And again a highly engrossing book. I very much like this world. It may be classified as SF, but it feels very fantasy-like to me. Every now and then I had some annoyances (the keeper being a bit whiny, as understandable as that may be. A few scenes that felt repetitive of what happened in book 1). Overall though, enough was happening and enough veils were lifted that I raced through this book. The characters are mostly not all-in-all lovable (the only exception being Lad), sometimes you want to kick some of them, but they feel real in all their stubbornness. And they are sympathetic. Events at the end make me really curious to see how this will continue, so I'm going to check out book 3 now... ( )

And again a highly engrossing book. I very much like this world. It may be classified as SF, but it feels very fantasy-like to me. Every now and then I had some annoyances (the keeper being a bit whiny, as understandable as that may be. A few scenes that felt repetitive of what happened in book 1). Overall though, enough was happening and enough veils were lifted that I raced through this book. The characters are mostly not all-in-all lovable (the only exception being Lad), sometimes you want to kick some of them, but they feel real in all their stubbornness. And they are sympathetic. Events at the end make me really curious to see how this will continue, so I'm going to check out book 3 now... ( )

Although it took me a little while to remember who everyone was and their relationships to one another, given how long it's been since I read the first book, I still found it easier to get into this book than the first in the series. Not because I could slip back into a world I already knew, but because the first book began with an origin story, which while necessary for worldbuilding for me felt very divorced from what came after.

I like the story best when it's in the meat of it, and when Tanyana is at her most relatable, which it lost a little bit again towards the end of the book. I understand the necessity, plotwise, but it still drove a wedge between me and the protagonist. There are a lot of moments where I think it could be made clearer what's going on--I love mystery and ambiguity, but this felt too murky and deliberately obtuse in places--but despite that I enjoyed this book a lot, and the overall arc of the story even more. ( )

Suited is Book #2 in The Veiled World Trilogy by Jo Anderton. We reviewed Book #1, Debris, which I loved. Check near the bottom for the link to that review. If you’re into scifi, potential distant futures, and/or technology then Books 1 & 2 of this trilogy might make a great summer read for you. Even though Suited contains a brief recap at the beginning, I recommend reading Debris before reading Suited. This is one case in which I believe the stories are too interdependent and complex for Suited to stand alone. Read the rest of my review at http://popcornreads.com/?p=4234. ( )

Suited was a surprising read. The first part was as expected a more or less direct continuation from Debris. After the somewhat disastrous events at the end of Debris, life in the city of Movoc-under-Keeper goes on. Mostly. Tanyana returns to debris collecting with her team and the other citizens of the city go about their usual jobs, albeit with a lot more repair work.

However, the world is not going back to how it was. Pion binders trying to repair damage are finding that they can’t, or that their repairs are short-lived. The debris collectors just can’t find much debris anywhere, even though the damaged pions suggest it should be everywhere. And the sinister puppet men still seem to be everywhere when Tanyana looks closely. In short, doom is looming.

In Debris, Tayana spent a lot more time worrying about her own life than she did in Suited (and Suited is much more about fixing/saving the world than Debris was). It made her a more likeable character, although there were parts where I don’t think she was supposed to be sympathetic, shifting more towards scary.

The romantic plotline, while no more prominent than in the first book, is handled better, I thought. I didn’t quite find the genesis of the relationship in Debris believable, but that was definitely not the case in Suited. I also like how Tanyana spent more time worrying about saving the world and less time worrying about her relationship issues (some of her friends spent more time worrying about her relationship issues than she did).

The ending was strange. The climax went as one would expect but the denouement did not. Of course going into detail would be spoilerific, but suffice to say there’s definitely room for a sequel series.

This is not a book to read without having first read Debris. I don’t think it would make all that much since since a lot of the foundation world building is done in the first book (as you would expect) and is critical to the plot. That said, this is an excellent series and I highly recommend both books to lovers of fantasy.

4.5 / 5 stars

You can read more of my reviews here. ( )