Exo (Exo, #1) in SpecFic Buddy Reads

May 28, 2016 Justine rated it it was amazing

Shelves: audiobook, 2017-read, canadian-content, favourites

Last year I read Fonda Lee's debut novel, Zeroboxer and was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I went in to Exo expecting to like it, and I loved it. Enough so that I'm adding it to my favourites 2017 shelf.

Lee has a gift for emotive storytelling and creative worldbuilding, which she puts to good use here. Questions of alien integration into human culture, the use of different technology and biotechnology, and who gets access to those things, all play out within the context of a story ultimatel ...more

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Jul 31, 2017 Lindsay rated it really liked it

One hundred and fifty years ago the Zhree came to Earth to invade. After a thirty year war they won. Now Earth is a Zhree colony on the edge of their space. Humans are a servant race, some of which have been taken into Zhree culture and marked as part of Zhree families/castes. A small elite of whom have undergone "hardening" as children, modified with Zhree biotechnology to have exocels, a retractable covering of armor and weaponry.

Donovan Reyes is an Exo with one of these exocels working for th One hundred and fifty years ago the Zhree came to Earth to invade. After a thirty year war they won. Now Earth is a Zhree colony on the edge of their space. Humans are a servant race, some of which have been taken into Zhree culture and marked as part of Zhree families/castes. A small elite of whom have undergone "hardening" as children, modified with Zhree biotechnology to have exocels, a retractable covering of armor and weaponry.

Donovan Reyes is an Exo with one of these exocels working for the Global Security and Pacification Forces (SecPac) and part of a soldier erze, one of the Zhree family/castes. He's also the 17-year old son of the Prime Liason, the most powerful human in the collaborator government. Even over a century after the Zhree took over, there is still a human resistance called Sapience and SecPac's main job is to deal with the activity of this terrorist group.

When Donovan is captured by the terrorists he's challenged by a wide range of opposing view-points including one that's a big surprise to him personally. But very few things are black and white.

I found this book to be very frustrating.

One one hand you have an absolutely fascinating colonization/conquest scenario where generations after the invasion the Zhree living there consider Earth home as well and have substantial affection for their humans. By placing the collaborators in the righteous role and exploring the motivations of the Prime Liason the book smartly addresses one of the more problematic elements of the colonization narrative: that the outcomes of colonization are actually a mix of good and bad. Events during the story highlight this even further with the consequences of a potential pullback of Zhree from Earth and what that would mean.

On the other hand the main character is incredibly annoying for much of the book with a good dose of daddy issues and abandonment issues that make him an emotional basket case. He is uniquely placed and absolutely at his best when he's operating to bridge the various groups in the story, but he spends far, far too long being a whiny dope. I found myself flashing back to the worst emotional conflict elements of Shinji from Neon Genesis Evangelion, but Donovan is supposed to be a highly trained soldier.

To be clear, I love the world-building, and the narrative choices are clever as well (although the timing of the High Speaker's arrival is stupidly coincidental). Probably enough to balance the persistent and prolonged immaturity of Donovan to make me want to pick up next year's sequel. It's just annoying that the worst sequences around that element were so much of the book, otherwise I can see this as being a clear 5 stars. Unfortunately it ranks probably closer to 3.5 IMO. ...more

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Dec 30, 2018 Christina Pilkington rated it liked it

*3.5 stars

A fast-paced, YA sci fi that I flew through. My favorite part of Exo was its premise and world building. Lee is a master at creating interesting and imaginative worlds. A fun read and a series I want to continue.

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