Reviews with content warning for Drug abuse - Winter's Orbit

Edit: I've sat on this book long enough to finally be able to put into words that I did not like this book (I read the excerpt before the book came out and liked that well enough, so go figure, I don't know what happened with the rest of the book) and I was desperately trying to come up with excuses for it not being bad because I didn't want to admit to myself that I was disappointed by one of my more anticipated new releases for 2021. It is not particularly bad, it has an audience that will and does enjoy it immensiley, I am just not among them and that's fine. For me this definitely ended up being an overhyped book. I really have to give one up for the marketing team with this one, because oh boy did the manage to sell it! (Part of me is still convinced that I didn't like it because I went in with certain expectations, but even generally, this just really wasn't ... my cup of tea. Fun, but in a once-in-a-lifetime-slash-I'm-not-going-to-repeat-this way)

Original thoughts below:
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*gesturing vaguely* what am I supposed to do with you? Gods I have no clue how to rate this book or how to feel about it. I don't write reviews, I don't like writing reviews, so this is as close to one as I will ever get because I have Thoughts and I need to write them down somewhere.

Okay. I am bitter. This is one of those unfortunate books where it's the marketing's fault that I ended up not liking a book as much as I could have. Every time I see a book marketed by being compared to some other book that I have read, I tell myself to ignore it, and then I don't, and have some kind of expectations and none of the books ever live up to those expectations. This book was very hyped - I ended up very excited for it - but that doesn't bother me that much, because I'm used to hyped books not living up to my expectations. That's fine! Everyone reads books differently, we all have different tastes. This is about this book being compared to Ancillary justice eeeverywhere I've seen it mentioned.

I can see why it was compared to RWRB, and I think that these two books can have an overlapping fanbase, which is great, and I do hope it will reach more readers because of that, and I love it when fans of contemp lit enjoy sci-fi and vice versa.

I can also see why it was compared to Ancillary justice, I can, but - obviously, obviously everyone reads books differently, but this left me thinking that Imperial Radch was something very different to me than it was to some other readers. But whatever it meant to me (and it was a whole lot), I don't think it's fair to either of these to books to compare them. They're - too different. Can fans of one enjoy the other? Absolutely. And I'm left bitter because I think I would definitely have enjoyed this book a lot more if I didn't have my own certain Imperial Radch related expectations of it. And it feels unfair to try and rate or review this book in any way because I can't detach myself from that.

Other than that, I really don't know. Some things I liked:
- they are both so incredibly stupid (fondly)
- very minor detail but the fact that one side character's name means horseraddish in my language just really rounded up that character
-

character: *falls down a cliff, points thumbs up out of pile of snow* i'm ok!!!

10/10
- this was genuinely a fun read, and it didn't require a lot of brainpower and it ended up being a nice read. Despite everything I've said and will say, it was definitely engaging enough that I finished reading

Something I'm neutral about: somehow this read as a fanfic which is a con for me, since I don't particularly like fanfiction (for my own reasons; I am well aware that there is a huge amount of great fanfiction out there and I've read fics that were way better than some published works I've read) and it's a pro for everyone who does enjoy fanfics and has a difficulty reading books that don't have that Vibe. (I realise this is very specific and that anyone reading this probably doesn't know what I mean)

Some things that I disliked:
- it felt rushed, especially toward the end and the end itself. Things got resolved, and not in a bad way, but it feels like there was something lacking
- as much as it's fun to read two characters being oblivious about how much they like the other, I didn't see the chemistry. They absolutely do like each other, that much was clear, but - I felt like the way it was written, the book was trying more to convince me of that rather than just, I don't know, letting the chemistry and their dynamic unfold itself.

(I do think that they're a good duo, they have a lot of chaotic vibes as a couple which is just 10/10 *chef's kiss*, but, again - it came out of nowhere and while it makes sense, I miss reading all the build up towards that dynamic as they finally establish themselves as a couple.)

- it also felt like it couldn't decide if it wants to be a romance or a sci-fi novel with complicated intergalactic politics and, I don't know, maybe this really just wasn't a book for me, but I feel like there wasn't a balance between these two.

One thing that I hated:

This is minor, and I haven't read any other reviews to see if anyone else had the same interpretation, but. This book works hard to point out on several ocassion how gender works in this world and how people mark it, both on Iskat and on Thea. We are continuosly reminded about how the material of accessories on Iskat let's you know about someone's gender. Both POV characters mention it. So the very brief misgendering of Gairad left an incredibly bitter taste in my mouth. There's such a focus in this book put on how you'd look for whether someone is wearing flint or wood etc. - and it was never mentioned, if I recall correctly, whether Gairad was wearing any or none - why did they suddenly assume her gender based on how she looked? I might have misread this, or misinterpreted, but it seemed like that's what happened. It felt - wrong. Is this character trans? I don't know. But if she is, there are better ways to show it than working hard on a worldbuilding, including nonbinary identities, creating and reminding us of a specific system used for gender, and then just ... throwing it out the window like that. It happened once, it was brief, I doubt many people will even notice it, but it just rubbed me the wrong way. (I also feel like I should state, for any potential reader of this comment, that I am speaking as a trans person)

This is definitely the longest ... review ... I've ever written, and it probably sounds way more negative than I actually feel about this book. I'll need to steep my thoughts for a few more days.

All in all. Is this a good book? Sure. Is it worth a read? Yeah, why not. Can we agree that I would have a completely different opinion about it if the blurb didn't compare it to Ancillary justice? Absolutely 100 %.

Content Warnings

elk_'s review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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