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3.95 AVERAGE
3.95 AVERAGE
This book was a long walk to somewhere...
It was such a long walk that I'm undecided as how I'd like to review it. Allow me to elaborate:
Steel Crow Saga has a complex fantasy world, built and based on post-World War II Eastern Asia. Tomoda is based on imperialistic Japan, but with citizens who meld their souls with metal; Shang is based on China, Sanbu - the Phillipines, Jeongsen - Korea, and Dahali, India. While this book is compared openly to Avatar: Last of the Airbenders, its only real connection is that it's based on fantasy Asian cultures and World War II. The rest, I suppose, is related to Pokemon, to which it's also compared, but because literally the only thing I know about Pokemon is Pikachu (spelling?), the allusions went over my head. Tomoda, which is animistic and vegetarian, excused their imperialism on liberating "slaves" (while also conveniently stealing more metal for themselves) while the people of Sanbu and Shang split their souls pacting with animals to create shades. The shades become stronger, faster, and more aggressive counterparts that then reside in and share a body with their human hosts, until called on; the Tomodoese look down upon these shades. And honestly, the cultural prejudices -- obvious and subtle -- were very well written, and even better was how through interaction and common purpose, characters were able to overcome their long-held cultural biases.
The world is diverse. Not only are the characters entirely Asian-inspired, but most of the characters are sexually ambiguous. I'm not sure if there's a purely heterosexual character in this book, but I suppose that could be a cultural choice as defined sexuality is actually quite frequently tied to culture. The women are kickbutt, and the cultures have long histories of powerful women equally as powerful as their men. There's even a secondary trans character.
More specifically, the character arcs are very well plotted. Each of the four main characters grow exponentially throughout this long, character-driven novel: from Jimuro, Iron Prince of Tomoda, being secreted back to his war-torn country that has lost the war ignominiously but must have its sovereign reinstated to help balance the delicate political scales between all the nations. He is escorted by Sergeant Tala, a Sanbu soldier, with a terrible secret. The parallel storyline follows Xiulan, a Shang princess, disguised as an Asian inspired Sherlock Holmes, and a thief, Lee, who has been saved from gallows to help Xiulan find and kidnap Jimuro. Xiulan is the the twenty-eighth favorite princess of her Emperor father, and she believes her sister, the current candidate for the throne, will be nationalistic and cruel. Minor spoiler here, but if Xiulan is an Asian, female Sherlock Holmes-wannabe, her older sister is Bancroft all the way, and I loved that.
So why didn't I love this novel?
A. Timing.
B. Its length.
C. Its pacing.
D. Unknown.
I don't know. A little of all of the above? The end tied together sweetly, and for that, I'm going to give it 3.5 stars. I should round up because this was so well plotted, but my heart just wasn't in this book so... I'll round down. Whomp, whomp.
It was such a long walk that I'm undecided as how I'd like to review it. Allow me to elaborate:
Steel Crow Saga has a complex fantasy world, built and based on post-World War II Eastern Asia. Tomoda is based on imperialistic Japan, but with citizens who meld their souls with metal; Shang is based on China, Sanbu - the Phillipines, Jeongsen - Korea, and Dahali, India. While this book is compared openly to Avatar: Last of the Airbenders, its only real connection is that it's based on fantasy Asian cultures and World War II. The rest, I suppose, is related to Pokemon, to which it's also compared, but because literally the only thing I know about Pokemon is Pikachu (spelling?), the allusions went over my head. Tomoda, which is animistic and vegetarian, excused their imperialism on liberating "slaves" (while also conveniently stealing more metal for themselves) while the people of Sanbu and Shang split their souls pacting with animals to create shades. The shades become stronger, faster, and more aggressive counterparts that then reside in and share a body with their human hosts, until called on; the Tomodoese look down upon these shades. And honestly, the cultural prejudices -- obvious and subtle -- were very well written, and even better was how through interaction and common purpose, characters were able to overcome their long-held cultural biases.
The world is diverse. Not only are the characters entirely Asian-inspired, but most of the characters are sexually ambiguous. I'm not sure if there's a purely heterosexual character in this book, but I suppose that could be a cultural choice as defined sexuality is actually quite frequently tied to culture. The women are kickbutt, and the cultures have long histories of powerful women equally as powerful as their men. There's even a secondary trans character.
