Reviews tagging 'Colonisation'

You Dreamed of Empires by Álvaro Enrigue

19 reviews

hdkreads's review

challenging dark slow-paced

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

3.5

A very ambitious, short but slow-paced book. The story was interesting but I found it hard to follow and hard to stay invested. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug use, Sexual assault, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Colonisation

Minor: Animal cruelty and Animal death

joannalouise's review against another edition

challenging dark funny informative mysterious fast-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Gore, Misogyny, Racism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Torture, Blood, Vomit, Religious bigotry, Murder, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

heatherlaflor's review against another edition

medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, and Colonisation

Moderate: Rape

Minor: Vomit

marielulus's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug use, Gore, Violence, Excrement, and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Rape, Torture, and Colonisation

Minor: Incest and Cannibalism

naturalog's review against another edition

adventurous challenging funny informative reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug use, Mental illness, Violence, Colonisation, and War

Moderate: Rape, Slavery, and Death of parent

Minor: Misogyny, Vomit, and Cannibalism

bisexualwentworth's review against another edition

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This is a very strange book. I think it accomplished what the author wanted it to, and I think I liked it. I certainly looked at the world through a slightly shifted lens for a few hours.

You Dreamed of Empires is experimental historical fiction that reads like fantasy. I mean that in a complimentary way.

I will probably revisit it at some point.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Drug use, Gore, Racism, Rape, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Colonisation

Moderate: Incest, Slavery, and Religious bigotry

eardil's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative fast-paced

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

3.5

Una novelización interesante sobre la primera visita de los españoles a Tenochtitlán.

Positivo:
* Me gustó su worldbuilding. Pude sentirme envuelto en el palacio y la ciudad con sus templos y entender un poco mejor la estructura de los islotes
* Los personajes tienen fuertes características. Moctezuma como el paranoico hundido en hongos pero aún con un objetivo estratégico muy claro, la figura del jefe de gobierno de la ciudad como su mano derecha y sus motivaciones propias, pero aún su amigo. Cortés con su celo ingenuo y tóxico.
* El final me encantó. No quiero hacer spoilers así que solo diré que la escena me pareció muy bien llevada.

Negativo:
* La estructura de los diálogos me parece innecesariamente obtusa. Saramago hace algo con la opacidad de quién está hablando cuando no usa casi signos de puntuación. Me pareció que Enrigue solo intentó usarlo para parecer interesante.
* A veces la "crudez" es un poco gratuita, aunque no es tanta como para que me pareciera molesta, pero no siempre es necesaria. Y creo que lo señalo menos porque no la quiero ahí y más porque cuando la usa efectivamente sí lo hace bien, y usarla de más abarata esos momentos.

Veredicto:
Recomiendo el libro sobre todo en cuanto a costo-beneficio. Es muy corto, y lo que construye lo hace bien.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Drug use, Misogyny, Excrement, and Colonisation

Moderate: Sexual assault and Classism

Minor: Drug abuse and Cannibalism

violinknitter's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.5

This is not the kind of book I typically read. But somewhere on social media someone complained about a racist review of it in the New York Times, and then recommended a review by Silvia Moreno-Garcia in the LA Times instead. 

Moreno-Garcia I *do* read, and her review convinced me to try this book. And I’m glad I did! It has a moody and almost pointilistic in texture, and I found the characters fascinating. Not likeable, but that wasn’t the intention.   

It took me a bit to get used to the complete absence of any dialogue punctuation, and the sff muscle-memory of being dumped into a world where many of the names & words are unfamiliar served me well. (While I was wondering to myself “why AM I so unfamiliar with so much of this? I’m a lover of history, and it’s literally the country next to mine!”)

Anyway, I think it was well worth the read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, and Gore

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Kidnapping, Murder, and Colonisation

amrithi's review

adventurous challenging tense fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault

Moderate: Colonisation

rainbopagn's review against another edition

3.0

I had to switch to the audiobook to be able to finish this. I am not sure if there is something lost in the translation, but each character is identified by two or three different things; sometimes first or last name, some times title, and that makes it incredibly hard to follow. 

The biggest problem I had with the book itself and why I had to switch to audio is the fact that there is no separation between the text and when someone is speaking. It is hard to tell when something is being thought versus being spoken and by whom. 

SPOILERS
The ending being semi open doesn't accomplish what I think the author intended. If he intended for this to be the "what if" of Cortez's mission failing and the Maya Empire surviving him, then it is too ambiguous. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Incest, Racism, Xenophobia, Blood, and Colonisation