Beyond the Atmosphere book review

A quick, easy read, Beyond the Atmosphere introduces into a complex setting of warring species, internal intrigues, widely distinct cultures. This setting, the variety of the cultures in particular for me, is the book’s strongest feature: from the insectoid Masters to the Founders who retreated to an entirely different dimension, it is an interesting setting rife with conflict and potential.
Unfortunately, the book’s prose/writing style is too simplistic with the characters often bluntly expositing to one another, and being one-dimensionally characterized. This characterization has less to do with the characters themselves, because most of the POV characters are given solid foundations and internal conflicts, but more to do with the prose and the fact that not a lot of time is spent/given to allow the characters to express themselves. This is the length of a long novella with six or seven pov characters, and more ancillary scenes, in a break-neck narrative pacing. The result is that most scenes lack a feeling of substance or importance, existing only to progress the surface level plot.