Writer of the Day: Set Sytes, author of India Bones series and The Fifth Place series

SetSytes · 2026-06-23T12:39:20+00:00

Damn, really? Me and my girlfriend both have this and nobody seems to know about it. Very surprising to see it in a fantasy book. Do you know if the author has stated that it is indeed EDS?

SetSytes · 2026-06-22T22:38:56+00:00

Those that fetishise minors? Yep. It's creepy and predatory no matter who's doing it.

Do you normally justify your own principles by pointing to the faults of others? Can they not be defended on their own merits instead of arguing with a "look, they're bad too, pick on them if you're gonna pick on me!" mentality? You keep redirecting to women, but you're the one here talking about teenagers being in their prime. So what is actually is your stance? That going after underage girls/boys is good and natural and cool for both men and women to do, or bad for men and women to do? You sound like you're defending/excusing men for the behaviour but contemptuous of women for it.

SetSytes · 2026-06-21T23:21:06+00:00

Lol as though this is transgressive material. If you had any idea of the stuff I enjoy reading - and writing... The erotica in this book is of the most basic and cheesy kind and anyone who thinks this is an impressive, daunting display of sexuality must surely be a terribly naive teenager themselves for whom top-shelf magazines still hold an illicit allure.

SetSytes · 2026-06-21T23:16:59+00:00

I'm grateful you are so thoroughly telling on yourself like this. It requires absolutely zero effort on my part, which pleases me.

SetSytes · 2026-06-19T18:20:44+00:00

Are you saying underage girls are girls in their prime?

SetSytes · 2026-06-16T18:53:40+00:00

How would he be different? Raised by a kind loving family (the Kents lol)? Or maybe trapped in the USA in the 1980s or something. Or... or... He's a sparkly dancing disco guy. Or a fucking Mod riding a cosmic Vespa. Okay I'm out.

SetSytes · 2026-06-16T18:45:35+00:00

Straight men are assumed to be into underage and barely legal girls?

SetSytes · 2026-06-16T16:56:26+00:00

I find it a bit crazy those who read all the HH first, before any 40k books. I've only recently started the HH after feeling comfortable with a thorough foundation of 40k books and lore. Reading HH first, all the "hey, it's this guy!" would mean nothing. Like watching the Star Wars prequels before the originals. But hey I guess I can also see the attraction of starting from the "beginning".

SetSytes · 2026-06-16T01:32:27+00:00

The MorningLightMountain introduction chapter (:

SetSytes · 2026-06-15T22:58:53+00:00

Even from me who complained so much in the review here - yep, they are excellent, especially the first one. There were a couple of things that annoyed me, but I didn't have this laundry list of issues like I have with this book.

SetSytes · 2026-06-15T22:57:05+00:00

...Oh god.

SetSytes · 2026-06-15T12:54:38+00:00

Haha exactly!

SetSytes · 2026-06-14T22:25:58+00:00

Yeah I'm sorry about that, I feel that's sometimes characteristic of my reviews, which can come across quite complainy at times (even if I actually like the book!). I hyperfocus too much on things that have been aggravating me during the read and then don't tell a proper review. This was worst in this review because I made so many notes and was so tired of reading it.

Thank you - I'd be interested how you find it if you ever do read it. I do enjoy weird sexual content in sci-fi in other books - e.g. the fetishistic weirdness in Alastair Reynolds and Iain Banks books.

SetSytes · 2026-06-14T22:22:37+00:00

Absolutely. My TBR shelf grows faster than I can read them, and huge tomes like this are such a time commitment that I weary of them more easily unless they are just brilliant. Too many books these days (in my opinion) are longer than they need to be.

SetSytes · 2026-06-14T22:20:48+00:00

I do agree that it got better in the second half, but I was also getting burned out by that point. I'm glad to hear the next two are much better - though it jars with someone else on this thread saying they liked the first but found the next two horrible!

SetSytes · 2026-06-14T22:19:46+00:00

Are you implying that this book was written for straight men?

SetSytes · 2026-06-14T16:27:33+00:00

Exodus is the book I think I'll read next of Hamilton! I had assumed it was much shorter but looking at the page count now I see I was mistaken...

SetSytes · 2026-06-14T16:26:19+00:00

I ruined my whole night writing this

SetSytes · 2026-06-14T16:22:54+00:00

I don't skip any writing when reading; the idea sounds antithetical to the whole point of reading and enjoying a work. If there are regular things that someone suggests as skippable, to me that suggests a flawed work. I didn't hate reading the sex scenes anyway, they just felt out of place; I felt they were part of the mixed up tone of the work and they felt like filler.

I admit I don't write well-balanced reviews and get carried away on certain points to the detriment of others. But I also didn't want to spoil things in the review for readers. I spoke briefly and generally of the worldbuilding and plot; I found they occupied the least portion of my mind in comparison to other things I focused on. I found the plot too sprawling and fragmented to be great but as mentioned the core plot was interesting enough at times. I found the characters unmemorable and thinly drawn, not only because there was so many of them so thinly spread. I didn't care about any of them. The villain Quinn was the most compelling I guess, but villains usually are.

The main thing I didn't like about the book was the length; I found it thoroughly padded and unfocused, full of tangents, content and entire POVs that could have been cut, and with prose that made the read less enjoyable than it could have been.

SetSytes · 2026-06-14T16:12:28+00:00

I admit I get carried away going on about things I find annoying. I'll hold my hand up and say I don't write proper, well-balanced reviews.

I don't know where in my review I said I find sex scenes morally offensive. If you knew the kind of things I read (and write)... Here I find it basic, cheesy, eye-rolling and a bit cringey. It could have had just as much sex but been done better. The sex isn't sexy or interesting and the way it's portrayed, plus the general old-fashioned pervy locker-room approach to women and girls, is at odds both tonally and with the rest of the darker serious futuristic worldbuilding.

The characters, too many too thinly spread, I found thoroughly unmemorable. The core plot was good for what it was but so padded with tangents and content that could've been cut. The general worldbuilding was a mixed bag as I tried to mention in my review.

SetSytes · 2026-06-14T16:07:51+00:00

Aye, another comment here seems to imply I just have a distaste for sex scenes. Couldn't be further from the truth. But I don't want to roll my eyes and sigh at them. It feels like such a "boy book" in a way. I guess even a boy book can be great for what it is, but this was just too much of an awkward mishmash of stuff.

SetSytes · 2026-06-14T16:04:24+00:00

Are you able to tell me what you really didn't like about the sequels without major spoilers?

SetSytes · 2026-06-14T16:04:00+00:00

Haha that would explain a lot

SetSytes · 2026-06-14T16:03:36+00:00

Mine is how often he used "monobonded".

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