Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu

4 reviews

blacksphinx's review against another edition

adventurous emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Misogyny, Infidelity, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, War, Gore, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Grief, Drug use, Pregnancy, Xenophobia, Slavery, Sexual assault, Child abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Trafficking, and Kidnapping

Minor: Infertility, Cannibalism, Excrement, and Colonisation

There is lots of talk of forcing women into sexual slavery. Eye injuries.

griffinthief's review

adventurous 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Pregnancy, Murder, Kidnapping, Infidelity, Sexism, Suicide, Violence, and War

Minor: Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Cannibalism, Death, and Death of parent

mariebrunelm's review

adventurous challenging dark tense fast-paced

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

2.0

First of all, I want to praise the diversity and plotting in this book. It is a perfect Asian alternative to G.R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire. Now, let's turn to why I nearly threw this book out the window, shall we? Rant ahead!

How fitting that when I tried to find again one quote from this book involving women, I couldn't get my hands on it? I'll paraphrase. At some point in the story, soldiers (men) insult other soldiers (men) by implying they are women. The scene goes on for some time before one of the characters says something like "women are half of the world's population. Why should we be embarrassed to be compared to them?" And honestly, that's something I wished the very author of the book had kept in mind. I don't believe anymore in novels that present to me a fantasy world with lovely worldbuilding but fraught with sexism. Why can you imagine a world with flying, silk-sailed ships and gorgeous air battles between kite riders, but not one in which women are treated as equals to men? Why should women in a fantasy world be reduced to tending babies, cooking or selling themselves? Why should women die to give men reasons to fight? These problems aren't specific to The Grace of Kings, of course. But if an author is praised for their creativity, I expect more. More than what fantasy stories have always told their women readers. In a 620-page book, you can't imagine an interesting woman character on page 466 and hope the last 150 or so pages will make up for the first 466. In my opinion, that's not how it works. If you want to imagine a world of political intrigues and epic battles, have women be generals, soldiers, rulers. Have men tend babies and cook and mend things. And don't ever, ever tell me that your story is inspired by history like G.R.R.M. does, because if you put dragons and gods then clearly you're the one making the rules.

"My only worth to them is my proximity to *him*" says one female character. The author keeps telling us what the problem is, but does he try to solve it? No! I'm sorry for the rant, but that's infuriating. 

Now I'll go back to reading The Priory of th Orange Tree or Le Chant des Cavalières.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Genocide, Grief, Kidnapping, Mass/school shootings, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexism, Slavery, Torture, and Violence

katt's review

adventurous challenging dark slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Kidnapping, Confinement, Violence, Torture, and Suicide