"Axiom's End" by Lindsay Ellis is a riveting debut that melds first-contact science fiction with political intrigue. Set in an alternate 2007, the story explores human-alien relations through the eyes of Cora Sabino, a whistleblower's daughter. Ellis skillfully delves into themes of communication and trust, making for an intellectually engaging and emotionally resonant read.

How is this for a tagline - Alternative history/Men in Black/Transformers/First Contact/Conspiracy Theory - it really is a mash up of all these great science fiction tropes, and most importantly, it is a great mash up.

Thank you to NetGalley and Titan Books for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

I wasn't aware of Linsday Ellis' work before reading this book, and I'd definitely have to call myself a 'fan' now. I've been enjoying all of the recent content that they've put out and this book is no exception. I really loved the fun, 2000s vibes that this book had to offer, alongside the great descriptive writing style and really interesting storyline and well developed characters.

Unfortunately, the publisher approved me for an ARC of Axiom's End but archived it within 10 minutes of the approval.

I have tried to contact the publisher on multiple occasions with no luck, which is really unfortunate.

Given that not giving feedback will damage my ability to request ARCs in the future, I don't really have much of a choice but to leave this.

I've given a 3 star so that I'm not being unfair to Lindsay - and I do plan on picking up a copy of the novel in the near future regardless.

I'll be reviewing it on my Goodreads and on talesfromabsurdia.com.

Axiom's End has a great premise: the US government has made first contact and covered it up, but now a whistleblower has revealed it to the world. Unfortunately I found my interest waning as the book went on, as the plot didn't quite seem to go anywhere. I also spent the whole time wondering why it was set in 2007 - perhaps so the Julian Assange-like figure predates the real one? Or simply to criticise George W Bush? It's never quite explained. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

I received this from the publisher via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

Axiom’s End follows college drop out, Cora Ortega. She’s the daughter of a whistleblower, leaking government documents that put himself and his estranged family under threat. Cora is dealing with complicated feelings about her father when she is inadvertently wrapped up in the very thing her father leaked to the world - first contact with aliens.

To keep herself safe, Cora positions herself as translator for our extraterrestrial visitor, known by the name Ampersand, and is thrown into a world of secrecy, violence and Superorganisms (the term used to describe the three races of intelligent beings in the world).

Lindsay Ellis’ writing is simple and engaging. It is easy to read through even the most complicated of notions about this new alien species, which is a benefit to a first contact story. While the first quarter of the book was quite a standard first contact story, the rest of the book begins to develop into story that is entirely Ellis.

Her sense of place in time is very strong, hinting at the research done about the time (which she has publicly shared aspects of on her YouTube channel), and her worldbuilding around the race of aliens was very unique. These are not humanoid aliens - in fact, they are incredibly not human. There are lots of descriptions that take inspiration from animals on Earth, that Cora quickly points out as being a ‘not quite’ comparison.

Considering the importance of the aliens in a first contact story, I was impressed with the aliens. Ampersand in particular is ridiculously interesting and it is their character that Cora (and by extension the audience) understand the other aliens with. The initial distrust they feel about the human race - developed because of their last visit where humanity was not at its greatest - which creates a realistic understanding of an individuals interaction with the foreign.

There is definitely a conversation here about colonisation, the interaction of foreign entities and culture clashes that are prominent across any example of two previously known groups meeting. Through this, Cora and Ampersand are forced to confront their own understandings of the world, their own opinions of each other and the audience are asked to apply this to the world around them. (These are common topics usually shown first contact stories but I did enjoy how it was handled here).

Cora as a protagonist is an anomaly. She doesn’t have a traditional arc for a main character - she doesn’t particularly want anything, except for everyone to get off her back. She’s quite happy to be invisible, and it is only when dangers start to mount and that she grows attached to Ampersand that her motivations become more solid - wanting to be proactive, not wanting to allow the death of someone if she can stop it.

Traditionally story arcs usually have the main character having a want at the beginning that is given and questioned, before the character receives what they need. Arguably, Cora doesn’t have a want. She is brought along through the will of the plot (mostly Ampersands and her not in the picture father) and when she does make decisions proactively, it is usually in response to something she anticipates or has been told will happen.

