Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - Phoenix Extravagant

The central theme of this book was colonisation, being an allusion, I believe, to Japan’s colonisation of Korea, and also Western colonisation. Lee specifically focusses on how colonisation leads to the destruction of indigenous art and therefore culture, empowering the colonisers and disempowering the colonised. In this book this is shown in a literal, direct way that really draws attention to the concept.

Lee also explores how different people navigate being colonised depending on personal circumstance and values. It was especially striking reading about Arazi, the dragon automaton, trying to reconcile their morals with real-life situations. Jebi, the MC, also undergoes character development in relation to this theme, beginning the book not really seeing the issue with Razanei occupation, and adding to and changing this opinion as the story progresses. (In terms of craft, I think this development could have flowed better.) And these are just two perspectives on the topic of a wide range that are presented by Lee.

Jebi was a great MC. They were funny and sort of played into the “reluctant hero” trope which is one that I enjoy. Their insights into art were so thoughtful and informative, too. Their relationship with their sister Bongsunga was so complex; I really appreciated the nuance there. With regards to their romance with Vei, I still don’t know how I feel given some background information. However, I totally got their romantic and sexual chemistry (although more work could have gone into the emotional side of things).

The plot was engaging with fairly good pacing, and I appreciated that it wasn’t trying to cover the entire revolution but only a part of it. It was grounded in some interesting world-building, with the interplay of fantasy and sci-fi elements emerging especially in how art and engineering combined to give shape to the automata. This particular concept was harrowing, and truly tied into the motif of the power of art, a motif which I loved. I generally loved the detail given regarding the art and artistic practice of Jebi’s world.

I will end on a quote I found quite thought-provoking:

“’If standing on principle means that you lose the people those principles are meant to protect,’ it said, ‘what’s the point?’”

Rep: Korean nonbinary MC, Japanese/Korean queer LI, Korean sapphic SC, Japanese SC who is a cane user, polyamorous throuple side relationship (nonbinary Korean SC, queer Korean SC, queer Japanese SC who is a crutch user), queer nonbinary SC, Korean and Japanese minor characters of different abilities and orientations

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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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radtastical's review

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adventurous hopeful 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? It's complicated

4.0

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aardwyrm's review

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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? Yes

4.0

The magic system is stellar, the worldbuilding is lovely (and brutal), and you get to make a dragon friend, which improves any book a thousandfold. Lots of political intrigue, a paucity of right choices, and horrible consequences, avoids giving pat answers to hard questions.

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anonymous_traveller's review

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adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious tense medium-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? No

4.0

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