Cover Image: Aphra's Child

Aphra's Child

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Member Reviews

This book was a great story if woven magic and mystery. The characters were well written and the pace never felt lagging. Great Read.

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This was a very interesting read. Started off a bit slowly and I wasn’t warming to Aphra or Tula. As it progressed it got much better. The characters were filling out and developing and the story was progressing at a good pace. I’d figured out the main plot point quite early on but it was nice to have it confirmed. I will need to pick up the next part.

Provided by NetGalley for an honest review.

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NGL, I immediately went into this book thinking Tula was like some sort of teen version of the little girl from Full Metal Alchemist- so, right off the bat, you know where my brain was. During this story, you can see the shift of Tula's character from naive to a well-informed individual. She was raised away from society with her mother and soon had to go after her, forcing her to assimilate into a society she's never known to find help and get her mother back.

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The plot was not as great as I hoped it to be. I could not grasp Tula and her motives at time, I just don't think this book for me.

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"Tula is a chimera: half human, half animal. She has lived her whole life hidden away in the forest with her mother, Aphra – the only other person she has ever met. That is, until marauders come and take Aphra away, leaving Tula scared and alone. In an attempt to find help, Tula sets off for the city; a place where she must hide her animal side and adapt to city life to avoid anyone finding out that she is an illegal chimera. Sucked into a world of harsh politics and lies, she must do all she can to not be discovered."

Reading this as a teacher, I think the parallels that can be drawn between Tula's struggles to find her place in a world which doesn't accept her, and our own society's attitudes towards race are so important. This would be a fantastic book to use to spark conversation around equality, and it's one I will probably use in my classroom in the future to open these discussions with older children.
The pacing is good, although perhaps a little slow in the beginning, but this allows you to understand the world and the characters fully in order to engage with them.
Glaister shows an unusual talent for bringing real world issues into her writing in a way which is accessible and engaging.

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Unfortunately I could not get into this book and did not finish it. Other readers may enjoy this more.

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This is the first book in the Chimera Trilogy. Our protagonist, Tula a 16 year old Chimera, is trying to find her mother, Aphra. This is made harder by the fact she is not familiar with the outside world. The story starts a bit slow, but it picks up and was quite enjoyable. I am giving this a solid 3 star review.

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Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for this copy of Aphra’s Child by Lesley Glaister for review.
This is a YA fantasy of a similar world where humans unhappily co-exist with chimera (their lab created slaves) and a young girl who is a hybrid of each and stuck in the middle.
Tula starts off very sheltered and naive in the beginning and that was probably the biggest struggle for me as a reader. It feels like she is constantly being taken advantage of the first 80% of the book and I was waiting for another calamity or result of her poor judgement to happen. The story is paced very well and there is some good character development and world building going on. It felt a little middle-grade instead of YA to me. The small bit of romance is very chaste and except for a very disturbing scene at a restaurant most of the violence is pretty tame.
I give this one 3.5 stars. I wished for a little more edginess out of our main character and I personally prefer a little more romance. I think it could have benefitted from some more tension and heart pounding action in the middle. It was a little too much of “someone stole my belongings again” and begging strangers for help.

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Given the very limited blurb, I was very unsure what to expect from this book. I have not read anything else by the author, but given the fact that according to the blurb she is a critically acclaimed author, I thought I'd give this a chance. Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I really loved the fact that the main character was a chimera. The story is a little bit slow at the start and it takes a little while to get going, but toward the middle of the book, it really picks up.

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So many times I picked this one up, but I just couldn't get through it.

I'm not sure what it was about this book but it just didn't capture me. I wanted to love it and the cncept sounded really great, but this one just wasn't for me.

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I just couldn't connect to the main character. Behaviour of other characters wasn't explained. I was left with a lot of questions and glad when I had finished it.

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In a world where chimeras have been created to do jobs that people don't "want" to do, such as having Jacks (horsemen) pull carts, Tula has to find her feet when her mother is kidnapped. Tula, a chimera, has been hidden from society so that she would not have to face the harsh treatment of others.

I was disappointed whilst reading Aphra's Child. It had so much promise from such an interesting premise, but ultimately the pacing and writing of the story let it down. I would be interested to see if the next installment was an improvement.

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A slow start to this but I think intentionally as it works youinto the story and once there, you don’t want to stop. Great world building, wonderful characters, such a breeze to read as it sucks you right in and you don’t want to leave. I loved the MC Tula, such an emotive, well written character. Great book and can’t wait for more.

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

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Aphra's Child
by Lesley Glaister
Stirling Publishing
Sci Fi & Fantasy , Teens & YA
There is something sweet innocent fragile and precious about this tale as far as the main character as well as the evil of people. It brings to mind the classic pen "A calf with two heads' as well as the 'Wicked' series while maintaining a place of its own. The book is centered on an unusual and too sheltered from the world young girl and her attempts at survival after being tossed on her own and thrust in another environment from any she has experienced It also has strong themes of how people have no qualms in creating and victimizing others for their own means then having the arrogance of then trying to destroy them when feeling threatened. The kwepie in this was straight out of "Fairyland [Paul McAuley]" complete with all the soulless, selfishness and cravenness. I would definitely recommend and this is a good read and food for thought on where your moral compass is standing .

