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madamchiroptera's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
4.0
I was not actually expecting to like this book as much as I did. As much as I like space operas, the older ones tend to feel either a little boring a technobabble-y or there’s just too much problematic stuff that it makes hard for me to read and enjoy. There was still a little bit of that misogyny in this book, but it’s few and far between so it’s easier to kind of acknowledge as a product of its time and move on.
A main theme that I got from it was kind of the morality of war and what it means to be on a side of that war. I perceived the changers as a metaphor for that. It was interesting and I liked the character’s interactions with each other.
A main theme that I got from it was kind of the morality of war and what it means to be on a side of that war. I perceived the changers as a metaphor for that. It was interesting and I liked the character’s interactions with each other.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, War, Cannibalism, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Alcohol
Minor: Misogyny and Rape
jjjreads's review against another edition
One of the most boring books I've ever read. A solid 90% of the portion I read did not need to be in the book. It was totally irrelevant. Whole chapters should have been a single sentence, if that. The worldbuilding is pretty cool, but the few interesting facts are so buried in a morass of the useless, petty goings-on of the unlikeable main character you almost don't notice them, and even if you do the reeking misogyny negates them anyway.
Again: the main character was boring an unlikeable (by which I do not mean he was a bad person - I mean, he was, but that's not why he was unlikeable. It'd be more accurate to say it was impossible to think of him as a real person, and even if you managed it was impossible to care about him), the events occurring on any given page do not constitute a plot, there are precious few if any bits and pieces that almost could have made up for it, and the sheer overwhelming grossness of a few (again, totally irrelevant) scenes tipped the scale into making this totally unreadable.
I kept reading and reading, thinking that surely it'd get better eventually, surely after this scene something relevant or interesting or vaguely pertaining to the plot would happen, and I was continuously wrong. Oh, and to top it all off, the two characters who have no personality beyond not speaking the language (it's creepy how silenced they are) and being lesbians arekilled off for literally no reason. That is, one of them dies, so the other one goes and immediately gets herself killed on purpose.
Again: the main character was boring an unlikeable (by which I do not mean he was a bad person - I mean, he was, but that's not why he was unlikeable. It'd be more accurate to say it was impossible to think of him as a real person, and even if you managed it was impossible to care about him), the events occurring on any given page do not constitute a plot, there are precious few if any bits and pieces that almost could have made up for it, and the sheer overwhelming grossness of a few (again, totally irrelevant) scenes tipped the scale into making this totally unreadable.
I kept reading and reading, thinking that surely it'd get better eventually, surely after this scene something relevant or interesting or vaguely pertaining to the plot would happen, and I was continuously wrong. Oh, and to top it all off, the two characters who have no personality beyond not speaking the language (it's creepy how silenced they are) and being lesbians are
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Cannibalism, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Fatphobia, Genocide, Gore, Homophobia, Medical content, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Religious bigotry, Self harm, Sexism, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Torture, Violence, and Vomit
Moderate: Kidnapping
Minor: Drug use
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