The Heliographi Memoirs
The locations of the Heliographi Memoirs have finally been revealed and every faction in the Skylight System will fight to the death to claim them. But can the system withstand the conflict?
Jet Stroud and his friends are dangerously isolated when the Agency betrays their clan, the Lucem. To make matters worse, their enemies are developing a deadly weapon designed for one purpose.
To eliminate all Heliographi.
Jet and the Lucem soon face a difficult decision. To survive, they must join their sworn enemy, the Atrum.
But teaming up has a price. The two clans must learn to work together—something that promises to be a challenge. However, both clans agree on one thing…they cannot allow the memoirs to fall into mortal hands.
With the memoirs hidden among the belts of the Skylight System, and their enemy growing stronger, Jet loses hope. But when a mighty artifact is discovered, it could sway the balance of power. Will it be enough?
The Heliographi Memoirs are prophesied to hold a great power and perhaps the key to the third phase of the Prism Effect. Can Jet and the Lucem attain them while balancing their uneasy truce with the Atrum? If they fail, Skylight may pay the price.-Goodreads
Title: The Heliographi Memoirs
Series: Skylight #3
Author: J. Wint
Page Count: 574
Genre: Science Fiction
Rating: 3.5/5.0
Date Read: November 25th, 2024
Opening
I initially began my journey through the Skylight series by J. Wint when book #1 The Prism Effect landed in our judges group for the SPSFC-3 competition. It didn't become a finalist but I still enjoyed that read enough that I wanted to continue the series on my own time. A few months later, I dove into book #2 The Skylight Fallout. I had fun again with that one though it was slightly less than I had with the first book.
That brings us up to book #3 The Heliographi Memoirs. This one just didn't land as well with me as the first two did. Look back I can see that direction coming with at least one thing that I didn't click with in book two which became my biggest hurdle for this read. I'll try and get into this without too much toward spoilers and keeping somewhat subjective yet still share my opinions.
Pacing
The pacing continued to work well for me. I honestly don't have any issues at all on how this series has been presented. As with The Skylight Fallout, I went with the audiobook version narrated by Simon Relph who I feel does a great job bringing these stories to life.
World Building
The worldbuilding also continued to be entertaining and unique to me. The meat of this story with the mystery of what is happening to these characters and those before them really works for me. This is one of those stories that I find very easy to visual in my mind when reading or listening. That isn't always the case for me.
Character Development
The character development is where things drop off for me. It isn't really even the development as I feel the author continues to progress the characters well. But there is a specific relationship that almost seem to become front and center to me and I just couldn't get into it. These characters also felt extremely whiny to me. This really distracted from the rest of the story and characters. I realize this is strictly personal preference though and other readers may gravitate to this relationship and feel it adds more to their experience.
Closing
In the end book three has me dropping off significantly in wanting to continue as I already see there is at least a book #4 continuing things from here. I just felt the first two reads gave a Young Adult Mystery based in a Science Fiction world and this one became more of a Young Adult Romance with a Science Fiction backdrop. It just isn't what I'm into.
Scoring
Pacing 4.0 / 5.0
Worldbuilding 4.0 / 5.0
Character Development 3.0 / 5.0
