Reviews with content warning for Racism - Phoenix Extravagant

Reviews tagging 'Racism'

Phoenix Extravagant by Yoon Ha Lee

8 reviews

bisexualwentworth's review against another edition

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

There's a lot that I love here: the worldbuilding, the magic system, the prose, the women with swords, the mechanical dragon. I think that Yoon Ha Lee accomplished exactly what he set out to do with this book. Unfortunately, I think that the concept is just fundamentally not super compelling for me. The execution is as strong as it could have possibly been, but Jebi just isn't an interesting enough main character for me. I would have loved either a more slice of life story or a more action-packed story, but again, those aren't the books the author wanted to write, and that's okay. I will absolutely be reading his other work cause I think there's a lot of good stuff here. I did wish the book was longer, but I do appreciate a good quick fantasy standalone.

The first and second half of this book are very distinct in terms of vibes and pacing. I preferred the second half, but I think the first half may work better for a lot of readers. Very much a personal taste thing.

Anyway, this book isn't a new favorite, but it did leave a positive impression and I would definitely recommend it.

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bluejayreads's review against another edition

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slow-paced

3.0

I really like the idea of magical art. That, and the idea of stealing a magical dragon automaton to fight against an invading government sounded hopelessly cool. Plus a nonbinary protagonist in a magical East Asian setting had to be great. I had pretty high hopes for this book.

And overall, it was … fine. It was good enough to finish and had some interesting ideas, but it never fully grabbed me.

The world was interesting, although I spent more time than was good for my story comprehension trying to place exactly what the setting was. (It took me a while to determine it was probably a fantasy version of the Japanese occupation of Korea, but I still wasn’t completely sure of that until I checked the author’s site.) I also found the societal structure and the role of an artist in how society was set up interesting. I don’t know how much was historically accurate and how much was made up for the story (besides the obvious), but it was interesting regardless.

Normally I spend some time in my reviews talking about the characters. But that’s hard to do here because there’s not a lot to them. Jebi gets into conflict with their sister because of differing values – their sister values patriotism and ideals, while Jebi values survival more. (And that made it easy to dislike their sister, since I also value survival more.) Jebi enjoyed painting and art, and that’s about it. From the back cover, I expected them to have a bit more revolutionary spirit. But in fact, Jebi can’t fight at all and actively avoids political involvement.

That strongly contributed to the fact that very little happens in the book. The whole stealing-the-dragon part doesn’t happen until nearly three quarters of the way through. It had its moments of awesomeness, but overall it was incredibly slow and tipped over into dull and boring several times. Jebi spends a lot of time feeling guilty and sorry for themself, and even the bits about the value of art as a cultural artifact and for its own sake felt like an aside that never really got fleshed out.

I like a lot of the ideas here. The ideas were why I picked up the book, and the foundations here are solid. As it is, Phoenix Extravagant isn’t bad. I enjoyed it enough to finish it, and there were some genuinely great moments. But on the whole, I think I would have liked it more as a faster, more action-based story with a more dynamic protagonist.

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some_random_person_hi's review

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adventurous dark medium-paced

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

3.5

The writing really sucked me in and was that

pearl harbour reference at the end?

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careinthelibrary's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional medium-paced

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

4.0

Come for the worldbuilding, stay for the soul-crushing conclusion.

This was epic, expansive, yet somehow it remained so intimate and almost claustrophobic being in this one character's mind trying to interpret the grand scale of this novel. Fantastical and imaginative. I loved that our protagonist was not a warrior, not a hero (in the traditional sense). They are an artist who isn't that invested in politics and activism yet gets drawn into war.

The last couple of chapters sold me on this novel, the last two sentences crushed me into tiny, sad pieces. It was a pleasure to read.

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brnineworms's review

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fast-paced

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

3.0

I was surprised to learn Phoenix Extravagant wasn’t Yoon Ha Lee’s debut novel – many of its shortcomings are typical of new writers, such as repetitive phrasing and telling rather than showing. It’s a shame, really, because it had potential. A book about a nonbinary artist in a dystopian world of sigil-powered automata is a fantastic pitch, but the execution is so-so.

