Review: Slow and a bit confusing at the start but very good once you get your bearings.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 18, 2014
The plot and setting in this book are a huge undertaking. I’m not even going to attempt to explain it all. I’m only going to give a very basic description. Santuario is set on a different planet. This is a planet which has been colonized by the original group. Later, another group of colonists arrived. The original colonists had no interest in integrating the two groups. So, they set the new group up on an island and have restricted interaction between the two groups. What is left are two races living on the same planet who know virtually nothing about the other. Their standard of living, culture, language, and political situation are drastically different.I spent a good portion of this book confused. The first few chapters had me completely baffled. I found myself thrown into a world without much explanation. The sheer number of names and terms being thrown at me was overwhelming. Then, things slowly started to fall into place. I didn’t exactly understand the world, but it was beginning to pique my interest.Now, this book is centered around a group of murders which happen on the isolated island. Bengt is a police officer from the mainland. He is sent over to the island investigate the murders. His counterpart on the island is Alex. Bengt and Alex were an interesting mix. They were hostile and could barely stand to be around each other most of the time. A romance developing between the two of them seemed unlikely when they first meet. A polite working partnership is a stretch initially. It takes a long time for the two of them to come to any type of understanding.This is a book set in a very confusing world. Bengt and Alex are interesting as individuals and seeing them forced to work together made them even more interesting. The romance is so negligible that I wouldn’t even call it slow-burn. It’s non-existent for the majority of the book. When it does appear, it is an understated revelation. It may have taken a while to get going, but it was great once it did. My only complaint was that the book ended right when everything started to pull together. I want another book to finish out their story. I need to know what happens next!