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4.06 AVERAGE
4.06 AVERAGE
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I can't say that I loved this right away, in fact for the first third of the book I wasn't sure why this was considered space opera, the reason I picked it up, and I was often confused as to what was going on. But once
I expected Breq to die at the end so I was pleasantly surprised to find her made a captain. I also hope that we learn more about the Presger in the next book.
Spoiler
Breq was Breq then I started to enjoy the book, the character and the direction the story was moving.I expected Breq to die at the end so I was pleasantly surprised to find her made a captain. I also hope that we learn more about the Presger in the next book.
I can't say that I loved this right away, in fact for the first third of the book I wasn't sure why this was considered space opera, the reason I picked it up, and I was often confused as to what was going on. But once
I expected Breq to die at the end so I was pleasantly surprised to find her made a captain. I also hope that we learn more about the Presger in the next book.
Spoiler
Breq was Breq then I started to enjoy the book, the character and the direction the story was moving.I expected Breq to die at the end so I was pleasantly surprised to find her made a captain. I also hope that we learn more about the Presger in the next book.
medium-paced
adventurous
emotional
funny
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I really enjoyed the point of view of Breq/Justice of Toren in this book. I thought it provided the exact correct amount of distance and entrenchment to the bigger overarching political intrigue storyline. I also thought the science aspect was exactly how I usually like it, which means there was enough well-thought out scientific/anthropological ideas, but a lot of the harder science wasn't too fussy.
Felt like a slow start but eventually I came around to the style.
When I started this book, I wasn't sure how I felt about it except that I felt a bit challenged by it, and I wasn't sure if I wanted to be challenged. But, I kept reading it, and the longer I read it, the more I liked it. And quite honestly, for me, I took quite a bit longer to read it than I normally would.
By the end, I was completely taken and in love with this book. It is such a rare thing to have a book creep up on me like that, and what a wonderful experience it was. I would highly recommend anyone else feeling challenged by this book to do what I did and just keep going, even if you only do so very slowly. The thing that I came to understand is that this book takes a bit of getting used to, and there are a lot of pieces to the story, but they do all eventually come together in a very satisfying way.
By the end, I was completely taken and in love with this book. It is such a rare thing to have a book creep up on me like that, and what a wonderful experience it was. I would highly recommend anyone else feeling challenged by this book to do what I did and just keep going, even if you only do so very slowly. The thing that I came to understand is that this book takes a bit of getting used to, and there are a lot of pieces to the story, but they do all eventually come together in a very satisfying way.
(More like 3.5 stars.)
I had a very difficult time starting this book and had to reread sections several times if I had to put down the book mid-chapter. I still haven't wrapped my head around the culture of the main human (humanoid?) race; the lack of gender still confuses me. I found it jarring when One Esk would add as an aside that she was being sure to use the proper gender in non-Radchaai, because sometimes the English word used was ungendered (e.g. "you").
There was another case of mistranslation on Nilt where One Esk says singer but what she *really* meant was *singer*. (I may have the actual word in question wrong, but that's the gist of the exchange.) Having an essentially omniscient narrator that can still be confused and make mistakes is neat but threw me off at times.
Still, after I got further into the book and the plot started to take off, I really started to enjoy it. The book definitely tried some new things; how many stories are narrated by a spaceship? ;-) I will probably read the sequel.
I had a very difficult time starting this book and had to reread sections several times if I had to put down the book mid-chapter. I still haven't wrapped my head around the culture of the main human (humanoid?) race; the lack of gender still confuses me. I found it jarring when One Esk would add as an aside that she was being sure to use the proper gender in non-Radchaai, because sometimes the English word used was ungendered (e.g. "you").
There was another case of mistranslation on Nilt where One Esk says singer but what she *really* meant was *singer*. (I may have the actual word in question wrong, but that's the gist of the exchange.) Having an essentially omniscient narrator that can still be confused and make mistakes is neat but threw me off at times.
Still, after I got further into the book and the plot started to take off, I really started to enjoy it. The book definitely tried some new things; how many stories are narrated by a spaceship? ;-) I will probably read the sequel.
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-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
I think parts of this book were too high concept for me; it took me a month to read this 400-or-so pager because I kept rereading bits of it in utter incomprehension.
The world Leckie has crafted is swarming with intrigue and culture, both of which are often revealed at the precise moment they're needed to parse what's going on in a particular scene. I have trouble "trusting" the author, having read some pretty terrible books in recent years, so I found myself frustrated often during this read, only to have my pre-emptive confusion untangled when time came. This book, I found, required more patience than I could often spare it.
And yet, I enjoyed it all the same, even if it gave me a bit of a headache. Breq is everything I love in a nonhuman protagonist (see: Murderbot), Seivarden's character growth is fun to watch in real time, and the world in and of itself is a beauty.
The world Leckie has crafted is swarming with intrigue and culture, both of which are often revealed at the precise moment they're needed to parse what's going on in a particular scene. I have trouble "trusting" the author, having read some pretty terrible books in recent years, so I found myself frustrated often during this read, only to have my pre-emptive confusion untangled when time came. This book, I found, required more patience than I could often spare it.
And yet, I enjoyed it all the same, even if it gave me a bit of a headache. Breq is everything I love in a nonhuman protagonist (see: Murderbot), Seivarden's character growth is fun to watch in real time, and the world in and of itself is a beauty.