I personally didn’t notice this as a problem, but I understand why some criticisms have been layered at this character. I think Cora’s lack of initial motivation works in terms of her life being turned upside down, never really having a choice and her acceptance of that, until she realises she does have the power to do something. I also think this reflects the idea of powerlessness in comparison to alien life that fits well into a first contact story.

I hope that Cora gains more personal agency in the next book and builds on the ideas of freedom of choice that arises in the latter half of the book.

Axiom’s End is a good first contact story. I enjoyed the worldbuilding around the alien race, and the complexities shown in Cora’s relationship with her father and with Ampersand. I haven’t read a lot of first contact stories, so I found this a good first step into the specifics of the genre.

I will pick up Lindsay Ellis’ next book, either in this series or otherwise.

I had such high expectations for this! I love Lindsay Ellis' video reviews and analysis, so when she announced that she was writing a first contact sci-fi book, I was really intrigued and hopeful. When the blurb started comparing it to a mix of Arrival (which I have seen, but not read the short story it's based on) and The Three-Body Problem (which I still need to read), I was really interested in reading it. To say that this was a disappointment would be to underplay just how much I bought into the hype. But let's also be very clear. This isn't a bad book, it just feels like a debut in ways that other books I've recently read hadn't. It has some tropes that just didn't do enough for me, it has some rushed sections and more importantly, it has a main character that I really couldn't care less about.

Cora Sabino is the daughter of a known whistleblower who, in the autumn of 2007, reveals that the US government has been engaged in first contact for decades. For Cora, this spells nothing but trouble and she wants nothing to do with her father and his fame-hungry approach. Except her dad is right and Cora's family is more involved in the cover-up than she ever believed - and yes, aliens are on Earth and have indeed been in contact with us for decades. So when Cora finds herself caught between peril and the opportunity to become the interpreter of the aliens, she accepts the latter and starts on a path to uncover the truth. Truth might be a human right, but as Cora finds out very quickly, it is not an easy path to tread and soon, she has to make some difficult decisions and choices of her own.

Now doesn't that make Cora sound like a strong, independent protagonist who seriously pushes the boundaries and all that? Well, that would be a lie. A lot of stuff happens in Axiom's End, yes, but so much of it happens to Cora rather than because of Cora that she ends up feeling like a passenger in her own story. While initially I could believe her anxiety, her uncertainty, the more things progressed, the more she frustrated me. She took next to no initiative. She seems to have very little in the way of intuition, or courage, or anything. Ampersand says something to her, she doesn't always believe it, but she won't push, or research, or even talk to anyone else. No, she will just take the information at face value and then get Shocked Pikachu face when it just blows up.

The main thing here is that Cora isn't even picked as a translator through anything but sheer chance. The comparison to Arrival turns out to be shallow (kind of like Cora) because she doesn't actually make much of an effort to communicate with Ampersand or the rest of the Fremda group and instead has a lot of it delivered to her on a metaphorical silver platter. It removes a lot of the struggle for me, a lot of what made Arrival interesting, seeing people genuinely try to bridge a gap between ourselves and a space faring species that doesn't look or think or behave anything like us. It is a story of hopeful first contact, whereas Axiom's End has the heroine propose to be an interpreter and become one immediately. Why her and not Luciana? Or Dr Sev? Or even Sol for that matter? Because the plot demands that she's the one, that's why. There is nothing inherent about Cora that makes her special or worthwhile for Ampersand.

Beyond this, there is the whole question of what Ampersand is. There are deep existential questions here that Ellis just sidesteps neatly. What kind of civilisation would make first contact with humanity? What are they like and why humanity? What could humanity learn from such a civilisation? And yet Cora is such a non-entity that she doesn't care about this. She doesn't care about the technicalities, she dismisses anyone who does care and she is so self-centred and boring to read about that I couldn't bring myself to care about whether she succeeded or not. And because of Cora, we never explore these topics in any way or depth. At times, I wondered whether Ellis actually has the chops to pull off these questions or whether the sequels will just sidestep them all over again.

Finally, there is the point that I haven't seen people mention a lot: this is, in effect, a Beauty and the Beast retelling. If you're familiar with Ellis' oeuvre, then this won't come as a shock to you. It wasn't a shock to me either, once I realised what she was going for and while I can see why, I again struggled to really feel like Cora is the right kind of protagonist for this. Ampersand's relationship to her feels shallow and it just comes out of nowhere, in a way. Again, Cora herself just doesn't carry the gravitas required for something like this and I honestly couldn't even find myself cheering for the relationship when it happened. Again, it was something that she earned without really trying.

