A World of Secrets (The Firewall Trilogy #2)
Published July 16th 2020 by 47North, Kindle Edition 302 pages
Taimin and Selena must discover the truth about their world—before it’s too late.
In a world of secrets, Taimin and Selena are desperate for answers. They need to discover the truth about their origins and the firewall that borders the wasteland. If they don’t find the hidden path they seek, the citizens of Zorn will die.
As they make the perilous journey to the distant firewall, Taimin and Selena are joined by three companions: a young healer, a weapons trader, and an old rover. Together the five are in constant danger, unable to rely on Selena’s powers as she has lost the ability to farcast—and she doesn’t know how to get it back.
Now Taimin finds himself hunted by a new enemy—a strange creature on a bloodthirsty quest of his own. Taimin and Selena get ever closer to the answers that are essential to their survival. But will they learn the truth in time to save themselves?
User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
The plot thickens! I am satisfied with the plot until now. The answers for Firewall, Zorn being huge, the Suns, the constant reference to Earth were good enough.
Telling instead of showing is a bit less in this. But I still couldn’t feel that much for Ruth/Vance. (Ruth and Lars were such assholes to Vance at the start of the book.)
I still want the explanation for the mystic power and Aurelium.
With the big revelation, I’m excited to see how the author takes the story from here. Surely, the odds for Taimin and co. are very bad. Will all the races return to their respective planets? Will there be an outside rescue? What happens now with Ingren?
I can’t give this a 5 stars because of the introduction of the bonded at the start. I was hoping for a big ‘oh!’
Total time spent: 5h 55min.
Rating: really liked it
A World of Secrets is a really great book with a beautifully well built world. I am a really big fan of the third person narrator and of how the author tells this story. The characters are well developed and we can see that they have overcome so much in their journey and they grow through their adventures.
I can't wait to read the last instalment of this trilogy!
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for this eARC.
Rating: really liked it
While I absolutely loved the first book. This second in the series through me for a big loop. The ending was not what I was expecting at all.
Rating: really liked it
Definitely a stronger story than the first book, but still not one of my favourites. Still full of convenient predictable story lines and tropes. Characters are meh. The overall plot and theme saves it though. I will still finish the series to see what happens.
Rating: really liked it
A WAR IS COMING!
So I like where this series is headed. I have to admit, it wasn’t anywhere as good as book one, or as king, to me but still a great adventure.
Rating: really liked it
That ending really did everything (and more) for me with what book 1 was insinuating. So excited to see where book 3 takes it.
Rating: really liked it
Stronger storyline than the first book, this is a great sci-fi dystopian combination. I’ve grown attached to the characters and look forward to the action in the next installment of the series. I especially like the social development of the different “races” coming together to fight a common enemy. Good patterns of unraveling racial injustice...
Rating: really liked it
Special thanks to Netgalley and Amazon Publishing UK for providing me with an eARC.
An exciting sequel to The Girl from Nowhere, A World of Secrets is a follow-up readers dream of. The story is interesting and well-paced and isn’t hard to understand if you’ve read the first book (which, in the case of this series is 100% required reading). The first book was an enjoyable read, but the second is only an improvement. It’s a quick read and almost impossible to put down. With much of the world-development laid out in the first book the second takes the time to develop its characters more. With that said there is still more of this world to discover. And though the story at times comes off as predictable, it's predictable in the sense that the events make sense to the story and the reveals are exciting “I knew it!” moments.
There is always room for improvement, of course, in the realm of writing. There are a large number of redundant descriptions as well as unnecessarily ones. Additionally, some developments in character relationships seemed sudden and which added to a disconnect between the reader and the characters. Some revelations could have been handled better, but suffice regardless.
I would recommend this series to any science fiction fan, especially readers who are interested in series that include humans interacting with other species. The first book was good, the second great, and I have high hopes for the conclusion of the series.
The full and final review will be released on Geek Declassified on July 15, 2020.
Rating: really liked it
InterestingTaimin, Lars, Ruth, Vance and Selena set out to find what was beyond the firewall. Their travels are difficult, especially with Taimin's deformed foot. Lack of water almost ended them, but they survived. They meet races along the way, all the while searching for information on the firewall . Some answers are best to remain hidden.
They encounter two strangers from an unknown origin. They are giants with horns on their heads. The male wants to fight Taimin, but when he sees that he is crippled, turns and leaves. What can that even mean?? I
Others aren't so easy to trade with and certainly not to trust. It's an interesting story with lots of strange antics. Want to know what happens??
Read on my friends
Rating: really liked it
(I was given a free copy of this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review)
A World of Secrets is the sequel to A Girl from Nowhere and is the second book in the Firewall trilogy. The first thing I am going to say is that you must read the first novel before you read the second one! I know most people typically will, but if you don't read book 1 first you'll miss some major character growth from the first story. The two novels are also too tightly woven together to be treated as independent novels! With that being said, it's time to give you some opinions on the book.
