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klara_o's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
emmaopaline's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence and Sexual harassment
Minor: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, and Murder
juliealmeida's review against another edition
4.0
I don't exactly know how to feel about this one. The world building is fascinating, intriguing and, well, it felt a little purposely contradictory, which really just made me more curious. But it's such a slow story and not entirely my narrative type. I think I still want to read on just out of curiosity and see where this story goes.
aeturnum's review against another edition
3.0
Palmer does a wonderful job of describing a vital, detailed world. Her vision for the possibilities of humanity and society is the most compelling aspect of the book.
The people we meet from the world are somewhat less compelling. The story is one of political intrigue and finding opponents hidden in the shadows, so one should expect to be uncertain about who to trust and who is lying. Unfortunately, I often found it hard to tell if I was confused because I was being misled or because I didn't understand the cultural world being described.
The narrative is framed as a memoir of one of the characters about the hurried, important days that are the subject of the book that will bring forth the world that the presumed reader inhabits. There are at least four different time periods depicted in this book: the eighteenth century, the 2450's, the "present day" and the narrator's youth (around 2435). Implicitly, of course, there is also our time period: the 2010's.
There is a lot of cultural commentary about the narrator's fondness for either antiquated or taboo forms of description or cultural norms. I think Palmer is trying to bring out this sense of cultural change and make that change visible and material in the story, but for me it was simply confusing. Are the things happening in 2450 taboo? To whom? They seem fine to me, but our narrator seems horrified. Is he horrified for himself or because someone from 2450 would be horrified? There are many reveals where the tension comes from a 2450 character needing to decide if they can live with the "shocking" or "unconventional" information they just learned - but to me none of it seemed shocking! I often wasn't sure how sincere characters were: was this an act? Is this strategy? When are characters mastering their basic reactions and when are they simply going with the flow? I could not tell you.
On the whole, I found the character work disappointing, not just for the reasons above. There are a lot of philosophical justifications that seem very convincing to our heroes but seemed disconnected from human experience to me. Frequently characters are revealed to have some kind of double purpose, but the weaving of various cultures (both between time periods and between 2450's competing cultural narratives) left me feeling uncertain about everything. It doesn't help that our narrator is a close personal associate of literally everyone who runs the world - a narrative device whose use is obvious but which strains credibility.
Beyond being confused by the narrative and bemused by the character choices there are many of the sci-fi tropes I consider unfortunate. One of the groups in 2450 is a leaderless anarchist collective who are perfectly competent and just a bit slower than the other groups. Please, authors, consider that by creating a world where perfection is not just possible but already present that you symbolically devalue the imperfect characters in your narrative.
Finally, this book makes an odd effort at being inclusive about gender. It depicts a future where gender-neutral terms are the norm, but where a *great deal* of time is spent speaking about the genitalia of particular characters. It was odd. I could not tell if characters had "gender identities" as we would understand them today and the narrator was being rude or there was some other dynamic at play.
The people we meet from the world are somewhat less compelling. The story is one of political intrigue and finding opponents hidden in the shadows, so one should expect to be uncertain about who to trust and who is lying. Unfortunately, I often found it hard to tell if I was confused because I was being misled or because I didn't understand the cultural world being described.
The narrative is framed as a memoir of one of the characters about the hurried, important days that are the subject of the book that will bring forth the world that the presumed reader inhabits. There are at least four different time periods depicted in this book: the eighteenth century, the 2450's, the "present day" and the narrator's youth (around 2435). Implicitly, of course, there is also our time period: the 2010's.
There is a lot of cultural commentary about the narrator's fondness for either antiquated or taboo forms of description or cultural norms. I think Palmer is trying to bring out this sense of cultural change and make that change visible and material in the story, but for me it was simply confusing. Are the things happening in 2450 taboo? To whom? They seem fine to me, but our narrator seems horrified. Is he horrified for himself or because someone from 2450 would be horrified? There are many reveals where the tension comes from a 2450 character needing to decide if they can live with the "shocking" or "unconventional" information they just learned - but to me none of it seemed shocking! I often wasn't sure how sincere characters were: was this an act? Is this strategy? When are characters mastering their basic reactions and when are they simply going with the flow? I could not tell you.
On the whole, I found the character work disappointing, not just for the reasons above. There are a lot of philosophical justifications that seem very convincing to our heroes but seemed disconnected from human experience to me. Frequently characters are revealed to have some kind of double purpose, but the weaving of various cultures (both between time periods and between 2450's competing cultural narratives) left me feeling uncertain about everything. It doesn't help that our narrator is a close personal associate of literally everyone who runs the world - a narrative device whose use is obvious but which strains credibility.
Beyond being confused by the narrative and bemused by the character choices there are many of the sci-fi tropes I consider unfortunate. One of the groups in 2450 is a leaderless anarchist collective who are perfectly competent and just a bit slower than the other groups. Please, authors, consider that by creating a world where perfection is not just possible but already present that you symbolically devalue the imperfect characters in your narrative.
Finally, this book makes an odd effort at being inclusive about gender. It depicts a future where gender-neutral terms are the norm, but where a *great deal* of time is spent speaking about the genitalia of particular characters. It was odd. I could not tell if characters had "gender identities" as we would understand them today and the narrator was being rude or there was some other dynamic at play.
canaanmerchant's review against another edition
4.0
A wonderful challenge. Science fiction where the most radical changes are found in society rather than technology.
Like I said, it's wonderful. The writing here is dense and focused while the world building is thorough and intriguing with every scene revealing something fascinating.
But it's also a challenge. There's no hand holding, characters are numerous (with multiple names and factions), and the narrator intentionally confuses the reader by switching between contemporary, antiquated, and imagined modes of address.
That can make the story inch by at times and major characters seem to get the least amount of page time but I look forward to seeing the fall out of the books events.
Like I said, it's wonderful. The writing here is dense and focused while the world building is thorough and intriguing with every scene revealing something fascinating.
But it's also a challenge. There's no hand holding, characters are numerous (with multiple names and factions), and the narrator intentionally confuses the reader by switching between contemporary, antiquated, and imagined modes of address.
That can make the story inch by at times and major characters seem to get the least amount of page time but I look forward to seeing the fall out of the books events.
scribewarden's review against another edition
challenging
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
stevo1977's review against another edition
Interesting premise, world, and narrative style, but too slow for me to get into. There's a magical child, who is hinted to be responsible for upsetting/revolutionizing the world social and political order, but 100 pages in no progress has been made on how our why that might happen.
rc_boxnut's review against another edition
Welp. This is definitely the weirdest thing I've read since The Gray House.
crimsoncor's review against another edition
3.0
The first two-thirds are so slow and dense with political and social theory. And then everything explodes and the last couple hundred pages are just an incredible deconstruction of all the things that were just built up. The extended build-up does make the denouement even more shocking and surprising, but it is some real work to get there.