I don't know what happened, but Nancy Kress lost all craft for this book.
CONTENT WARNING: (view spoiler)[ sexual assault, sick child, loss of a child,I don't know what happened, but Nancy Kress lost all craft for this book.
CONTENT WARNING: (view spoiler)[ sexual assault, sick child, loss of a child, cancer, loss of a partner, terrorism, mass shootings, social media attacks (hide spoiler)]
Things that were great:
-The concept. How we live knowing that consciousness is just a sort of Descartes "I doubt (or I think) therefore I am" is very interesting.
-Cast of characters: Outside our legal framework and capitalism, these were cool characters to get to know.
-The world. I was super interested in exploring consciousness in the world of social media attacks in particular, it seemed like we'd go somewhere where shame was fabricated, which would have been very cool.
The rest:
-Bad writing. I'm sorry but there was no connective tissue, everything was surface level, telegraphed painfully, nothing led to something else, and it was overdone by at least 100 pages.
-Bad plotting. As an offshoot of my first point, the plot here was painfully spare and obvious.
-Dialogue. Also painful.
-We don't deal with the pain. There's a lot of big topics and we just do not feel the impact of them.
I'd tried Beggars in Spain and found it also not emotionally resonant. Unfortunately I just don't think this author has a style I can appreciate.
We are at the point in the year where I nibble many books and find myself in a desert, searching for an oasis of a book that makes me feel something.
AWe are at the point in the year where I nibble many books and find myself in a desert, searching for an oasis of a book that makes me feel something.
At turns dark, trite, and melodramatic, this failed to move the dial for me. I saw the twist coming, and most of the time it read like so many conversations I have with the mothers in my friend group. Mothering is really hard! It's alienating and all consuming! Support isn't forthcoming! People might think you're a bad mom, and (especially if you're poor and/or of color) the government might take your kid away!
There's a way to do dystopia that makes you reflect on how close to that dystopia we already are, and then there are some where you think that maybe the author just woke up from some ex-capitalist society and looked around and was simply shocked at our living conditions.
I haven't read a Merlin-fic before and this is highly rated. It was a fun one, and some of the choices that must be made to keep it in line with the tI haven't read a Merlin-fic before and this is highly rated. It was a fun one, and some of the choices that must be made to keep it in line with the text were well constructed to make them more palatable or interesting, but for someone so important in fiction, he sounded quite boring in this tale.
There was nothing wrong with it. Yes, some of the text is quite dated, yes, it's part of the fad to make something that would have fit in within an ancient time period etc. that weren't stellar, but I found it well written, consistent, in a neat world.
However, it's not engaging either. Right about the time in the zero to hero arc you're expecting hero things to start, he kind of plateaus. The cool feats the author wanted to harp on were things like moving stones to Stone Henge, which is cool to tell people about, but painfully boring in terms of plotting a work of fiction.
3.5 rounded down as I doubt I'll continue the series....more
I count books as "read" if I make it to at least 50%. The release I got from DNFing this book was greater than any our gal Mal got.
ITime of death: 51%
I count books as "read" if I make it to at least 50%. The release I got from DNFing this book was greater than any our gal Mal got.
I had few expectations from this book, but it disappointed them all. If you want a book about ghost sex, without any of the erotic bits, pick this up! Otherwise, it's entirely forgettable, and that's a sin I don't think you can just pray away....more
Second attempt with this author. Thought I was getting along better. A fun look at academia in space.
But it's like you can feel in the book where the Second attempt with this author. Thought I was getting along better. A fun look at academia in space.
But it's like you can feel in the book where the outline stopped and the making it up as she went part of the book happened. Suddenly things stop making sense. Suddenly all the plot points from the first half of the book are irrelevant. Characterization goes to absolute hell.
There was a lot interesting with this book and sadly I still think it focused on the very mundane. This book is about power systems and a loss of faitThere was a lot interesting with this book and sadly I still think it focused on the very mundane. This book is about power systems and a loss of faith. It has a ton of cool set dressing I kept waiting to have become integral to the story, but basically make this a story of a good Christian soldier who realizes they're sent to kill people who look just like their family, but add shiny wings to it. It could be a Vietnam or Afghanistan War vet story otherwise.
It was engaging enough, but I don't think it did what it wanted, and I don't think it used its own framework to its best potential. It was fine.
This is such a good series. I do kind of wish it pulled a bit less from actual Earth nomenclature for political and religious structures, but if you wThis is such a good series. I do kind of wish it pulled a bit less from actual Earth nomenclature for political and religious structures, but if you wanted to read about a lady Indiana Jones, with the added benefit of cooperation from the culture whose artifacts are being discovered, this book is perfection....more
A fun little what if, reminiscent of the Futurama episode with Yivo, the space alien who just wants to love you.
I found it a bit maudlin at times, andA fun little what if, reminiscent of the Futurama episode with Yivo, the space alien who just wants to love you.
I found it a bit maudlin at times, and I kind of wish we'd dug in a bit further into the what-if--as it is we sort of touched on a lot of elements that don't seem to to play well with a post-singular-identity world.
