3.5 stars, rounded up. Interesting first book in a series. Alternate universe society where poor children are sold into slavery. Bran, a young slave, is sent to the "slave breakers" because he keeps trying to run away. Without going into and spoiling the plot, this is really a coming of age story where with the help of a caring master, Bran learns about himself and how to survive as a slave.The writing is solid, and the book kept me interested and caring about the characters throughout. The characters were well drawn, and I enjoyed seeing Bran's growth throughout the story. The only reason I didn't give this a flat-out 4 stars was that it was missing world-building I thought would have helped to round out the characters. There were vacuums mentioned at one point, but then a character uses a chamber pot in his room, and I was left scratching my head. Very little about the city (?) town (?) the characters lived in, about how the characters lived other than the general references to marketplaces and the slave trade (and even this wasn't 100% clear to me). The world seemed two-dimensional. I had to refer back to our own Earth and assume that was the setting.That said, I'll be looking for the sequel and hoping for more context there. umm. what i was expecting (cf the title of the series) i didn't get, which was at once a good thing (i do not actually appreciate brutality in my reads, not even for hurt-n-comfort), and a bad thing (i had put the series on the back burner after downloading it from LJ originally, because i wasn't up for potential brutality for the longest time).i enjoy complex, polyamorous chosen-family relationships, and that i got, in spades. i enjoy interesting worlds -- they don't need to be very different from ours, but they've got to be internally consistent. that i didn't really get; the worldbuilding feels haphazard; i didn't really get a sense of whyever former slaves would perpetuate a system that so clearly has lots of problems, and that they only escaped by pure luck of the draw. though there is potential here, the writer clearly cares much more for the characters than for the world.Bran's story doesn't seem so much Bran's story as more the story of everyone he comes in contact with after he gets sold to Holden. which is all quite interesting, but a different title would have helped manage my expectations. there wasn't really enough of Bran himself in here until the end. maybe i could also not connect sufficiently to Bran because he seemed such a sweet, submissive teenk (not my type; he felt too young to me, and i don't perv on kids); i was real happy when he showed some 'nads and took matters into his own hands. and then there is the ending, which isn't exactly romantic. there is considerably more romance in another of Holden's relationships, and that felt really weird consider that this is supposedly Bran's story.slavery is not my kink, but i'm looking forward to reading more in the series, because the writer is very adept at creating complex characters and relationships. i'm wondering whether Holden will turn out to be right about Bran's feelings.
What do You think about Bran's Story (2007)?
interesting twist but nothing really new
—bookworm
