#lora beth johnson

[caitsbooks]

BookTok || Goodreads || Bookstagram || Twitter  || Reviews

[i-breathe-therefore-i-read]

Bookoween 3. For the Aesthetic 

[literary-lion]

Goddess in the Machine | Book Review

Goddess in the Machine | Book Review

Science fiction has never been my genre but I received this in my OwlCrate subscription and I always try to read books I owe. I had very low expectations going into this book especially because excerpts involving future slang seemed particularly annoying. I was, however, pleasantly surprised by the story actually inside and am even considering reading the sequel. I love what Johnson has done…

View On WordPress

[youthbookreview]

Hi! Have you read Goddess in the Machine by Lora Beth Johnson? Any time I see a post about wanting more good fat representation I have to recommend that book, it’s one of the best books I’ve read this year and the MC is fat + nonwhite and has love interests and her weight isn’t a big plot point except that her lowkey abusive mother treated her badly because of it. It’s a great YA sci fi novel and the author studied linguistics and it super shows in the language she creates, it’s so cool! Just wanted to pop in and recommend this and say that I love your blog!

This legit sounds like something I’d LOVE! Thank you so much for the recommendation, I’ve added it to my TBR!

[alexandriaaan]

Hi, since I can find no fandom for the Goddess in the Machine book by Lora Beth Johnson, I will be creating it myself. First order of business, do we have a ship name for ZhadexAndra yet? Ahade? Zandra? Yeah, Zandra is better. Anyways, this book stole my heart, I love it, and it deserves a fandom!

[2021ya]

THE DEVIL IN THE DEVICE

Goddess in the Machine #2

by Lora Beth Johnson

(Razorbill, 8/24/21 7/13/21)

9781984835956

Add to Goodreads

Purchase from Bookshop

The thrilling, much-anticipated conclusion to Lora Beth Johnson's Goddess in the Machine duology. Zhade's power might be going to his head. He's still getting used to wearing Maret's face, but he can't deny that the influence it affords him has its perks. But when the magic of Eerensed starts to turn deadly, Zhade must master the Crown if he's going to save his people, and Tsurina's destructive plans for Eerensed aren't going to make that easy. Worse, he's starting to see her point. Meanwhile, Andra is in hiding. Assumed dead by the people of Eerensed, she must stay underground if she's going to live long enough to build the rocket that will finally save the colonists from this dying planet. But when Andra hears voices urging her to destroy everything, she starts to dig deeper into her subconcious. What she finds leads her to question whether she's destined to be a savior after all. Battling the dangerous forces buried within their minds, can Andra and Zhade truly decide their own fates? They must find a way to work together before two power-hungry leaders and a deadly swarm of rogue technology destroy humanity for good.

[thelittlecoffeecat]

Tomes and Tea

I know Sunday is technically over, but I still want to read the first chapter of Goddess in the Machine by Lora Beth Johnson before going to sleep. Love the vinbrant colors of the owlcrate edition!

Also I am drinking ginger tea with lots of ice to make the heat a bit more bearable ☀️🔥

[elliepassmore]

