the year 2106. She has a very rare ability to be able to ‘read’ objects and handling the tea cup gives her insights into the cup’s previous owners and their lives. She learns about Li Nuan, a young Chinese girl who has been sold by her father and sent to San Francisco’s Chinatown in 1906 and Nathan, a designer living in 2006 who comes to see that things are very wrong with the way society is treating our world.
The main plot is in the future time of 2106. The world is recovering from a period of climate change leading to wars and famine. The former USA is now split up into separate areas each controlled by their own director. In this new era, a minority of the population have developed psychic gifts and are known as Psions. As you might expect with a group of people who are different, reactions to them differ and the book sees them treated as: useful members of society, feared for the power that they control or seen as a resource to be controlled and used by those in power.
I did enjoy all three of the character’s story lines to a certain and the amount of research carried out by the author really added to the depth of the stories. However, Li Nuan’s was by far the most gripping of the three and she came across as the most real character. Each time the POV changed to one of the other two, I found myself wanting to go back and find out what happened next in 1906.
I think that my main problem with this book is that by giving us three different timelines, I never felt that I really got to know any of the main protagonists. Li Nuan’s story is the most dramatic and the one that I wanted to read the most but neither Nathan or Maida really came alive for me. I can see why the author wanted to include Nathan’s story but I wonder if the characterisation would have been stronger if the book had just focused on Li Nuan and Maida?
I enjoyed the book and the author’s view of what our future might look like but for me, the lack of depth in the characterisation meant that I didn’t enjoy it as much as I had hoped. Still a solid three stars though.
My thanks to Net Galley and the publishers Angry Robot for allowing me to read this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.