When I read A Girl from Nowhere (book 1) I have to be honest and say I didn't like it all that much. It wasn't because the story was bad, but rather the writing style was difficult to connect with. The biggest issue with the first book was that the author would 'tell' us everything that was happening instead of 'showing' us, which made me feel too disconnected from the novel. Well, I'm happy to say that this book was so much better!
One of my favourite things about this novel is that the overall story arch is very intricate. It's evident that everything had been planned out from the beginning as the story perfectly tied books 1 and 2 together and it seems like it will seamlessly flow into book 3! I also loved the characters a lot and I was very pleased with how James Maxwell connected the different races in this novel. They bothered me a little at first but he definitely took some turns in the right direction in this book!
As you can see, I overall gave this book a 4 stars. In reality it's closer to a 3.5 or a 3.75 but I've rounded up to a 4. It's definitely a solid novel and an exciting addition to the trilogy! I can't wait to see how the series concludes!
Rating: really liked it
Oh Mr. Maxwell, I really really tried to get into this one. A Girl From Nowhere had such great potential, and the battle scenes were masterfully choreographed, but what we got in A World of Secrets is the story-bridge equivalent of Back to the Future Part II.
Yes, we did get to see a bit more of the relationship between Taimin and Selena grow, and a pretty big character roadblock was “fixed” in a cheeky way that, in my opinion, was an insult to the character.
I will say, I did enjoy the last quarter of the book, but the first three-quarters felt, to me, like a bit of a drudge. There was some slight character development, and the story slightly pushed along, but much as in Back to the Future Part II, this was just a platform to bridge book one to book three without really adding much to the bigger story other than a pivotal twist at the end.
Yes, the pivot was practically genre-jumping, and a real game-changer in what is going on, but we had to get through a lot of what basically gets flashed into irrelevancy in the final pages of the book.
I do understand that there was a bigger journey that was important to what was built up in book one, but the transition to the “big reveal” came across, again, in my opinion, as mildly insulting.
Sadly, I just don’t have the motivation right now to continue on to book three.
Rating: really liked it
They are not aloneThe second installation finds Taimen, Selena, Lars, Ruth, and Vance on their trek to try to find a way through the firewall to the verdant world beyond that Selena and Taimen glimpsed at the end of the first book.
The group get to the desert and encounter a pair of the bonded, one a warrior on a quest to prove himself worthy of being a marshal, the other his mate and advisor. The quest is to take trophies in the Wastelands: the head of the fiercest fighter of each of the five races.
While Taimen's group works their way to the place marked on the map they copied in Zorn, the bonded track them and the warrior takes on Taimen, only to find his lameness a detriment to the quest. Taimen survives because of his crippled leg, and the group hurries away, spreading the news of the "giants" that are the bonded.
Follow along as Taimen and Selena try to find a way to get to the green world on the other side of the firewall. Their paths bring them to new, unexpected friends and enemies. And finally to the source of the firewall itself. Can they figure out the mystery in the desert to realize their dream on the other side?
Rating: really liked it
Solid craftsmanshipI have long been a fan of the genre and I appreciate the play between fantasy and science fiction. The prose is clear and the pace well controlled and to my taste. I think, however, much as I simply enjoy the world craft here, which is indeed interesting, I particularly appreciate the honest, irreducible personal challenges that are not just grafted on to characters For Plot Reasons. They are challenges that make a serious impact on the nature of characters who grow and change and cope and struggle to integrate their bodies and minds into a coherent whole being. I appreciate that solutions don't feel like deus ex machina nonsense that often just feels like the writer has decided the struggle is too much to deal with. To avoid getting spoiler-y, I'll leave it at that; solutions make sense and I appreciate the set up for the next book, which I am very much looking forward to reading.
Rating: really liked it
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this eARC
Although I have not read the first book in this trilogy I did not feel that I was missing crucial information when reading the book. The history written of the main characters was enough to be able to create an image of them that helped to give them personalities.
The trails and triumphs that the main characters experienced throughout the book was interesting and I found myself wanting to continue reading. The writing flowed and although some parts were a bit bland it kept my interest until the end. The storyline between Taiman and Selina was good as was The way Tainan saw himself and his disability and how it affected his relationship,with Selena.
Rating: really liked it
Brilliant follow onWow, what a story. At first I thought it was going to be a really slow read, something based in the Stone Age or similar but a real change in the style grabbed my attention and all of a sudden I couldn't put the story down. A great mix of tribal warfare and ancient history affecting the future and then the revelation at the end that they were in fact descendants of travellers from other worlds. A good detailed description of life under a constant threat and a touch of the mystic added to spice it up. Add a bit of the future in the sciences behind the Firewall and the struggle against an unknown enemy and BANG! A really good read. I will now be reading all his other publications.