If this reads like an overtly negative review, I would hate for people to think of it that way. It's not intended to be. There is the germ of a great novel in here and Ellis is able to keep the plot moving along. But for me, characters are what really makes a story and Cora is not it. Do I intend to keep reading the series? At the moment I'm not sure. It will depend a lot on the synopsis and early reviews, because if Cora doesn't change as a character, then it will feel like a chore to read another 400+ words of such a passive, nothing sort of protagonist. But if she manages to find a spine, then I would definitely reconsider.

Having watched Ellis for years on YouTube, it’s obvious she knows what makes a great story. But she’s also proving to be a talented, insightful writer who can really get what it means to be human. This novel made me reframe my own thoughts on what it means to live on our small rock together, and in this time where I feel a lot of anger towards strangers, it’s given me a lot to ponder about our intelligent species. It’s gripping, original, and has so much heart. Sure to become a SciFi classic.⁣

4,5/5 *
It was a weird, gripping and entertaining read that I liked very much.
It's a sci-fi/alternate history that kept me hooked and made me think because there's the author deals with issues like freedom of information and how to communicate with who is different.
The world building is interesting and the character development excellent. The plot is fast paced and kept me hooked.
The only con was that sometimes it was too much and I got a bit confused.
I recommend it.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

ci fi is a genre I have been longing to really ‘break into’ for some time. 2020 seems to be the year as I am having such great success with the sci-fi releases I am picking up. Lindsay Ellis’ Axiom’s End was no exception!

Unlike some of the other sci-fi books I have been recently reading, this one is both set on our planet and set a little time in our past. Ellis takes us back to 2007, a time when Bush was still America’s president. It is also a fictional time when America has received first contact with aliens. Or have they?

Whilst the sci-fi focus remained distinctive throughout, this also dealt heavily on the topics of both freedom of speech and the containment of information by the government. The release and obtainment of knowledge featured heavily throughout and, asides from the aliens, was one of the most intriguing aspects of this, for me.

Aliens and politics make a great combination!

I’d no idea what to expect from this book but I was looking for something a bit different. I’ve started to read more sci-fi recently as it’s a genre I neglect a lot. I also really enjoy alternative histories. Cora is a great main character, flawed but easy to get behind, an unlikely person to be involved in first contact with an alien race due to her father’s infamous leaked hoax. I liked the style of the writing and quickly got caught up in the story. The dialect and behaviour of the aliens took a while to get used to. I also liked the leaked hoax documents dotted between the chapters.

Firstly I would like to thank Titan books and Netgalley for both a digital and physical arc of this book. This is a shorter review than usual as I was tied by an Instagram character limit. The spoiler section is an addition.

"Life is common, intelligent life is not"

Axiom's end is set in an alternate 2007, conspiracy theories and a wiki leaks style culture is high - our protagonist Cora sadly forms part of the fallout and we follow her as the unlikely pioneer of first contact with an alien race. The books was one which I became immediately caught up in, the writing was intelligent, I felt immersed in the story and the cat and mouse style in the early stages gave it a thriller feel. As Cora starts to realise the gravity of what she has been caught up in and the depth of what has come before I really felt for her. Se was a fantastic character and she was portrayed sympathetically given her age. The book gives a deep and thought provoking look at the caste system and no matter how intelligent the life is there are always those who are looked down on. Ampersands description of their society is sometimes chilling and the exploration of two unlike species trying to find commonality felt grounded.

Unfortunately the dynamic between Cora and Ampersand didn't sit well with me which I'll explain more in the spoiler section below. 

Ultimately though I found this an exciting read which was interspersed with leaked documents to give context to the story - I found myself not wanting to put it down and if you get a chance to follow some of the internet links in the book, give it a try!

