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3.97 AVERAGE
3.97 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The story might actually be interesting…but I’ll never know, because I don’t think I can read one more word of Hadrian’s unbelievably pretentious, unceasing, stodgy, overwrought, melodramatic internal monologue. I’m sorry, but the narration just decimates any interest I might have had in the story, and I tried to get past it for 200 pages, but I just can’t stand the main character, either his young self or his old self narrating. I could list all the things I hate about him, but simply put, he cannot shut up about himself. I hated Name of the Wind for similar reasons.
On top of that, the book is a straight ripoff of Dune. I’m sorry, but it is. And that’s fine, I think that should be allowed, to an extent. Everyone should get to rip off a little LOTR, a little Dune, as a treat. It’s hard not to. But this book takes it just a little too far, to the point where we have an Imperium, we have a standin for melange spice, we have shield belts, we have noble houses, the main character is the eldest son to a noble house and was born on a planet that is basically Caladan, he ends up becoming the worst genocider in the universe, and the book straight up uses quotes from Dune. Just to name a few similarities. It’s too much. I needed this book to be just a little more original. I’m sure it branches off and does its own thing eventually, but I can’t power through to that, because see exhibit A about the narration. Anyway, if I wanted to read Dune, I would read Dune.
This book reads like a really edgy white teenage boy with talent wrote it in high school. (There is some orientalism in this book, which sours me on it even more. I can still enjoy Blade Runner because it was sort of grandfathered into my good graces, but this book came out in 2018. Chinese people in the future are a race of merchants? They all work for a giant trading company? Really?) It’s not just juvenile in terms of the overwrought prose or the melodramatic main character. The story also reeks of an edgy teenager’s understanding of morality and “moral grayness.” At one point, the wise old narrator uses that Stalin quote about people being statistics but we’re supposed to take it seriously. It’s just cringe, honestly. I could look at this sort of writing from a high schooler and recognize that he has some serious writing chops to be developed. There are some nice descriptions in here. But from an adult publishing a book, I just can’t read any more.
On top of that, the book is a straight ripoff of Dune. I’m sorry, but it is. And that’s fine, I think that should be allowed, to an extent. Everyone should get to rip off a little LOTR, a little Dune, as a treat. It’s hard not to. But this book takes it just a little too far, to the point where we have an Imperium, we have a standin for melange spice, we have shield belts, we have noble houses, the main character is the eldest son to a noble house and was born on a planet that is basically Caladan, he ends up becoming the worst genocider in the universe, and the book straight up uses quotes from Dune. Just to name a few similarities. It’s too much. I needed this book to be just a little more original. I’m sure it branches off and does its own thing eventually, but I can’t power through to that, because see exhibit A about the narration. Anyway, if I wanted to read Dune, I would read Dune.
This book reads like a really edgy white teenage boy with talent wrote it in high school. (There is some orientalism in this book, which sours me on it even more. I can still enjoy Blade Runner because it was sort of grandfathered into my good graces, but this book came out in 2018. Chinese people in the future are a race of merchants? They all work for a giant trading company? Really?) It’s not just juvenile in terms of the overwrought prose or the melodramatic main character. The story also reeks of an edgy teenager’s understanding of morality and “moral grayness.” At one point, the wise old narrator uses that Stalin quote about people being statistics but we’re supposed to take it seriously. It’s just cringe, honestly. I could look at this sort of writing from a high schooler and recognize that he has some serious writing chops to be developed. There are some nice descriptions in here. But from an adult publishing a book, I just can’t read any more.
adventurous
challenging
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
adventurous
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Whole thing until the last like 100 pages felt like exposition
dark
informative
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
lighthearted
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
The concept of this story is intriguing enough to slog thru this book to see how it goes. It is very slow, pretty damn boring until the end and Hadrian is a bit insufferable. But when the book is good its good, the last bit is very interesting and what i hope to find more off in the series. But if you bow out here, i get it, this was tedious🫡.
This was decent, but not nearly what I hoped it would be. For one, the prose is really, irritatingly "perfect". I don't mind how melodramatic the writing is, but this is exactly the type of writing that makes me want to never pick up a sci-fi book. Extremely bloated, overly sophisticated. I had to use the audiobook to speed up the reading, because I couldn't stand it.
The story itself was decent, but about halfway through, I started getting really impatient with how little was happening, and I kind of just wanted to finish the book and be done with it. Only near the end did it actually get a bit more interesting.
I'm probably going to try book 2 and see if it gets better, because I could look past the writing if the story was good enough, and there were definitely moments in this one that hinted at something better.
The story itself was decent, but about halfway through, I started getting really impatient with how little was happening, and I kind of just wanted to finish the book and be done with it. Only near the end did it actually get a bit more interesting.
I'm probably going to try book 2 and see if it gets better, because I could look past the writing if the story was good enough, and there were definitely moments in this one that hinted at something better.
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated