Axiom's End: 1 (Noumena)

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No Historical Figures Were Harmed: According to Ellis, Nils Ortega is functionally based on Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, although his personality is not. She begins to do so, but doubles back when she realizes that Obelus has found Ampersand and is attempting to negotiate. Though he agrees, he notes that, given their disparate constitutions, they will never truly know each other. Speaking of conclusions, I did have to put the book down and absorb a bit of what was being set up in the final chapter.

Suspenseful and inventive, but also funny and full of action, Axiom s End remixes the Hollywood alien-invasion playbook. If it's not clear by the username, I love aliens in fiction, especially aliens that have human friendships.S. government might have engaged in first contact has sent the country into turmoil, and it is all Cora Sabino can do to avoid the whole mess. In the two years since, she’d grown accustomed to the ever-loudening squealing of the fan belt, but on this morning, after she put her key in the ignition and the engine turned, the squealing turned into a hostile screech. Realizing the extent to which both she and the public have been lied to, she sets out to gather as much information as she can, and finds that the best way for her to uncover the truth is not as a whistleblower, but as an intermediary.

She neither knows nor cares whether her father's leaks are a hoax, and wants nothing to do with him until she learns just how deeply entrenched her family is in the cover-up, and that an extraterrestrial presence has been on Earth for decades. 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.

Ryan Britt of Syfy Wire said that Ellis's authorial voice serves to "demystify" the story's central concepts: "Luckily, unlike so many 'big idea' sci-fi books, it's utterly unpretentious. It was close, like it was being dragged along on a hitch, so close she could see the faces of the two men in the front seat clearly.

Let's just say that when it hit me what had happened, which was confirmed a few pages later, I had to sit back and give thanks Ellis was unafraid to explore the softer sides of hard sci-fi. On the driver’s side was a younger-looking man of East Asian descent, seeming to curse whatever cosmic force had made him be awake this early. If I had to describe it without giving too much away, I would say this is the best Transformers fanfic I've ever read. No Body Left Behind: The amygdalines in the Fremda Group make sure to disintegrate each other's bodies after death, to prevent the humans from studying them. 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 went back and watched the video essay Lindsay made about loving monsters to see if that might help me figure some things out. Disappeared Dad: Nils Ortega, Cora's father, ran off and has been absent from his family because of his role in the conspiracy. It's built up throughout the book as something he had to do for the greater good, but it's ultimately subverted. Disintegrator Ray: Obelus' main method of killing, in which he disassembles the molecules of his victims, leaving no trace. Cora is an alternate name for Persephone of Greek Mythology, a story that Ellis has discussed before in her videos.

Aliens Speaking English: Alien Ampersand speaks perfect English, as does Obelus, because they've cracked an algorithm that lets them learn all Earth languages perfectly—or rather, they know Earth languages; the way amygdalines vocalize is totally incompatible with human speech, so Ampersand uses a high-tech text-to-voice gadget. Upon waking up, she realizes that Ampersand has arrived with the Genome, but is refusing to turn it over. An alternate history first contact adventure set in the early 2000's, pitched as Arrival meets The Three-Body Problem , by video essayist and New York Times bestselling author Lindsay Ellis. Their otherworldly connection will change everything she thought she knew about being humanand could unleash a force more sinister than she ever imagined.

Discussed in regards to the "Great Filter" — a hypothetical barrier that prevents intelligent life from colonizing the galaxy. A disheartening thunk thunk thunk followed, then a snap, then an angry whirr, all before she could react.