3.5







SPOILERS




I have to now say that an otherwise excellent story was completely marred but what I felt to be a problematic relationship between Cora and Ampersand. I've spent a long time looking at other reviews and it seems I am alone in this and whilst I wonder if it's just me and i perhaps read it wrong, I can't escape that it angered me. Cora is your typical teenage girl who has lost her male role model which leads to poor life choices. Firstly it's a loose beauty and the beast retelling which I find bizarre in the context, Cora is a teen and Ampersand is 600+ but what the real kicker for me is the feigned use of consent. It's like "isn't Ampersand all cool because he asks for her consent before he touches her" like he's considerate of her feelings. But lets remember, he simply asks "do you consent" she never knows what type of touch she is consenting to and just blindly keeps saying yes and then hoping for the best. All this pales in comparison to the fact that without her consent Ampersand "fusion bonds" with her in order to keep tabs on her after the tracker he forcibly implanted in her (by holding her face down in mud) is forcibly removed by another alien he has fusion bonded with. This is an utter violation of her mind gone unchecked, it appears that the two species fusion bond differently (who would have thought) and Cora is able to "feel" Ampersand. The conclusion is harrowing for Cora in my view, she discovers that she has been blindly running into dangerous situations, ones which literally leave her cleaved almost in two, because of this fusion bond link. She can no longer think for herself as all her thoughts are consumed by her bond which she did not consent to. I personally find this sinister and this is the life that Cora now has forever.

I have been watching Lindsey Ellis's videos for years and was pretty intrigued when I heard about this book.

This is told in third-person, following closely to Cora. Work pretty well. I do like Ellis's voice. The side comments common to her videos do appear in this novel. Her writing style is familiar and enjoyable. A lot of description is given so we do a clear idea. It's one of the novels that I would like a visual adaption of just to see how they would do it.

There are some horror elements that are done well, I wouldn't rec as a straight horror novel, but there was a good tension.

Cora is a relatable character (in we're both dropped out college after the second year) and likable enough. Relationships get quite complex, due to all the characters not being able to be honest with each other for a multitude of reasons. I'm invested in seeing these characters again in the next novel. Also, this book has two dogs in it who are obviously the best characters.

Cora is also sapphic in some way, having had a girlfriend in the past. No labels used but is always nice to see a Queer protagonist off doing things unrelated to their sexuality or gender.

This book is technically a historical, alternative universe. What if during George W. Bush's presidency...Aliens? The setting of 2007 doesn't seem that essential but maybe we should all set our novels a least a decade back because there sure are a lot of accidental alternative timeline books that came out this year. This is the start of series so the 00s setting might become more important. So far it's just referencing things that were popular in 2007. I know Ellis has been writing this book for years (possible since 2007) and I think the main reason setting was the political landscape of 2007. I suppose the more I think about it would have to fictional politics or set in a different decade for the events of the novel to happen. I also enjoy how much Pop culture that Cora has not seen. I do remember 2007, so its definitely not nostalgic read.

Overall, I give this book 4.5/5 stars for Canned Corn. I'm really excited for the next book in the series.

Cora’s family life is in turmoil. Her parents are separated and it has been months since she’s had contact from her whistleblower father. She has just messed up at her job and her mum is on her case to fix it. Then the world goes to hell as the truths her whistleblower father uncovered barrel into Cora in the form of a monster.

Forced to become an interpreter for an extraterrestrial being in order to save her family, Cora has to think on her feet and try to navigate a relationship with a powerful being entirely alien to her.

This book was like nothing I’ve ever read and it was fantastic! I devoured it in less than two days. Cora was a brilliant protagonist, really likeable and brave. The plot was fast paced and there were so many interesting ideas!

The relationship building between the humans (Cora in particular) and aliens was great. The fear and mistrust layered on top of a need for information and survival. I was riveted and couldn’t put it down.

A binge worthy sci-fi that was intelligent and thought provoking. Highly recommend!

The novel seems to begin almost in the middle of action - and it took me some time to really get into the story. It was very fast paced and had a lot of information early on, but once I caught up I couldn't stop reading! It puts a fascinating spin on a first contact trope, the relationship between Ampersand and Cora was likely the most interesting part of it (alongside his intentions and in general the exploration of his past and emotional trauma) and whilst at times I found the prose a bit forced the plot itself was so carefully weaved that it makes up for it! This was an excellent debut and I can't wait for the second installment!

The description for Axiom's End makes the story sound like it's about truth, that it'll ask questions of whether or not the public has the right to know everything the government knows. Whilst these are important questions, and ones that the book does address, this isn't what the book meant to me, or what I really took away from it. Anyone who's watched through Lindsay Ellis' videos will be aware that one of the topics that seems to come up a lot is that of monsters, and about loving them. This is probably best explored in her video essay 'My Monster Boyfriend', but is by no means the only time that she talks about it.

