Reviews

Revenant Gun by Yoon Ha Lee

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kivt's review

3.0

Good but got pretty overcomplicated and messy by the end. Not sure what I thought about the epilogue.

It feels a little easier to read than the first two, maybe because of Jedao’s emotional focus- but it also keeps expanding the world and showing how it continues to change. I do wish it had more Cheris, although the other perspectives were important and interesting. I enjoyed the characters, plotting/betrayals, tragedy, humor, the variety of types of beings… and just the creative possibilities of the setting. I think that at least some of my feelings of awkwardness in the conclusion come from Cheris’ perspective sharing the spotlight. I don’t think that it’s all me- I would still say the pacing is juddery in parts- but it is a surprisingly happy ending (minus the most of it) that I liked.

ghosty773's review

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adventurous challenging 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

4.25

speljamr's review

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced

4.0

luke_td's review

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After the nearly non stop action of book 1 and the frequent action of book 2 this one slows things down, but then building a better world would be slower and less exciting than crashing a bad one.
The sort of book that gives you pulp (crazy weapons, immortal enemies) by way of people talking in rooms. It's not bad by any means, and luckily all that talking is real dialogue and not just a stream of ideas wearing quotation marks like a fake mustache, but the lack of weapons and formations is felt.
Doesn't help that Jedao is more interesting as a periphery character the world revolves around, than a central character the world pushes to the periphery.
Still, without overly speculating, this one felt a little more personal, and a little more "the point" of the trilogy, and in that sense, it's hard to suggest it somehow missed the mark it was aiming for.

crimsoncor's review

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4.0

I really enjoyed this end to the series. This series is one of the most fascinating scifi explorations of identity, personhood, and freedom out there. However, we'll go into the spoiler block to discuss why I gave it 4 not 5 stars.

Spoiler

The ending of the the novel is very gentle. It feels like the pressure and the stakes build and build and then the release is very anticlimactic. On one hand, it kinda fits with how the story was told. But I remember the incredible emotional catharsis of Donaldson's Gap series (which is, to me, a really close thematic cousin to this book) and how that inexorably built to a moment when all hell cut loose and there was redemption and sacrifice and I could barely sleep after finishing it the first time. And while this series had a similar build, it didn't feel like the payoff was everything it could have been. Again, I get why the narrative choices were made and I still love the series and it is close to the top of my list for must recommend (especially since it has interesting gender politics vs Donaldson's super rapey novels). I just feel like it could have been even more.

Anyway, it is a fantastic book and a great conclusion to the series.

erinsbookshelves's review

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adventurous challenging medium-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? Yes

5.0

alex_watkins's review

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5.0

So impressed with the world Yoon Ha Lee has built. This book I found to definitely be a satisfying conclusion to the trilogy (even if some loose ends are still dangling - seems like there is room for a successor series). I am into the weird math and calendrical warfare and the whole thing going on. Warning for spoilers for the first/second book - One thing about the sequels is that I miss Cheris, who while continuing to be an important figure is only very rarely a POV character in either of the sequels - which is too bad because she is the best. I get why - seeing into Cheris mind would let us know too much, but it makes me sad. And because Cheris is the best mathematicians we lose out on scenes of characters doing bravura mathematics (we see the results but not the thought process, which was so well done in book 1). There is queer representation in this book, but I'm struggling with whether I like it or not - sometimes it verges on being tropey in a disney villain kind of way.