Radiant by Karina Smith SumnerFirst in the Towers Trilogy
3.5 stars
Xhea
lives in the ruins beneath the floating Towers, where most of the
magical influential people reside, and even in the slums she’s an
outcast. Xhea is magicless. She lives in a world where magic is key to
everyday survival and she has to pickpocket and con people to survive.
She does have something she can use to her advantage- she has the
ability to see ghosts still tethered to this world. A rich man from the
floating City comes to Xhea with a spirit of a young girl attached to
him. Shai, is a Radiant, she has so much power generating within her
that she sustains her Tower to keep floating in the sky. Shai’s Tower
won’t let her go so easily and this outcast is going to have to learn to
make a friend and save a life.
"Maybe up close you don’t
notice it, but Towers are always falling, always rising. Fortunes made
and lost, goals achieved, lives ruined. Little shifts of magic and
status, horizon to horizon.”
Radiant is like witches and
zombies in a dystopian world, but not actual witches or zombies. The
most unique thing about Radiant in a sea of overhyped dystopian dribble
is that the world itself is complex. The world ended long ago and the
humans that remain all have magic within them. Certain people have
enough magic that they are able to sustain or help sustain Towers- which
are giant skyscrapers floating in the sky. People who don’t have this
much ability or weren’t born into families that live there live in the
desolate remains of New York City. Xhea as a character in this world is
even more complex because she is magicless, or so she thinks. It is
revealed very early on that Xhea does have a magical ability, but it
isn’t one of much use and she is technically still useless in this
magical world. The zombies who aren’t really zombies are even more
complicated. They are basically these creatures who roam around at night
in the slums of NYC and it’s not 100% revealed if they eat people are
if the reanimations of dead people from before the destruction of the
city occurred or after. This probably makes zero to no sense.
The
coolest thing about Radiant is that there are flying elevators! How
cool is that? The elevators are controlled by magic and Xhea doesn’t use
them for a long portion of the book because well she is magicless and
has no use for them.
Also because Xhea doesn’t have
magical abilities her whole world is only black and white, which is a
pretty amazing concept and it was very well done. I liked the feeling of
a bleak outlook through Xhea’s eyes. It made it easier to see how
different she was in this world.
"Normal people don’t have ghosts.”The
main female characters are Xhea and Shai. I really like both Xhea and
Shai. Xhea has a lot of great backstory that is slowly revealed bit by
bit in different times of the story. Her past is what really molded Xhea
to be the reclusive, untrusting, snarky person we meet. She was also
very sneaky, but it’s a talent she needs to survive and evade the people
who try to capture her. Xhea did have her annoying moments and there
were times when she would just become a drag to read about (but it isn’t
overwhelming to the story). I like Shai, but I also feel like she
didn’t have enough development or background. She did get a good bit,
but I feel like I never truly met Shai. It was always Shai the Ghost,
not Shai before she died.
Kick-Butt Heroine Scale: Xhea-6.5 Shai-6There is NO romance in this story.
I
know it’s a weird thing to come across now days in YA dystopian, but
there’s only friendship and me shipping Xhea with this guy named Brend.
I’m not 100% sure why I shipped them because I read this story last year
(June-November).
There weren’t too many characters in
this novel besides Shai and Xhea, but the ones introduced didn’t feel
concrete or as impactful to the story’s development as they should have
been.
Character Scale: 5The thing
that bogs Radiant down is that there is too much going on at one time.
Just the world alone is weighty. Throw in all the action and character
development of Xhea and this book feels like it’s sinking in water. This
book is 400 pages and that’s not a lot, but because of how much is
packed into this story it felt a bit overwhelming. The ending was solid
and action packed, fun, but it was wrapped up very nicely. Maybe a
little too nicely for the first novel in a trilogy. While I do think
I’ll give this series a shot, with the ending I feel like it’s not
something I need to pick up because it was pretty satisfying.
Cover
Thoughts: I like the cover a lot. It has a very good perception of the
world and it fits the story, but why does the girl have blonde hair? I
was under the impression that she wasn’t white because she had dreads.Thank you, Edelweiss for providing me with a copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.
I'm sorry for my absence. I've been in a bit of reviewing slump and lost my mojo. I'm trying to focus on school right now and while I want to write reviews every week or even several times a week, I can't at this moment.
Unwept by Tracy and Laura Hickman