Monsters used to be surrogates for fears, for the worries of the times when they were made. Whether it's the fear of people of colour taking the 'virtue' of white women that was at the heart of films like Creature From The Black Lagoon, Birth of a Nation, or even King Kong, or the fear of american values being replaced by communism in Invasion of the Body Snatchers, monsters have stood in for real life people for decades. But as long as that's been a thing so has monsters being a source of love. Stories like Beauty and the Beast, to even further back and myths like Eros and Psyche which dates back to the 2nd century AD, tell stories of people falling in love with inhuman creatures.

Lindsay Ellis talks about these themes a lot, whether it's when she's discussing Disney movies, or her love of Phantom of the Opera, as such I shouldn't have been surprised to see these themes featured so heavily in her book.

One of the two leads of the novel are the human woman Cora, a young woman who's having to deal with the fact that her absentee father is on the run from the authorities, and that his quest for 'the truth' has made the lives of his family difficult to say the least. They're investigated by the authorities, tailed by shadowy figures, and the press. Add on to this Cora's difficulty with having recently moved back home with her mother, and her trouble keeping a job, we meet Cora when she's dealing with a lot. Because of this, I wasn't quite sure what I felt about her at first.

At times I was able to identify with her, I could look at some of the struggles she was having and see similar things from different times in my life. But there were also times she came across as naive and foolish, and seemed to not really have her life together. But then really who does?

The other main character is Ampersand. He's a little less easy to describe. He's an alien. And not like any kind of alien that I've experienced before. The way that Lindsay describes him makes him so inhuman, more akin to combination of animal and machine. Yet I pictured him with a strange sense of beauty and almost regalness. I saw this alien creature that at times made me think of an insect, at others he was quite feline, or even deer-like. But through it all there was something about his that fascinated me and grabbed my attention.

Much like Cora, when we first meet Ampersand he's not the nicest of people. He can communicate with Cora, but barks orders, comes across as threatening at times, and doesn't seem to have any kind of interest in people beyond using them to achieve his end goal. He certainly never seemed to regard any of them as being worthy of thought or care.

But when these two came together something magical happened. Cora had to grow up all of a sudden, she had to step up to responsibility and out herself in a position that would test her beyond her limits; and Ampersand, he had to learn that his initial opinions of humans was wrong, that we're not just violent, animal like creatures, but were worthy of not just his attention, but care.

The relationship between the two of them never felt strange, and the fact that he's so alien helped this. This isn't a girl falling in love with a vampire or a zombie because he's a hot boy, or even something resembling a boy. This is two beings learning to like each other from an intellectual level. They connected through their minds and personalities. Because of this the love that seemed to form between them never felt cliched or hackneyed, it felt real.

Whilst they seem to form an attachment like a working relationship, bordering on friendship, there's a scene where Cora is scared and feeling alone, the weight of everything crushing down on her, and Ampersand comes to comfort her. He sees this being that's so alien to him, who he barely understands at time, and he sees that she's suffering and can't help himself from helping her. The tenderness that this alien creature shows this young woman is so genuine and earnest that that was the moment I realised that these two could fall in love. Not a physical love, driven by hormones or sexual desire, but a love for who the other is, driven by a desire to see the other happy and safe.

There's something that happens towards the end of the book where it looks like Ampersand might be revealed to be a villain, and it made my heart break. I was so hurt that this creature I'd fallen in love with alongside Cora could have been evil this whole time that when this is proven to be false I was so unbelievably happy. I could't have dealt with that level of betrayal from him. The book ends with the two characters closer than every, with an undeniable connection that's so akin to love that I couldn't see it any other way. These last moments of the book, with the two of them together, caring for each other made me cry. physically cry. I'll cry at tv and film all the time, hell, half the stuff on the internet gets me; but a book has never gotten me like this. It's never made such a raw emotional connection with me before.

I spent much of the rest of that night and the day after thinking about this, considering why this story connected with me so much, about why I came to care about Ampersand to the point of desperately wanting to read more about him. I went back and watched the video essay Lindsay made about loving monsters to see if that might help me figure some things out.

