Reviews with content warning for Fatphobia - Castle in the Air

Disappointing compared to Howl's Moving Castle. The story was wiped clean of anything that made Howl's Moving Castle interesting - the characters were flat and there was no interesting puzzle to the plot. Even the feminist themes were gone - the female characters have very little agency besides manipulating children and each other.

Castle in the Air was published in 1990, before it was cool for white people to stay in our lanes I guess, because the setting is a fantasy-stereotyped medieval Middle East. It reminded me strongly of both of Calormen, C.S. Lewis' fantasy Middle East south of Narnia, and the Disney version of Aladdin.

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clarathromycin's review against another edition

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adventurous funny hopeful relaxing fast-paced

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

4.5

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minzzi's review against another edition

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adventurous lighthearted 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? Yes

2.0

This book was a big desapointement, specially coming out of Howl's Moving Castle.
The plot was mildly entertaining and I liked some of the new side characters and the ones from the previous book that showed up. Beyond that, I don't have much nice to say.
Basically all the non-white characters were racist stereotypes written by a white woman. The people from Zanzib are described as all being greedy scammers who will do all matter of horrible things for money and power and the one asian princess is described as small, frail, quiet and the only one who doesn't speak the language that all the other characters seen to speak, even thou they are all from different places in the world. And that line were the main character says that Ingary (a place clearly inspired by England were most of not all people are white) was sooo much better and more beautiful than his homeland really bothered me.
Also, for some reason the men in this book are very misogynistic. In the previous book there was no such thing, or at least it wasn't part of the story. Woman worked and owned their own shops, they maried who they wanted and were over all independent and powerful, but in this book there is multiple instances were they are controlled or shamed for their apparence. The only time the main characters thinks the way a female character is being treated is wrong is only because he thinks "she is to beutiful to be treated like that". Big eyeroll moment. And most os the misogyny coming from the POC in the story didn't help either.
To close if of, the romance on this book sucks. I reeeeally don't like storys were the characters know each other for 5 minutes and are already in love, specially in cases like this were the male main character is obsessed with a woman only for her looks, without knowing nothing about her and for some reason the female love interest loves him back and that is seen as a completely normal thing.

<Spoiler> I was going to give this book 2.5 stars, but that scene near the end were the soldier coerces one of the princesses into marriage or else he is going to help the villain keep then captive really upset me. So just 2 stars it is. <Spoiler>

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coffee_and_wool's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted medium-paced

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

3.5

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keenanmaree's review against another edition

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adventurous fast-paced

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

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juli100101's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted 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

3.0

Dinge, die ich mochte:
- das Worldbuilding
- die Sprache in Zanzib
- den Soldaten und die Katzen
- Blume-in-der-Nacht in Kapitel 19
-

Sophie und alle anderen aus Das wandelnde Schloß wieder zu treffen

Dinge, die ich nicht mochte:
- wie Abdullah von seinen Nichten redet und denkt
- wie Abdullah und einige andere Charaktere von Frauen reden und denken
- dass die Charaktere aus Kingsbury nicht sexistisch und fettfobisch sind, sondern nur die aus Zanzib (Kingsbury ist offensichtlich eine „westliche“ Stadt und Zanzib eine „orientalische“…)

Wer ein Sequel zu Das wandelnde Schloß erwartet, also eine Fortsetzung der Geschichte, getragen von den selben Charakteren, wird enttäuscht, trotzdem erzählt Der Palast im Himmel eine tolle Fantasy-Geschichte.

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cecilia_branco's review against another edition

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adventurous funny lighthearted 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? No

3.0

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