Reviews

Brilliant! I’m not a massive fantasy fan but this one felt so rooted and related to real life. The story is so intricate and foreshadowed excellently throughout, you are captivated and desperate to see what happens next.

The build up and

then brilliant spectacular conclusion and revolution that leaves such an uncertain future

feels so poignant and relevant. The weaving of translation and meaning throughout is excellent.

bentewill's review against another edition

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4.0

A book I would have never picked out on my own, but so happy I read it. It was so interesting.
Coming from the perspective of someone who has actually studied translation, it was really interesting to see some of the theories I am familiar with be explained in the book. The fact that, with translation, some parts of the meaning are always removed because nothing is a one-on-one translation. That this difference is used in silver to create powerful tools is so interesting.
Some things that stood out to me were the foreshadowing, mainly because I’m not sure what to think about it. It would almost seem so random

when the end of their friendship was foreshadowed

, not sure if I would have preferred it if that wasn’t done. But still, it also made it quite fun

, because I was really in the moment with Robin and him then almost pulling me out of it by telling me that the happiness won’t last felt brutal

.
Another interesting aspect to me was the use of footnotes. Why was that done? One very important rule in translation is to not use footnotes, to not ruin the reading experience, but here there were quite a lot. Might try and find out why this was done.
I guess the only thing that I couldn’t really understand

is why Robin wanted to end his life. Part of me gets that he does it for the greater good, but he also does it for quite selfish reasons that I don’t truly understand, or at least feel that they weren’t worked out that well, considering the story is told from Robin’s perspective and his feelings are most often shared

.
Overall, a really fun read, but also such an interesting read that really gets you thinking about the way humans have always tried to abuse other people’s skills and cultures for our own gain.
[July 8, 2024 → July 26, 2024]

acrow's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional reflective sad 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

4.0

shaelinsan's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

5.0

nocturnal's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

k_cahoo's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging reflective slow-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? No

3.75

sophiegraceslibrary's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

This may be my new favourite book. I have been putting off finishing this because I knew I wouldn’t be able to bear the ending, this could go on another 546 pages and I would still absolutely devour it. So brilliant and beautiful, with such rich and fascinating characters, gorgeous and haunting world building, and clever biting commentary on colonialism, exploitation and the power of language. I will be crying about this for the next month <3

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