Monsters are shunned by society. They're seen as ugly. It's assumed that they're threats to the way of life, that they're here to do awful things. And whilst sometimes this is true that's not always the case. Because monsters don't have to represent our fears anymore, they can represent us too. They can act as stand ins for marginalised people, people who are shunned by society, who are seen as threats. I realised that I connected with Ampersand so much because I'm a monster too. At least in the eyes of some people.

People like myself, and many others, others who are viewed as 'different' and 'other' get told that we're not normal. We're told that we're more violent, that we're a threat to women and children, that we're predisposed to violence, that we'll always be alone in the world because we're freaks. For a long while I was alone, and couldn't help but hear those kind of things and believe them. Maybe I was a monster, maybe I was doomed to be alone forever. I never dreamed that I'd find a loving connection with someone and be happy.

So when I saw this happening with Ampersand, when he and Cora began to form this friendship, which would go on to blossom into love I couldn't help but project a little onto him. Ampersand means so much to me because I was that monster at one point.

Axiom's End became a story that meant something to me. It connected with me on a personal level that I never thought it would. The characters came to mean so much to me. If I could meet Ampersand in real life I would in a heartbeat. I'd love to see how beautiful he is, to see those wonderful eyes he has, to be held by him like he holds Cora, because I've gone and fallen in love with him and what he represents.

Axiom's End might be a story about truth, it might have stuff to say on government accountability and censorship, it might have amazing aliens and an intricate story, but to me first and foremost this book is about love. It's about showing people that no matter how you see yourself, or how others might see you, no one is really a monster, that we're all deserving of and capable of love.

I doubt that Lindsay herself will ever read this review, but if she does I just want to say thank you. From the bottom of my heart, thank you. This book is special. It means something. And I love it. Words can't do my feelings on this book justice. It is everything I never knew I needed and more.

Axiom's End is a novel about alien first contact happening in 2007, and what happens when one college dropout with a celebrity whistleblower father finds herself tied up in it. Cora Sabino's life feels like it is going nowhere, even literally as her car breaks down, and she can't even avoid hearing about her estranged father, who is headline news after leaking a government memo about aliens. It starts to become apparent that her family have been tied up in alien presence for decades, but then suddenly Cora must make a decision to attempt to save herself and her family: become and interpreter for an alien who recently came to Earth. As she uses her position to try and find out the truth, it becomes apparent that there's a lot at stake, and that really understanding each other may not be possible for different species.

I don't usually read sci-fi, but I've heard of Ellis from YouTube and the premise focusing on truth and cover-ups sounded interesting so I gave it a go, and found the story gripping and enjoyable. The connection between Cora and Ampersand, the alien she becomes interpreter for, has an interesting complexity, particularly the ways in which trauma affects them and how much they must accept that they don't understand where each other is coming from. I didn't quite engage with all the alien worldbuilding (why I don't tend to read sci-fi in general), but I could still enjoy the plot even when I'd forgotten the meaning behind some of the extraterrestrial words and concepts. The 2000s setting felt quirky, and on reflection makes me wonder if in future books (as I think this is the first in a proposed series) the alternate history elements will become more foregrounded.

The story really drew me into this book about truth, interpretation, and the attempt to understand others. Maybe those who read a lot of sci-fi will find this more standard fare, but as someone who doesn't, it was an enjoyably accessible novel, with unresolved elements that suggest towards sequels.

DNF 40%

I really really really wanted to like this as over the years I've found Lindsay Ellis' youtube content to be both entertaining and interesting. I even watched the video in which she talks about getting this book published.
Nevertheless, I can't help but to feel the way I do (sounds lame, I know). While the idea for this book is intriguing, the execution is a wee bit underwhelming. I didn't particularly warm up to Ellis' prose, which came across as somewhat flat, and her characterisation and world-building too seemed rather flimsy.
As I don't really like to criticise Ellis, I'm not going to go into more detail. I hope other readers—who perhaps haven't read a lot of speculative fiction—will find this novel more satisfactory than I did.

Sadly this wasn’t my cup of tea. I was really interested in the premise but the writing kind of took me off guard. For some reason it felt slow and just as I was getting interested again I would loose interest. There seemed to be way too much going on and I wished the author focused more on certain things and less on others. But the plot seemed to go back and forth and it felt chaotic. I would definitely recommend it for people who enjoy the ‘first contact with aliens’ trope. But for me it didn’t quite reach my expectations.