It didn’t take me long to get engrossed in this book. Definitely a page turner.

This is, easily, one of the best books I’ve read in a long while. I could barely put it down, and, when I had to, it was impossible to stop thinking about. The relationships throughout are spectacular and moving, and they guided the story wonderfully. The political climate Ellis decided to place this in was PERFECT. I can’t think of a premise better than Axiom’s End’s The-‘08-Crash-But-What-If-We-Also-Had-First-Contact. Absolutely brilliant. As well as this read, I was able to listen to the audiobook during a road trip and recommend it just as much! I’m counting down the days until the sequel!

Page turner, emotionally & action packed, thoughtful, suspenseful, complete. A great read.

i bought this book at 11 at night and by 7pm the next day i had finished it, with occasional breaks for sleep and drawing. i’ve never been so drawn to a story and it’s characters. the world building is also incredible with plenty left open for speculation and spin off works. Ampersand is adorably awkward but very willing to understand Cora and her feelings and needs. He possesses a level of empathy we’re only used to attributing to humans, something we have a hard time conceptualizing coming from anything non-human, despite him being entirely alien. Cora is such an amazing example of a strong female character written properly, and the casualness with which Lindsay describes her past dating girls is very much appreciated. Representation of LGBT characters, especially of women, often centers on their gender or sexuality in a very reductionist un-nuanced way. the twist was also built up very well while not being obvious, and the emotionality of it is in no way lost with the reveal like many twists are. if i could rate this higher i would, it is quite literally the best book i’ve ever written. thanks lindsay, excited for the sequel

The first contact subgenre seems to fall into 3 categories; ET-type (cute, cuddly, helpless), War of the Worlds (invasion, war), or Star Trek (humans but with one defining, different trait). Axiom’s End seems to be following in the vein of stories like Arrival that want to wrestle seriously with the truly /alien/ parts of first contact. It contains some of the action and intrigue you would expect from the ET version, but combines it with serious introspection about culture clash, language, and the power of information. There’s a distinct point in the story where a similar book would allow the aliens to blast off and wrap up the story with a simple return to status quo. To Ellis’s credit the work is put in to resolve the plot beyond an acknowledgement that humanity is fearful of the Other.

I will be looking for her next book.