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ninjamuse's review against another edition
challenging
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexism and Misogyny
Minor: War, Racism, Lesbophobia, and Antisemitism
litprof's review
medium-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
2.0
Disappointing: don’t bother!
It has a great concept of a book that may or may not exist that may or may not reveal the truth that our universe is a simulacrum created and observed by black hole eyes that are god. I was excited for the fictional religion, the Sapphic romance, and from the blurb on the back and the first few pages I read in the bookstore, I thought it was set in the South Pacific by a South Pacific Islander author! However, there’s very little development of the religion, the Sapphic and inter-species romance is very brief (and of course one has to be killed off, because that’s what men do to lesbians in novels ), only the opening is set in the South Pacific, and the author is Israeli.
I thought the protagonist was Delia Welegtabit, but she plays a minor supporting mostly ‘wife’ role, while most of the characters are unsavory men, and the real protagonist is so closely based on L. Ron Hubbard that anyone familiar with Scientology will likely be bored. Relatedly, the casual sexism was unnecessary and off-putting.
The book reads less like a novel and more like a novella (the first part) the author wanted to expand but didn’t know how, so kept adding on other new things—a short story, a biography, a brief return to the early narrative—until he reached a satisfactory page length.
It has a great concept of a book that may or may not exist that may or may not reveal the truth that our universe is a simulacrum created and observed by black hole eyes that are god. I was excited for the fictional religion, the Sapphic romance, and from the blurb on the back and the first few pages I read in the bookstore, I thought it was set in the South Pacific by a South Pacific Islander author! However, there’s very little development of the religion, the Sapphic and inter-species romance is very brief (
I thought the protagonist was Delia Welegtabit, but she plays a minor supporting mostly ‘wife’ role, while most of the characters are unsavory men, and the real protagonist is so closely based on L. Ron Hubbard that anyone familiar with Scientology will likely be bored. Relatedly, the casual sexism was unnecessary and off-putting.
The book reads less like a novel and more like a novella (the first part) the author wanted to expand but didn’t know how, so kept adding on other new things—a short story, a biography, a brief return to the early narrative—until he reached a satisfactory page length.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexism
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