Reviews

Low fantasy tale set in the 1830s. This book ended up taking a path I did not expect, but massively enjoyed. The narratives about rampant colonialism and the impact of the British Empire were insightful and interesting. Obviously the silver bars are fictional, but stealing resources from colonized countries happened, with the expectation that native people should be thankful for being shown how to be "civilised". I felt really connected to the core four and their friendship - I think we have all had a friend where we connect deeply very quickly. Weaving in worker strikes was clever and showed another aspect of how colonialism also hurts those at the bottom of society in the home land. I was gripped by this book from start to finish.

Content Warnings

amoore126's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective tense 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? Yes

5.0

hastiabidr's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny informative inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

woekoe's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective tense slow-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? It's complicated

5.0

ari211's review against another edition

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reflective medium-paced

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

darlenep's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional reflective 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? No

5.0

samfictiondistilling's review against another edition

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adventurous dark informative mysterious tense slow-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

3.75

I appreciate how timely this book is, which is a strange thing to say about abook set in the late 1830's. But the class struggle is...strong.
The book is beautifully written and I look forward to reading more Kuang but I'm struggling a little with that ending being the payoff of that many pages. It takes so long to get to the crux of the story and then it was just done. It felt sad to finish it, less of an accomplishment. I loved the characters though and please tell me this will be made intoa movie. This has such movie vibes.

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