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This was a strange but very imaginative story. I haven't read anything quite like this before and have read a lot of Sci-Fi. A story of Chimeras who have multiplied and filling a subservient roll in the service of "normal" people. There is obviously objection to this and groups are trying to change the status quo. Unfortunately it appears to be the beginning of a series so you don't get to find out very much. It certainly seems to be a story to follow.

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I enjoyed this story, especially in that it can be interpreted in a couple of different ways (a story about Chimera and also as a parallel to society and racism/segregation and politics) which makes it both a nicely written story about a sheltered girl trying to find her way in the world and also as a story with a deeper and often darker message about our society and people and how we all treat others.
Tula is a likeable teenage character and as she has lived an exceptionally sheltered life with just her mother and she behaves as you would expect a naïve teenage girl to behave. She is trying to rely on herself for the first time ever - she is trying to navigate what she has always been told by her mother along with what she feels is right and at almost every turn she is taken advantage of,
I don't want to give too much away, I did have my suspicions about who her father was after first meeting the character - I was very briefly, but cleverly made to question if I'd got it entirely wrong at the point it was confronted!
It ends well, but comfortably leads to a continuation in the series and I definitely think it would be a good book for somewhat younger readers to approach social and political issues with the topics that run deeply through it.
One of my favourite quotes from it was "Cleansing . . .How can something so cruel and wicked, sound like a pure, simple thing . . ."

If I were able to give half stars I would give an extra half - but I can't, sorry! I must also thank NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read this.

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Tula lives alone in a secluded glen with just her mother Aphra, where no one ever visits. That is until the day of her 16th birthday, when Aphra is abducted by marauders.

She knows little about herself other than she is Chimera; half human/half animal born with a monkey’s tail. Her father is unknown but she has inherited the same beautiful voice of her mother.

Alone and scared, her mum always said that if anything happened to her she needed to head into the city and seek out Dr Monk. Consequently this young and naïve, yet resourceful girl embarks upon a perilous journey where she experiences betrayal, manipulation, prejudice, adventure and a romantic interest.

Tula is a likeable character that you get behind from the start. She has a youthful eternal optimism, a strong will and keen principles. She is sheltered and so naturally is more immature in her approaches as a result of this and the conversational dialogue used reflects this.

It is a light and easy ready. Perhaps a bit light on depth, which left the story wanting a bit. The characters weren't particularly well developed but this didn't stall the flow or progression adversely. It has laid itself open for further books should its younger audience, (where I think there will be greater appeal), desire it.

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Tula is a chimera: half human, half animal. She has lived her whole life hidden away in the forest with her mother, Aphra – the only other person she has ever met. That is, until marauders come and take Aphra away, leaving Tula scared and alone. In an attempt to find help, Tula sets off for the city; a place where she must hide her animal side and adapt to city life to avoid anyone finding out that she is an illegal chimera. Sucked into a world of harsh politics and lies, she must do all she can to not be discovered.

The story was a little slow to get started, which made it difficult to get into. It got more interesting towards the middle and did stick in my head after I’d finished, but I didn’t manage to get fully engaged in the story throughout the whole thing.

I liked the general idea behind the story. Depending on how you choose to read it, it is either a solid fantasy adventure about a chimera trying to find her place in a world that doesn’t seem to want her, or a social commentary on race reflecting our own society. I tend towards the former, because I read to escape, but it is worth noting that this is a book with potentially meaningful layers.

Lesley Glaister is an extremely talented author. She has a knack for writing about real-life issues within a diverting and engaging story. However, this is the first fantasy of hers that I’ve read and I didn’t rate it as highly as some of her other books. I’m a massive fan of fantasy, but I actually prefer Glaister’s less fantastical novels.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

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Oh this was so good!.. Complex character development and world building... Thank you for providing me advice copy!.. Thoroughly enjoyed it!

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When Aphra is kidnapped from her remote cottage, her daughter Tula is tasked with trying to find her, but having never visited the city before – what surprises lie in wait?

Aphra’s Child contains a well thought out world which has some nice, dark undertones to it. The prospect of the Chimera and the mixed breeds are interesting, and we also hit on some much darker notes towards the end of the book with things such as the Velvet steaks and the Kewtie-Pie dolls. I think more expansion of the politics involved and a bit of the history of how the Chimera came to be in existence would be interesting to explore in future novels.

My main problem with the book was with the main character Tula. Especially in Young Adult fiction I think it’s so important for female heroines to be headstrong and a bit independent but Tula is none of those things. I found her quite unlikeable and hadn’t even warmed to her by the end of the story. She is naive to the world which does give the reader a bit of needed exposition which can be realistically placed into the narrative. However, she seems to have no clue how to behave and waits for everyone else around her to steer her around the plot (mainly men which is a bit of a shame). It even says at one point ‘if only there was someone she could ask’ - then when she does finally make a decision it’s usually completely the wrong one. She hardly makes for a good role model!

I don’t usually mention formatting in ARC reviews but this book is now out so I should mention it isn’t well laid out for the kindle. Sentences are broken up oddly and chapter names aren’t formatted correctly so they just look like random words inserted into the narrative which makes it hard to read.

Overall I enjoyed the world that Aphra’s Child is set in, I just thought that a underdeveloped main character ruined what could have been an interesting plot. Hopefully in future books in the series Tula will grow up and be a lot less annoying! Thank you to NetGalley and Stirling Publishing for a copy of the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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