An issue throughout is the emotionality lacking depth or simply not landing. I partially blame the protagonist, Jebi, who is pretty apathetic for the most part. If they don’t care about anything, why should I? But I think the problem runs deeper than that, because even moments which elated or terrified or shocked Jebi fell flat for me. Take

their relationship with Vei

for example. There is no chemistry between them and the whole affair comes out of nowhere. I am told that they are in love but I’m not made to feel it.

In many ways, Jebi simply isn’t protagonist material. They’re an asshole and they don’t have the charisma to make up for it. Characters as unpleasant as they are are best confined to short stories and novellas, I feel – that way you don’t have to endure them for too long. Jebi is also frustratingly passive. On the rare occasions that they do take action, it always backfires thanks to their glaring incompetence. I know their lack of agency is a reflection of the oppressive system they find themself trapped within, but the way they kept blurting out secrets or wandering off and immediately getting captured was even more annoying and less compelling than their head-down resignation to the status quo.

The story ends with a message that not everyone is a fighter and the world needs artists just as much as it needs revolutionaries. It’s a nice idea, but Jebi still could have become a better person or helped out in a more substantial way than fucking off to the moon. It feels like whatever character arc they might have had got snapped back to where they were at the start, caring only about themself and their art and distancing themself from political issues as much as possible. Vei is also there, I guess.

There are more plot holes and inconsistencies than I can count. For example, the financial struggles of Jebi and their sister Bongsunga are sometimes front-and-centre and sometimes completely forgotten about in scenarios where it really should have affected the outcome. I was often left feeling like I was going crazy. To say nothing of the scenes that happen out of nowhere as though the author suddenly remembered they’re important to the plot. I already mentioned the awkward romance, but I also want to talk about

the torture scene, which seems to exist purely to justify the later killing of Hafanden. It doesn’t really serve any purpose besides presenting Hafanden as an irredeemable villain. Were it not for that one scene, would he have deserved execution?

It’s an interesting question which the story doesn’t seem to want to grapple with.

Which brings me to Arazi...

Arazi is a magical mechanical dragon designed to be used as a weapon, but subtle sabotage in its creation caused it to be a staunch pacifist. That is, until the final act. During an ambush, Arazi kills Hafanden in order to save Jebi’s life. An act of justified violence, maybe, but violence nonetheless, and lethal violence at that. Arazi was a bit bummed out but it didn’t have time to sit with the implications of what it had done. Its defining trait – its pacifism and its refusal to kill – had just been tested and ultimately contradicted, and with nowhere near the gravity a moment like that deserves.

Throughout the book, Arazi puts forward intriguing philosophical questions that get pushed aside to be dealt with later. And, of course, they’re never followed up on. I'm not expecting the author to construct an exhaustive thesis on the nature of the soul and the self, but some exploration of these concepts in the story would be nice. Arazi and the other automata are constantly sidelined despite the book being about them.

There are so many issues I could pick apart but I think I’ll stop here. Between the flat characters, the lack of follow-through on interesting concepts, and the inconsistencies throughout, Phoenix Extravagant is hard to recommend. That said, it’s largely inoffensive. I appreciate what the author was going for, at least, even if it feels half-baked. I don’t think it’s bad but I’m glad I’m done with it.

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talonsontypewriters's review against another edition

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adventurous tense fast-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

3.0

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ofbooksandechos's review

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adventurous hopeful informative inspiring fast-paced

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

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cursedepub's review

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adventurous fast-paced

Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

A fun, quick, and exciting adventure story. Not particularly complex, especially compared to Yoon Ha Lee's Machineries of Empire series, but still a balance of entertaining and thoughtful, with a darker tone at the end. I can't say I'm particularly impressed by the book - I found the characters mostly flat and was wishing for more depth and exploration overall - but its a good book if you want to just curl up and have a good time.

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