Goddess in the Machine

3.5/5 stars Recommended for people who like: sci-fi, cryogenics, futuristic societies, dystopia, court intrigue, Across the Universe I really, really wanted to like this book. The premise was fantastic and the world-building was great, the plot is maybe a bit overdone...but the characters were what really let it down. I'll be honest, it reminded me a lot of Revis' Across the Universe trilogy, which I also thought was just so-so. I'll start with the things I like. I thought the world-building was fantastic. Johnson did a good job transporting us 1,100 years into the future (I am rounding up since, unlike Adra, we are not from the 2100s). The language was different, but in a decently believable way, and while I thought it was a bit overboard (I'll get to that), it at least made sense for the world. Also, despite not liking Maret, I can definitely see how the society got from Step 1 to Step Maret/Tsurina, so again, though I'm not completely on-board, I do appreciate how there's logic to the things that are present in the world. The setting was also pretty good. The time they spend in the desert/wasteland really did give off an end-of-world vibe that genuinely felt dangerous, rather than just an attempt at danger that doesn't really follow through. The people in the desert definitely felt like they lived and dressed for desert life. I was a tad confused as to how they knew of the goddesses if they were so far out (I can't imagine it's too easy to travel to 3 days needed to get to Erensed), but maybe the First stopped through. Erensed was also really well done in my opinion. While we don't get to see much of the city, the parts we do see give the illusion of city life with a bakery and houses and people walking around amongst the angels/robots. I couldn't quite get a feel for the palace, and I don't really think Adra gets much of one either, but it did feel courtly and dangerous, so there's that. And the Hive gave me District 13 vibes a little bit, but with better technology and less murderous (?) intent. I think the Hive was my favorite location in the whole book. The slang Johnson had for the book was interesting. The change in morphemes actually seems to follow some rules rather than just being slapped together randomly (-ish tends to be used in place of -ly to indicate adverbs, for example, and I can definitely see the Germanic base of that like Andra mentions), so that was appreciated. I would've really liked the new slang, lexicon, and even some of the morpheme changes, except for the adverb change that I mentioned. You don't really notice how often people use adverbs until they are glaringly obvious and that's not really something you want to be glaringly obvious. It definitely made it difficult to read, not because it was hard to understand, but because it was annoying and strained my eyes/brain to see it so frequently. As for the plot...the 1000-year thing is decently unique. I don't think you see a lot of cryogenics in YA, or at least not in the sci-fi I've been reading, so it is an interesting bit . The 1000-year sleep thing, however, has been done a lot, though perhaps with not such a dramatic timeline. If Johnson had perhaps spent more time on this, or more time on who/where they were and what had happened, I might've liked the plot better, but instead most of the book is focused on Andra trying to fake her way as a goddess inside a royal court and my god that is done a lot. Also, the whole book feels a little too much like Across the Universe, which I've mentioned was 'eh' for me, so the similarities between the two definitely didn't help my liking of it much. For characters, I'll be honest, I only liked Lilibet, Kiv, and maybe Doon. Lew was okay as well, but he and Doon weren't really in it that much, so jury's out. Lilibet prattled on a lot about anything that crossed her mind, which would be annoying in person, but for some reason isn't in the book. Kiv is almost completely silent and a bit intimidating, but...well maybe that's why I like him. Doon is badass, a bit young, but was pretty level-headed and logical about things and definitely does not like Zhade. And Lew was sweet, wanting to help people and mostly stay out of trouble. Andra was better toward the end of the book, after the big showdown when she realizes some pretty important things about herself (as in, within the last 50 pages). Before that she's not really my favorite, but I like her more than Zhade, so. For one, she's not very confident and I thought we were done with insecure YA leads in the early 2010s, but it's not something I like to read. A little insecurity here and there, fine, but don't spend the whole book on it please. That's really my main issue with her, but it took up such a large portion of her chapters that it just really threw me off liking her. I know why she's insecure and lacks confidence, it's explained quite well multiple times, but it still doesn't erase the face I don't like it (and I can't really stand it in real life either, oops). Zhade was the other narrator and is just a complete dick. The entire time. There are times when he thinks he's being sweet, but it still just seems forced and the slimy feeling he gives off never really goes away (and it is not helped by him continually admitting to hiding things from the other characters in order to get what he wants, which may seem right up my alley since I liked The Folk of the Air and The Court of Miracles so much, but Z has a different vibe). I will admit, like Andra, I liked Zhade's ending, but the last 30 or so pages don't make up for the remaining 350 where I didn't like him. Unfortunately, the plot and characters count for quite a lot. Generally I think one or the other can be poor, but not both of them, which is why I deducted 1.5 stars from the rating. I'm not entirely certain which age range within YA this is targeted at, so perhaps some younger readers might like it better than I did.