Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - Do błyskawicy podobne

A wild ride. Ada Palmer throws wrinkle after wrinkle into a story set in a world already riddled with them. It's easy to get lost, dazed, and completely emersed in the book, but after finishing it and gaining some distance, any reflection tends to elicit not fondness or interest, but simply leaves one thinking: What?

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misty_kb's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective slow-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? Yes

5.0

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halberdbooks's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark informative mysterious tense slow-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? Yes

4.0

It has been so long since I have jumped into a Sci-Fi or Fantasy series truly designed from the beginning to be a full set. Usually, book 1 is a standalone thing, and the rest of the books follow from that. So I was caught off-guard when this book ended, not on a cliffhanger, but on what feels like the actual initiating incident. Naturally, I have to know what happens next. This book is pretty slow, far more interested in explaining other things than explaining itself, caught up significantly more in the geopolitical machinations and philosophies of our past than its future, and very difficult to follow with its enormous cast and propensity for tangents. And yet, it is riveting. I am confused and overwhelmed and enthralled. At one point, the book essentially turned to me and demanded I face the true reality of the only logical endpoint of my own philosophy. I must see where this goes. I could not explain what this book is about. I don't know that I'll ever recommend it. And yet this is a SOLID four stars.

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ewmod's review against another edition

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challenging medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

I genuinely cannot assign a numerical rating to this book; the closest I can describe is that it is simultaneously a 0/5 and 1/5 and 2/5 and ... and 5/5.
Too Like the Lightning is an 18th century history (+ some epistolary) about a near future where gender, religion, and the idea of "a majority" are taboo. The cover art and blurb are quite misleading so if you are in the review section of this app wondering if this book is for you, please know that. And also know that the content warnings are NOT exaggerating.
Here is my best attempt at describing my feelings towards this novel...
Characters: Good. Enjoyed. What more could you want besides a cute little boy and a supporting cast of wildly despicable people. Character beats were rolled out well.
Worldbuilding: It's giving Divergent. Also everyone is mixed race but only about five ethnicies seem to exist. There are maybe a bit too many "what if the future was like *this*" premises because parts of the book end up drowning in the set dressings but I do see the vision. Overall it's interesting, if a bit goofy at times.
Plot: One of the aspects of the book that worked the best for me! I liked all how all of the threads wove together (though the actual scene where things are finally made clear is really underwelming). Pacing is a bit off--imo it does something I don't like very much where it is very clear that this is The First Book of A Series. Idk maybe it's a ~stylistic choice~ to leave off on a cliffhanger but to me it's just a bit cheap.
Vibes: The 1700s thing is neat. It is SO pretentious, but the book knows it's being pretentious. There are times where the line between the narrator and the author is very blurry and they are largely the bits where they defend the pretentious-ness/style. I do like the long asides where people just have discussions about 18th century philosophers--really on the nose there but it's fun. On the other hand-slash-consequently, this is a very grotesque book filled with very uncomfortably vivid descriptions of sex (in both meanings) and violence. I think the weird carnality struggles to convey any higher theme or meaning but again--I see the vision. Masturbatory in all senses. BUT REALLY WEIRD VIBES ABOUT GENDER HOLY SHIT. Every woman* has her tits described. In detail. (*Everyone with a vagina is a woman and everyone with a dick or a position of power is a man.) Either this author** sucks or the book just did not age very well wrt sex vs gender. (**It does seem to push beyond the narrator here--that shit is hammered the fuck in.) Thrusting 18th century vibes on gender onto a more androgynous future is, idk, fun to play with I suppose but very analogous things are extremely happening in the real world and it is extremely scary to be living through. This was the biggest frustration for me and the thing that put me the closest to putting the book down. I think I am possibly Supposed To Be Frustrated but it is just not something I want to be pushed to be frustrated by.
Theme??/Politics???: Jesus CHRIST. Best way I can put it is this book describes...anti-Enlightenment? We start with a world supposedly liberated from gender discrimination (oppression and also distinguishment), organized religion, and geographic nations/hegemony and learn along the way that all of these things stuck around. Cool ok. Except...I *really* cannot tell and I want to believe I am off here...but the takeaway seems to be that these things are all good?? Effective maybe?? I was waiting for some sort of subversion or something but nothing else in this book made my skin crawl the way a scene where a naive and reader-inserty protagonist faces a long and condescending lecture about how [reductive ideas about womanhood] are Cool and Powerful. Again the line between author and narrator/characters is imo a bit blurry so I hope I am just on the wrong side here and the invoked revulsion is not supposed to be a "haha gotcha" revulsion. Plus this is book 1 of 4 (god help me but I think I'm going to pick up the next one) so maybe I'll get some clarity on this.
There is no tldr for this and honestly I think my small essay is quite abridged relative to what I could say about Too Like the Lightning. Godspeed to anyone who wants to read it.

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saepsi's review against another edition

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dark mysterious slow-paced

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

4.0

the scifi aspect is mostly window dressing, which was disappointing since I picked it up because I was in the mood for scifi. honestly only started working for me once I stopped thinking of it as future-speculative fiction and moved it into the realm of pure fantasy in my mind, especially since
magic and maybe god? are real in this setting while they obviously aren’t in real life.
it was extremely gripping as a political thriller in the first half, a real page turner once you get used to the narrator’s… idiosyncrasies. unreliable narration enjoyers will have a field day with them and their extremely twisted view of just about everything. the plot starts to slow down later on and get into the philosophical elements more - most of which I disagreed with, but to its credit the book never presents any of the political systems or philosophies in it as correct or incorrect, it simply leaves them there for you to judge as you will.
clear attempts were made to differentiate the chapters “written” by characters besides the main narrator, but it’s obvious that the author is most comfortable writing in a certain rather pretentious style and that comes through occasionally in places where it shouldn’t.

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kaiiyo's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.75

Had my brain churning every chapter, grabs hold and then flips you around
Truly disturbing but extremely compelling

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midwichtriffid's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

5.0

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