CONTENT WARNING: (view spoiler)[ loss of a loved one, substance abuse, racism, and I feel that there was some queerphobia, but now it's been too long for me to be sure of that part (hide spoiler)]...more
Honestly, not my favorite. This reads a lot like the patronizing feeling of "I remember what it was like to be your age." Weirdly mature for the youngHonestly, not my favorite. This reads a lot like the patronizing feeling of "I remember what it was like to be your age." Weirdly mature for the young sections and surprisingly jejune in the more mature sections.
-The mythology. Really fun to see Lipan folktales writ large!
-The family love. I still really appreciate books for kids with supportive grown ups in it. It's such a nice and important shift from the Disney orphan epidemic I grew up with.
-Friendship. No romance plots! And yet there were many complex and frought relationships!
Things I didn't love:
-Narrators. Okay first of all, bias out in the open. I listened to this and the one narrator tried to do voices he couldn't do so they all came out scratchy and nasal, and the other one was using generic YA voice and not really paying attention to the words, so the cadence didn't match the book's. If you read this, I recommend doing so with your eyes.
-Young Nina. She wrote a journal when she was 10 with sentences like "[quote], he said to her, his words harsh." Completely false as a kid.
-Meeting Oli and friends. Again, this was meant to just be happy, there was no natural reaction to stories coming to life or magic-wielding animals seeing the sun for the first time.
-Really snippy with mom. This kid guilt tripped her mom no end, and we didn't really see how the mother/daughter relationship or the family's lack of money impacted the characters really at all except in how unkind they were about it with each other.
-Weird internet culture references. There are some things in here that really date the book and make it hard to share with the right audience, like references to furries. I think that's sort of age specific as to when it's titillating, and that's also the age that's least likely to ask their parents if spirits are like furries, so I'm not sure how this situation arose, and it was odd to read.
It was quick and cute and fun, and I still really like this author, but the whole thing rang false to me....more
First of all, avoid the audio at all costs. I am a fairly tolerant listener, in that while I have some narrators I dislike, I can still enjoy the bookFirst of all, avoid the audio at all costs. I am a fairly tolerant listener, in that while I have some narrators I dislike, I can still enjoy the book despite my preference. This was almost unreadable. A voice perfect for explaining to me How Stuff Works, but not things with emotional significance. After I switched to ebook, I absolutely demolished this book. Just straight up inhaled it.
CONTENT WARNING: (view spoiler)[ discussion of torture and rape, actual torture, casual violence, coercion of will/mindreading, war, whipping (hide spoiler)]
Things to love:
-Two very different cultures. A bit monolithic feeling at times, but this is a story of honor and the different forms honor can take. However, I liked what we saw of each and how truly different they both felt without having one be the obvious bad guy.
-High stakes with gentle people. Thousands of people die, but the people we follow try always to make the best decisions they can, help where they're able, and remember that pragmatism doesn't have to mean callousness. Their gentleness of spirit helps soften some of the horror in this book.
Things I didn't love (other than the narrator):
-A misunderstanding of harm. I just...don't think this author understands violence lol. I can't think of anything that could be counted as a whip where anyone could get hundreds in a go and still have skin. Also the number of people who got hit in the face so hard they stumbled or fell would mean that just about every man in this world gets a concussion or two a week, and that would have real consequences on the society. Also also, the understanding of how the brain reacts to physical pain, totally overshadowed here by reason and honor. It might make it sound cool, but it just ain't logical. Similarly, cold, heat and so on. I liked that she included an elemental factor to the difficulties, but for things to work this way would mean that these two civilizations were actually different species, with completely separate physiology.
-Kink undertones. The first 15% of this book reads like at any second it's going to turn into 50 Shades of Grey. Those, I'm glad to say, resolved in a different way, but it was still a yucky start for me as I do not wish to read 50 Shades of Grey in really any setting.
-Some plot holes. A lot of the reasoning here didn't add up to me except for plot need.
-Anti-climactic. The end was more a gurgle than a cry.
It was still very good. I had fun with the ebook and may even read the next in the series at some point, so 3.5 rounded up.
A jarring mish mosh of tropes written in the style of the YA-for-adults that I'm bored with. I kept forgetting the names of the people we had to get tA jarring mish mosh of tropes written in the style of the YA-for-adults that I'm bored with. I kept forgetting the names of the people we had to get to know and threw in the towel before I'd gotten more than 2 chapters in....more
I liked a lot of this book. I thought the interweaving stories from different perspectives was exceedingly clever. The prose I found, to borrow a termI liked a lot of this book. I thought the interweaving stories from different perspectives was exceedingly clever. The prose I found, to borrow a term, workmanlike, but it told a compelling story.
-The setting. Historical fiction that isn't European based is novel enough in an English language book that I found this different in an interesting way.
-The connective tissue. I think this book is very smart in its framing.
-The characters. I dare you not to feel things for them!
Things I did not love:
-Romance. If period shapeshifting fantastastical detective romcom were a genre, this would hit every trope in that made up space. I liked the lovers and I wish them well, but not even they could make me happy that in the end there was kissing.
-Lack of honesty in the writing. What it boils down to is that I didn't believe the trek everyone undertook to get from the story start to its conclusion. It just wasn't sufficient.
Still delightful, and worth a read for the scenery and the different folks we meet, even if the author keeps making departures from the story for loin-centric purposes....more
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