R. Smith

It was her last chance:Amber Bierce had nothing left except her sister and two tickets on Earth's first colony-ship. She entered her Sleeper with a five-year contract and the promise of a better life, but awakened in wreckage on an unknown world. For the survivors, there is no rescue, no way home and no hope until they are found by Meoraq-a holy warrior more deadly than any hungering beast on this hostile new world...but whose eyes show a different sort of hunger when he looks at her.It was his last year of freedom:Uyane Meoraq is a Sword of Sheul, God's own instrument of judgment, victor of hundreds of trials, with a conqueror's rights over all men. Or at least he was until his father's death. Now, without divine intervention, he will be forced to assume stewardship over House Uyane and lose the life he has always known. At the legendary temple of Xi'Matezh, Meoraq hopes to find the deliverance he seeks, but the humans he encounters on his pilgrimage may prove too great a test even for him...especially the one called Amber, behind whose monstrous appearance burns a woman's heart unlike any he has ever known.From R. Lee Smith, author of Heat and Cottonwood, comes an epic new story of desire, darkness and the dawn that comes after The Last Hour of Gann.

The Last Hour of Gann

Hunty

i’m literally never gonna emotionally recover from this

Great world building and characters, though I was 

 about the main human antagonist's resolution. He got off too easy at the end, and maybe this was a purposeful portrayal of "The world's not fair and the good guys don't always get satisfying revenges", but GAH.

One thing that I thought worked so so well was the language barrier between the dumaqi and humans - namely Meoraq and Amber. The way the learning itself is depicted is wonderful and sometimes hilarious. I loved how human speech was written in Meoraq's POV - mimicking roughly how words would sound to an outsider who did not speak English, but in a way that the 

 could still decipher. And how slowly, as the main characters learned each other's language, the speech became more and more discernible until they were basically just speaking normally to each other (with the reader clearly understanding that they're still responding in their own language unless specified otherwise).

The religious society of the dumaqi was very interesting, as was the final reveal at the end shedding even more light on it. 

The differences in how the humans and dumaqi display affection were well fleshed out. The aliens really seemed alien not just in appearance, but in their essence as a whole.

Loved that the dumaqi found all the humans ugly, describing them as "soft-skin" (affectionately), "flat-face" (less affectionately), describing lips as "floppy mouth parts", and just generally unappealing. I could really imagine how aliens who look nothing like us would find us very ugly looking when reading the dumaqi perceptions of the humans. From the humans' perspective, too, the 

 of the aliens was clear (although in the end they seemed more badass in appearance whereas humans just seemed weird)

Zhuqa as an alien villain was unforgettable. An unhinged psychopath who nevertheless managed to be 

 sympathetic. Wish he could get his own book. Iziz, likewise, was an 

Liza 

Great world building and characters, though I was so angry about the main human antagonist's resolution. He got off too easy at the end, and maybe this was a purposeful portrayal of "The world's not fair and the good guys don't always get satisfying revenges", but GAH.

One thing that I thought worked so so well was the language barrier between the dumaqi and humans - namely Meoraq and Amber. The way the learning itself is depicted is wonderful and sometimes hilarious. I loved how human speech was written in Meoraq's POV - mimicking roughly how words would sound to an outsider who did not speak English, but in a way that the reader could still decipher. And how slowly, as the main characters learned each other's language, the speech became more and more discernible until they were basically just speaking normally to each other (with the reader clearly understanding that they're still responding in their own language unless specified otherwise).

The religious society of the dumaqi was very interesting, as was the final reveal at the end shedding even more light on it. 

The differences in how the humans and dumaqi display affection were well fleshed out. The aliens really seemed alien not just in appearance, but in their essence as a whole.

Loved that the dumaqi found all the humans ugly, describing them as "soft-skin" (affectionately), "flat-face" (less affectionately), describing lips as "floppy mouth parts", and just generally unappealing. I could really imagine how aliens who look nothing like us would find us very ugly looking when reading the dumaqi perceptions of the humans. From the humans' perspective, too, the weirdness of the aliens was clear (although in the end they seemed more badass in appearance whereas humans just seemed weird)

Zhuqa as an alien villain was unforgettable. An unhinged psychopath who nevertheless managed to be sometimes sympathetic. Wish he could get his own book. Iziz, likewise, was an excellent alien antagonist toward the end. 

Jessica Lynn

Ugghhhh I wanted to love it so much... the first half was actually really good. 800+ pages of amazing world building too. but god damn when the whole plot is about how the planet makes people fucking angy as hell it really makes you want everyone to fucking die at the end of the book. i wanted to slap the shit out of every single character every time they opened their mouth. i powered through it and read it all, but i will never read this book again.

Heather

This book was soooo long ! It mainly explains my low rating
Good : world building, character development
Bad : too long , conflict between some protagonistes are repeated dozens of times. 
The authors did an excellent job to make me hate almost all protagoniste. 
The Last hour of Gann pictures sone of the ugliest faces of humanity, not an enjoyable read.

The Last Hour of Gann

Reviews