More specifically, the character arcs are very well plotted. Each of the four main characters grow exponentially throughout this long, character-driven novel: from Jimuro, Iron Prince of Tomoda, being secreted back to his war-torn country that has lost the war ignominiously but must have its sovereign reinstated to help balance the delicate political scales between all the nations. He is escorted by Sergeant Tala, a Sanbu soldier, with a terrible secret. The parallel storyline follows Xiulan, a Shang princess, disguised as an Asian inspired Sherlock Holmes, and a thief, Lee, who has been saved from gallows to help Xiulan find and kidnap Jimuro. Xiulan is the the twenty-eighth favorite princess of her Emperor father, and she believes her sister, the current candidate for the throne, will be nationalistic and cruel. Minor spoiler here, but if Xiulan is an Asian, female Sherlock Holmes-wannabe, her older sister is Bancroft all the way, and I loved that.
So why didn't I love this novel?
A. Timing.
B. Its length.
C. Its pacing.
D. Unknown.
I don't know. A little of all of the above? The end tied together sweetly, and for that, I'm going to give it 3.5 stars. I should round up because this was so well plotted, but my heart just wasn't in this book so... I'll round down. Whomp, whomp.
The story had some heart but was hurt by the ubiquitous clichés. The characters had potential for some serious development but none of them quite attained it, and the book probably needed the removal of one or more of the POV characters so that more time could be spent on the struggles of the others. It just did not feel like the background work was present to develop the soldier with serious trauma, or the smooth-talking thief with commitment issues, or the young leader trying to fill his parent's shoes, and so on. I also did not care for the use of stand-in nations for China, Japan, Korea, India, and others, since it felt like a way for the author to avoid spending any time on serious cultural development of the world. Just mention something recognizably (or stereotypically) Japanese, for instance, and ta-da your reader can use their own whole picture of Japan to apply to this fictional nation. That being said, I read it to the end because I was invested enough to want to see what happened, pretty good for a second book.
Thanks to NetGalley and to the publisher for sending me an e-galley of this book!
Steel Crow Saga is boasted as Pokemon meets The Last Airbender which is the reason why I requested it. I'm a fairly big Pokemon fan and I do like The Last Airbender, but haven't finished the series.
The dialogue is sharp and the story is fully fleshed out and realized, but I found myself increasingly bored by the lengthy descriptions and short bursts of action. I kept pushing through and waiting for the story to catch me, but it just didn't seem to. It's not a terrible book by any means and I can see why someone would enjoy it. It's raw and gritty and includes a rich history with a pretty great f/f pairing if you ask me. It just missed the mark with me personally.
I decided to give the book 3 Stars because my disinterest has nothing to do with the writing or the book itself just my personal preferences and grievances with some of the choices taken.
Steel Crow Saga is boasted as Pokemon meets The Last Airbender which is the reason why I requested it. I'm a fairly big Pokemon fan and I do like The Last Airbender, but haven't finished the series.
The dialogue is sharp and the story is fully fleshed out and realized, but I found myself increasingly bored by the lengthy descriptions and short bursts of action. I kept pushing through and waiting for the story to catch me, but it just didn't seem to. It's not a terrible book by any means and I can see why someone would enjoy it. It's raw and gritty and includes a rich history with a pretty great f/f pairing if you ask me. It just missed the mark with me personally.
I decided to give the book 3 Stars because my disinterest has nothing to do with the writing or the book itself just my personal preferences and grievances with some of the choices taken.
I am terrible with words but here goes: Steel Crow Saga is the best book I’ve read in 2019. Period. There is action, magic, romance, and FullMetal Alchemist references for DAYS. I’m going to be recommending this to everyone I know, because it’s absolutely fantastic!!
As an artist, I very much appreciated the last chapter. I thought it was very beautiful
adventurous
emotional
funny
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Oh, boy. I just found out that the author of this novel is a serial harasser. I'm a few chapters into the story and I know I'd want to learn more about the characters and the world-building especially so because it's familiar. I don't often get to read PH-inspired sf/f stories, so I was already on the brink of sinking my teeth into this, fully. But learning what I learned, I'm DNF-ing this in cold blood.
I really enjoyed this book! It had a great magic system and interesting politics. However, it took about 100 pages to really become invested since you have 4 different POVs
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-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