The Seasonal Reading Challenge discussion

This is the discussion thread for the Spring 2024 Group Read How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse in the category Fiction: Space Opera. Please post your comments here. This thread is not restricted to those choosing this book for task 20.10, feel free to join in the discussion. Warning- spoilers ahead!

The requirement for task 20.10: You must participate in the book's discussion thread below with at least one post about the contents of the book or your reaction to the book after you have read the book.

I read / listened to this book. It wasn't the book I voted for and it isn't my first love genre but turned out as the best of what there was to choose from and easy to obtain from my subscription services.

Rory Thorne (female) is the latest in a long line of Rory Thornes from the Royal dynasty ruling the Thorne Consortium. Brought up to be the Next ruler she is supplanted, rather late in the day, by her brother - little more than an infant when their father dies in the interplanetary wars.

Obviously there are disturbing machinations by those close to but not in line for the throne who see an opportunity to usurp power. Rory is also more than a little put out to find that her royal line is only passing through the male line. Who will win the day is the real basis for the rest of the book.

It is well narrated and has a pacy nature - it certainly isn't boring. Rory is both clever and at times unpredictable in nature. For me it is a solid 3 star rating but not one that makes me itch to reach out for the next in the series. I think it's audience is in the younger adult target range. However, seeing as I was dubious about it from the outset it turned out to be a reasonably good read.

Thank you to whoever nominated it

Like Marie, I didn't have high hopes, but this entertained me well enough and rattled on at pace.
The narrator's slightly arch asides did get on my nerves a little bit, and I was bemused to never actually understand what the multiverse actually was - there didn't seem to be more than the one set of worlds, where I normally expect to see variant layers in a multiverse.

I originally read How Rory Thorne Destroyed the Multiverse when it was first published back in 2019. It was neither the book I nominated nor the one I voted for, but I wasn't unhappy that it won - I'd been considering a reread before I got around to reading the sequel.

Note for anyone listening to this book: Rory's gifts allow her to 'hear' some thoughts/impressions from others. In the print copy, these unverbalized thoughts are clear for what they are, noted in itlaics. I was both reading a print copy and listening to the audio version, and I was struck by how odd this sounded, and how potentially confusing it might be to someone who was only listening.

So I agree with you on several points, Cat. I have no idea what the 'multiverse' was supposed to be in this context, and the unverbalized thoughts/'asides' were odd in the audio edition.

It's a fun book, but not brilliant. I love the academic narrator conceit, and the writing does put me in mind of the slightly distant feel of classic fairy tales.

And I'll get around to the next one, eventually.

Cat wrote: "Like Marie, I didn't have high hopes, but this entertained me well enough and rattled on at pace.
The narrator's slightly arch asides did get on my nerves a little bit, and I was bemused to never a..."

would you rread the next in the series cat? If you did would you switch formats ?

I try to get as many books as possible without paying for them - well i have subscriptions such as everand / and Amazon prime / KU and both a library for physical copies and an e library. But i don't buymanybooks any more. I am in the middle of building work at home and have had to part with hundreds of books as I simply had nowhere to store them. Only the most loved books have stayed

Hi Marie!

Noooo, probably not, unless it was free. I don't feel the need to find out more about what Rory and her man get up to - the book ended nicely enough.

That's sad about your book collection - but space for new ones when you are done with the refurb?!

Honestly, given the title, I expected a little more from the ending. Sure, Rory caused a number of wars that changed her corner of the universe, but the author didn’t even try to bring in the concept of a multiverse. However, I think that’s my only real gripe about the book (and I realize it is kind of trivial). I thought the story was entertaining and well paced. As a parent, I found the involvement of Grit and the Vizier as parental figures refreshing for a YA book. It seems like most of the time the protagonist has no adult guidance to speak of, and at least in this story they made them real characters who helped in her development for the first half. Bonus points for that. Oh, and for some reason I really liked the ferns.

-Juliajoy

I enjoyed this book right up until the ending. I felt like the epilogue was too much too fast, and I, like others, didn't feel the full delivery of the promise made by the title.
I loved the ferns.
I enjoyed the writing and the narrator's foreshadowing. There were some very long sentences, but they read like jokes, and I loved the humor of the narration.
The fairy gifts were a bit unpredictable, yes?
I really enjoyed the beginning.
The villain worked better as a shadowy figure. Up close, he was pretty milquetoast.
I didn't appreciate how the Queen went from being so strong and interesting to an ineffective footnote.
There was a lot to like about the book. I recommended it to several people. I just feel like with a little more attention to details and character consistency, it could have been truly amazing.

I listened to the audiobook for this one and I thought the narration was brilliant! I loved the narrator's voice and the asides, and I didn't have any trouble distinguishing between what people said and their underlying thoughts. I thought it was cleverly done and it made me chuckle out loud more than once. I also loved the character of Rory, who is definitely imperfect and has teenage moments, but never crosses the line into whiny brat territory. I did feel a little cheated by the lack of multiverse destruction (or even definition!), but I think it may become clearer with the second book. I also feel like there was too much crammed into the epilogue, but again book 2 will probably solve that issue, and it's kinda nice that the author tied up all the loose ends instead of forcing me to continue via cliffhanger (that's a pet peeve!)

Cat wrote: "Like Marie, I didn't have high hopes, but this entertained me well enough and rattled on at pace.
The narrator's slightly arch asides did get on my nerves a little bit, and I was bemused to never a..."

I thought the same thing about the multiverse! Nothing seemed to indicate more than one universe.

I thought this was a fun read and had a heroine who I actually liked and didn't spend the whole book talking about how not awesome she was while being a badass like so many YA fantasy heroines do. She is imperfect and makes mistakes but is resourceful and does her best. The love interest wasn't overdone either and I appreciated that as well. I liked the book enough that I will read the next one. Maybe we will find out what the whole multiverse thing is about as this book doesn't really address it at all. There are multiple planets, but I didn't see any evidence of a multiverse.

When events put the Thorne Consortium at war, Rory is sent as part of the peace process to marry the prince, only this prince is in need of a rescue from the princess. Luckily Rory and her closest advisors and guards are ready to shake up the world and set things right.

The voice is very fun in this story with the right amount of snark. One gift give Rory the ability to hear the truth and I love the fungi that color according to emotion. Rory's guards are great foils. I just didn't find that Rory had much personality beyond her gifts. I did appreciate the ending and would consider the sequel.

Overall I thought his book was just ok, not memorable at all. I listened to the audio book and I wish I would have actually read it. The narrator nailed the dry humor but I think it would have held my attention better if I had a physical copy. I will likely not be reading the sequel.

I like the science fiction genre but I don't read the genre that is humorous, slap-stick. I just find that ridiculous and pointless.

For the most part, I enjoyed this book though I could definitely do without the narrator and his asides and info dumping. I found the story itself to be very much a tell and no show scenario. This follows through the entire book and even into the epilogue. I think this might have been better written from Rory and Jaed's perspectives. All in all, I didn't like the convenient ending which simply didn't fit with the story itself.

I will not be reading the sequel.

I thought this book was enjoyable and had some great sections with snarky humor. I liked the asides and, for me, they came through understandably through audio. I did lose the thread sometimes while listening. I would recommend this book to teens and adults who love fantasy and fairytale tropes redone with a more feminist point of view. I doubt I will read the sequel, but you never know.

I’m so glad I wasn't the only one who failed to find a “multiverse” in this book! I kept waiting for a bit more science in this science fiction, but alas. It did make me chuckle a few times with its snarkiness, but I never got invested in the characters.

🎧 Audiobook Review 🎧

I thought the premise of this was really quite clever in that author took a handful of fairy tale tropes, meshed and twisted them. In a way, it reminded me of Meyer's The Lunar Chronicles. A futuristic setting with fairy tale atmosphere except that in this one, it's not actually going to be a fairy tale as such. I guess, it is very woke.

While I thought it's an interesting idea and I did find the first third to be quite fun, I didn't particularly like the characters so I wasn't really invested in the story and got quite bored around halfway through. And then, there is a particular gift from one of the fairies that means the protagonist could "read" what the person is actually thinking as opposed to what they're thinking. I'm not sure how they relate this in the print edition however I found the way it was done in the audiobook confusing to start with and annoying near the end.

Kathy KS

A somewhat lite story that blends science fiction and fantasy. Like several of the other readers above, I didn't vote for this one, but read it as the lesser of three "evils." I have many space opera novels on my own TBR that I would have liked to read much more than this one,

The original premise is inspired by fairy tales about royal babies being given "gifts" and the resulting situations. Rory and her entourage are interesting and her efforts at thwarting the villain of the story were entertaining.

The light tone fit the narration. Young adults would be the targeted audience, in my opinion. I don't believe I'll continue with the next volume, after reading some of the GR reviews.

I listened to this and really enjoyed it. I like fairy tale retellings and especially like how this one reversed roles and had the princess save everyone.

In much enjoyed reading the book and thought it was very well done. The way the author used different text format to distinguish the truth from what is actually said really made it fun to read and avoided confusion. Looking forward to reading the next one.

I had high hopes for this book and I did vote for it. I just really couldn't get into it as much as I hoped. I found it a bit boring and to drawn out. I did however like the main character and secondary characters.