Liquid Crystal Nightingale by Eeleen Lee is a sci-fi/space opera with a lot of potential but not a lot of payoff. I found it disappointing and a little cliché. The writing style is fine, but the characters aren't memorable. I didn't hate it, but I definitely didn't love it.

Excellent premise but couldn’t get past some personal triggers on character suicide.

Sadly not for me

Honestly, I have to respect the swing Ms. Lee goes for here with the detail of the world building aboard this space mining station. I do feel like she got a bit lost in the forest for the trees for the description of the world at times, but the ending that she attempts to pull off, and the further questions of identity it invokes are intriguing. Doesn't fully land for me, but an interesting read nonetheless.

I really wanted to like this book as it has great elements: the universe, the cultures, the variety of body augments, and the politics, to name some. However, I found it hard to get into this book, despite really liking the sheer weirdness of everything. The story felt stuffed with so much, and I think that if I'd been in a slightly different mood, I may have been able to get through this book. For now, I'm walking away.

This was a really interesting book. I was intrigued by the far-future setting, and the way Eeleen Lee slowly draws the reader more and more into the story. It didn’t follow the typical three-act story arc, but instead felt more like a whirlpool - at the beginning, things were a bit slow and scattered, but as the story progresses and more is revealed, you’re more and more invested, until finally the story ends with the climax.

Pleo Tanza is the daughter of the only survivor of a mining tragedy. In recompense, the children of the miners were all offered an “opportunity” to attend an elite school… where Pleo’s twin sister commits suicide, and Pleo is later framed for the murder of a rival student.

My tastes tend to run towards a lot of descriptive worldbuilding and character development, so there’s so much more I would have loved to know about Chatoyance and Pleo and the Artisans and what on earth actually happened to the miners… and, really, everyone and everything in the book. The author gave us just enough information to suit the story and pique our interest, but there’s clearly such a rich history to this world and all the characters, that I came out of it wishing the author had given us more. This was such a fascinating book, and I don’t regret reading it, but at the same time it was so confusing and disjointed at times, that I don’t think I’d seek out a sequel.

It's sometimes difficult to gauge how much priming a reader needs when you are world-building. Future societies which may or may bit have any connection to Earth, having left that in the distant past as a space-faring race expands through the galaxy, doesn't mean the stories don't often end up being hyper-local, and the problems of an individual still very human. Liquid Crystal Nightingale tries to open up with its human problem, a teenage girl on public transport with significant angst, before colouring in the world of Chatoyance around her. Pleo, our protagonist, is the daughter of the sole survivor of a mining disaster, she, her twin sister and the children of the other victims of the disaster picked for specialist schooling, which is a broad cover for body modification and experimentation. It is quite impressive how quickly Lee zooms in from this world, to this community, to this hyper-specialised school for cybernetically modified fan dancers, and its only then that the real plot of the book is revealed - its a mystery.

Pleo is an interesting if introspective protagonist, and you do see in her struggles a pretty universal striving for freedom. This is a world mired in class struggle, and within the school a class struggle between students. There is a little bit of invention overload in places, the mystery is partially reliant on another worldbuilding breakthrough being revealed, and there is a sense that the story we are told is a little tangential to some of the larger stories hinted at (I wouldn't be surprised if Eeleen Lee doesn't return to Pleo and/or Chatoyance - together or separately). With so much going on it took quite a while for me to really settle into the book, but once I did it was compelling, and I would also be interested in a return, particularly as it feels that Pleo has solved someone else's problem but has barely made a scratch on her own.

Intricate world-building sets up an interlocking set of characters and plots here. It reminds me a bit of early Neal Stephenson books like Reamde and The Diamond Age - at less than half the length, but with some of the political plots of the Vor books by Lois McMaster Bujold. An excellent start for a new author, I look forward to reading more in this series. Some mysteries were resolved, but many more left to uncover so I very much hope to read more in this series by this author.

I found this tough. Murky storytelling, setting that was less interesting than I hoped, and perhaps the most abrupt, inconclusive finish I have ever read. I assume a sequel is planned but I fear I won’t be reading it. Three stars for adequate world building and middling mystery.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for the ARC. The premise sounded interesting but unfortunately the book was just not for me. I found it difficult to get interested in the story.

This book is honestly really, really good. The author has an excellent understanding of what makes a good dystopian novel, and the worldbuilding is truly original. The plot is solid, with some minor flaws that could be fixed with editing.

Occasionally, characters’ actions and minor plot points feel inexplicable and unexplained. For the most part the in world vocabulary is explained by context, but I was really wishing for a glossary and more visual description.

Overall this is a great book, and I look forward to reading more.

**Liquid Crystal Nightingale by Eeleen Lee** is a vibrant and intricate science fiction novel set in the far future on a floating city in space. The protagonist, Pleo Tanza, navigates a world of political intrigue, corruption, and rebellion following the mysterious death of her sister. Lee masterfully blends themes of identity, trauma, and social inequality with rich world-building and vivid imagery. The story’s unique setting and complex characters, combined with Lee’s elegant prose and suspenseful plot, create an engaging and thought-provoking read. A must for fans of speculative fiction, it challenges readers to ponder the boundaries of human experience in a technologically advanced society.