You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Scan barcode
rivetkitten's review against another edition
- 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
4.5
Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Xenophobia, Murder, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, and Classism
Moderate: Child abuse, Blood, Death of parent, and Abandonment
finallythetruth's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
✅ What worked
• the exploration of Empire - what sustains it, the violence within it, the exploitation and plundering, how it treats the PoCs displaced from their colonised homelands as disposable, and welcomes and treats them "well" only for the benefit of Empire. For all of this book's flaws, this was something I enjoyed reading about.
• the exploration of languages and linguistics - as someone who loves languages, I enjoyed this too.
• the discussions about how we can bring down the Empire, though they could have gone much deeper.
• the revolutionary group was a potentially interesting group and they could have done so much more, but as i explain below, it's clear RFK does not understand direct action groups
• I learnt a lot about the history of the British Empire and now want to learn more about their exploitation of India
🙅🏻♀️ What didn't work so well
• RFK's writing is not as good as people think.
• She does not know how to write fully fleshed out characters. After 540 pages, I still barely know let alone like most of the characters. I liked Ramy and could picture Griffin and kinda wanted him to be the hero. Victoire was a bit hard for me to picture, Robin was so flat, and Letty was incredibly annoying which I imagine was RFK's goal as she tried to bring out the fragility of yt women. Professor Lovell was despicable and somewhat terrifying but I wanted more about his past and motivations.
• RFK will give us inklings of a character, she'll write stuff like "his face was unreadable" or "something flashed across his face but it was gone in an instant", but never gets around to fleshing this out.
• i think people are so taken aback by this book because they like the discussion of Empire - because RF Kuang spent so much of the book pontificating with her own thoughts about Empire, almost as if this is the first time someone has written about this. But to me this was done with so little subtlety or nuance. Too. Much. Lecturing. Show us, don't tell us. It almost felt like RFK was parroting things she'd read in Frantz Fanon's books.
• everything after the second sea voyage is so incredibly difficult to believe. It was incongruous to the direction we'd been led to believe the book would take.
• on this topic, it's clear RFK has never striked before nor has she been in a direct action group. Is the strike in the book meant to make up for RFK not striking with the Harper Collins workers?
• RFK portrays what at first appears to be a revolutionary group, but the actions that they take later on are just so unbelievable. We also barely get to see much of their global network and this should really have been explored in this book as a thread about how to bring down Empire. One of the members talks about how we have to unite in our struggle against colonisation, and the global network would have been a great way to show that. There could have been collaborations with other nations including ones that are heavily featured in the story, but this didn't happen (I guess it would have been hard to communicate rapidly, although the silver bars symbolised our modern technology so I'm sure they'd have found some way).
• she killed off too many characters. She also ends up representing resistance martyrs in a pretty colonised way.
• This is not a fantasy book and it should not be marketed as such. I still consider myself a beginner fantasy reader but this had so little world building in terms of a fantastical world.
• someone please tell RFK she isn't gonna make footnotes fetch. They were overused just for the purpose of her showing off her own knowledge. She spends too much time lecturing the reader (about language and history), the dialogue could be much more succinct, there's so many big chunky passages where no action takes place and the dialogue doesn't serve much purpose except to once again show off her knowledge. And there is a lot of repetition.
• finally, she has totally imposed 2020s DEI language onto 1800s Oxford students of colour. On the first sea voyage, Robin - probably a 11 year old at the time - mentally makes notes about the indentured labour that a Chinese sailor he encounters is contracted to complete. I have never met an 11 year old who speaks like this, and I don't expect people outside the West to utilise the same kind of DEI language either.
In the end i give this 6☆ out of 10. It seems crazy that after so many criticisms I still give 6☆. I don't think this is a terrible book, but it's just nowhere near as amazing as people think.
I want more of the bringing down Empire, i just think Rebecca doesn't understand it enough herself to be writing about it.
Graphic: Child abuse, Drug use, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Xenophobia, Trafficking, Death of parent, and Colonisation
Moderate: Slavery
lavendervioletreader's review against another edition
- 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
5.0
Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Suicide, Violence, Xenophobia, Trafficking, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Moderate: Torture, Blood, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and War
Minor: Alcoholism and Drug use
bgmylc's review against another edition
- 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
5.0
Graphic: Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Xenophobia, Religious bigotry, Murder, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and War
Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, Blood, and Death of parent
Minor: Deportation
minorvamp's review
- 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
I've had this sat on my kindle for nearly a year and so decided to tackle it as my first book of 2025.
The first half is not for the faint of heart, the plot develops slowly as do our characters, and it is all interspersed with deep philosophical lectures from the Oxford professors. The slow pace allows for the reader to get into Robin's head, to fall in love with Oxford and it's mad academic rituals and rigour. And to empathise with his struggle to reconcile his love for the life and family he's built and his creeping realisation of the evils of his colonial oppressors.
I read the last 200 pages in one afternoon, pausing every time my heart broke, but unable to put the book down.
A true masterpiece.
Moderate: Death, Racism, Xenophobia, and Colonisation
Minor: Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Death of parent
ankan_tove's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Misogyny, Racism, Cultural appropriation, Colonisation, and Classism
Moderate: Violence and Toxic friendship
Minor: Gun violence, Sexual assault, Slavery, Death of parent, and Alcohol
gallifreyanpanicmoon's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Colonisation, War, and Classism
Minor: Sexism and Cultural appropriation
risingred's review
- 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
5.0
Graphic: Racism, Xenophobia, and Colonisation
Moderate: Death, Sexism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, and Cultural appropriation
Minor: Physical abuse, Death of parent, and Sexual harassment
nikki_flowers's review against another edition
- 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
5.0
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Islamophobia, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Vomit
Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Confinement, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Mass/school shootings, and Alcohol
liriopelee's review
- 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
5.0
Moderate: Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Violence, Colonisation, and Classism
Minor: Racism, Death of parent, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail