I have to say that despite liking science fiction over the past few years I haven’t read as much as I would have liked to. Thankfully Ellis arrived with Apostles of Mercy and it scratched that itch. As always I won’t go into spoilers but I will say I thoroughly enjoyed this one, although I wasn’t a 100% sure where it was going to go.

I adored how Ellis covers emotions – I won’t say human emotion since her characters aren’t all human – but emotion all the same. I found the characters enjoyable because of this and even if I didn’t like their choices I did enjoy how realistic they were. They each have their own little quirks and ways which make them relatable. You really get to thinking while reding about the circumstances the characters are in and if you would do anything different. All in all I really enjoyed this one and will definitely be re-reading the series.

As always thank you to Titan Books and Netgalley for the copy to review. My review is honest and truthful.

Each instalment of the Noumena series has felt fresh and different from the others - with the one key similarity being me hopefully using "series" to refer to these books, and already eager for a further follow-up. Apostles of Mercy felt even more action-packed than the previous instalments - which is quite a feat. However, this is balanced alongside brilliant character development - even from characters you would previously have thought incapable of it. In terms of newer characters, I adored Paris. It was really interesting to see Cora's mindset changing and developing, and the world itself is slowly diverging more and more into alternate history as well. Once again, I eagerly await the follow-up, and hope there is one!
4.5 stars rounded up to 5.

I was so happy to get a chance to read this early, I've been eagerly awaiting the continuation to Cora & Ampersand's journey and it did not disappoint.

We deal with the impact of Kaveh's death in the previous book on both Cora & Nikola. The dynamics between Cora & Ampersand are further explored and Cora is finding her voice when it comes to the differences in norms between the two, which is great to see. Paris is a great addition to the core group and helped contribute to Cora's character growth and provided another point of view. I was happy to see more of Luciana & Sol too. The personal stakes seem ever higher in this one than in any of the previous entries and I was constantly at the edge of my seat in certain chapters revolving around specific characters.

The Physterines were fascinating and I could hardly put the book down as the conflicts between all the species escalated. The last 20% of this book especially, was just non-stop. You won't want to stop reading. The last chapter as well!!! I was expecting the story to wrap up with this novel but with that ending, I hope this is not the last we've seen of these characters.

Thanks to Titan Books & Netgalley for the chance to read this arc!