Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - Vorrh

This book felt incredibly shallow. It’s filled with lofty, complex plots and ideas but never truly intersects with them except to say ‘look at me dealing with these complex plots and ideas.’ All the graphic sex and sexual abuse depictions are gratuitous and expose the fact that all the women in the book are simply vessels. This is to the extent that one of the creatures was created specifically for the sexual gratification of her charge. The only reason it didn’t get an even lower rating is because it does still have some interesting elements.

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virany's review against another edition

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challenging dark slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

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sometimes_samantha_reads's review against another edition

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I was intrigued by the concept on the back cover but early on it was evident this was not the book for me. Too much casual racism, sexism, and misogyny. It would be one thing if those themes were mentioned and then there was something done about them, but they were just there and did absolutely nothing to advance the plot. Just seemed that they were there for shock value if anything. I wanted to like this books but I couldn't get past the firsg five chapters.

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coyotesdaughter's review against another edition

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This book is one of the most disjointed works I’ve ever tried to read. Multiple stories that go nowhere, rampant misogyny, grotesque depictions of death and bodies, unnecessary sexually explicit detail and prose as thick as salt water taffy.

This is my first DNF in 7 years, and it’s disappointing to say the least. I had such high hopes for this book.

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wanderlustnefelibata's review against another edition

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False advertising I thought I was reading an adventure book about a forest but then no it was unexpected and unwelcome and I strongly dislike it do not read this book.

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gasmasquerade's review against another edition

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DNF

Book is Sexist - I only made it 52 pages in, but thus far the only female characters in this book function as tools for men either to learn from, use, or abuse. One is literally a tool for a man.
She died and he chopped her body up into bits and turned her into a bow.
. In an effort to spare myself from enduring through a book in the hopes that it's "not what you think", I googled "Brian Catling sexist" and found this review which confirmed my suspicions and granted me permission to give up the pointless endeavor.
(From Goodreads) "I read the whole thing because i liked the prose but wow what a waste of my time. sexist/racist book with flat characters. Lots of pointless sex scenes and dick descriptions. Annoying."
Freudian Male Fantasy - I don't want to kink shame the author here, but this book is hailed as a fantasy masterpiece, when in reality it reads closer to a self-insert male fantasy. Some one on goodreads said, "Reads like an old white dude's psychoanalytic sessions" and I couldn't agree more. Within the first 30 pages, there is a
young boy who fucks his (robot) mother/teacher figure because she has to "teach him about pleasure"
Sounds like every badly-acted video on porn hub, doesn't it? If Catling wants to work out his pyschosexual musings on page, that's fine, but I don't share his desires and have no interest reading about them. Erotic, bizarre fantasy narratives can be compelling, but self-insert erotic male fantasies aren't my cup-of-tea.
Prose is Tedious - Catling's writing is the definition of purple prose. While some may enjoy his flowery language, personally I found it tedious, like the author is desperately attempting to flex his intellect. The needlessly complex writing distracts from the narrative and seldom adds any real substance. In fact, the overly-personified environment is mostly just exhausting, and half the time I had to reread paragraphs for clarity only to discover I've simply been hung up on bizarrely worded description of a sunrise or something equally mundane.

TL;DR: After 52 pages, I learned the book is an overly-flowery piece of sexist (and potentially racist?) male fantasy and I have no interest in continuing.

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