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3.99 AVERAGE
3.99 AVERAGE
This is a coming of age novel in a fantastic universe with some great rep. I went into it with mistaken expectations. Somehow I thought it was about him learning magic and helping take down the evil empire with a poly relationship. Nope. He does learn magic, but it's not a central focus. More like an ever-present underlying motive. The magic is central to who Ariah is, but the book is not about the magic, it's about Ariah. As for the evil empire, they won already and it doesn't change. Great colonizing force that everyone else just has to put up with. Was correct about the poly relationship. So with these incorrect assumptions in mind, I was disappointed at first, because I kept waiting for something to happen. Then I realized I was wrong and had to shift gears, and then I really enjoyed myself.
This book is about growing as a person and engaging in meaningful relationships along the way. And I loved all the characters. They were very well realized. And because Ariah doesn't really settle very well, there is a lot of travel and we see different pockets of culture. It's very interesting. But I am at a bit of a loss to understand the Droma properly. All the different people and circumstances feel like a rich, but difficult, life evoking several emotions in me.
My main issues are with world-building. I do struggle with believing that the different peoples could be as disparate as they are. Yes, there is natural barriers leading to isolation, but not complete isolation. You can cross the desert with camels. Why wouldn't there have been more contact with the Droma before the Qin started taking them as slaves? That would have prevented from the peoples growing as different as they did. I also have stupid niggling questions which aren't important at all. Such as, the Droma were herding antelopes. (As well as goats and yaks.) Real world antelopes have been difficult to domesticate. They are very flighty. And what were they using the antelopes for? More milk? I'm sure you can just explain that they aren't real world antelopes, so they can be tamed, but it still annoys me.
Overall, I do recommend giving this one a read. Just go in knowing what it is. Don't expect a lot of plot. This is more slice-of-life.
This book is about growing as a person and engaging in meaningful relationships along the way. And I loved all the characters. They were very well realized. And because Ariah doesn't really settle very well, there is a lot of travel and we see different pockets of culture. It's very interesting. But I am at a bit of a loss to understand the Droma properly. All the different people and circumstances feel like a rich, but difficult, life evoking several emotions in me.
My main issues are with world-building. I do struggle with believing that the different peoples could be as disparate as they are. Yes, there is natural barriers leading to isolation, but not complete isolation. You can cross the desert with camels. Why wouldn't there have been more contact with the Droma before the Qin started taking them as slaves? That would have prevented from the peoples growing as different as they did. I also have stupid niggling questions which aren't important at all. Such as, the Droma were herding antelopes. (As well as goats and yaks.) Real world antelopes have been difficult to domesticate. They are very flighty. And what were they using the antelopes for? More milk? I'm sure you can just explain that they aren't real world antelopes, so they can be tamed, but it still annoys me.
Overall, I do recommend giving this one a read. Just go in knowing what it is. Don't expect a lot of plot. This is more slice-of-life.
I desperately wanted to like this. The cover and the concept are exactly what I'm about, but it was just so so long and had no clear direction. I put a lot of effort into reading the first 100 pages but got lost in the middle and skimmed a lot until I got to the end.
There was just so much happening all the time while nothing really happened at the same time. On a micro scale, the reading was incredible. I liked how this book talked about feelings and about the way that things feel, but the more I scaled out and thought about what was happening in terms of any sort of plot the less I liked it. And normally I go in for books with winding plot or no plot at all. I wanted to like Ariah but I didn't really, and I only really liked Sorcha. I couldn't stand Dirva. I did really like all the bits about Dirva and Sorcha's family and their dynamics. The bit in the middle where all three of Ariah, Sorcha, and Shayat come together was very good and well done but it couldn't hold it together for me. A lot of kind of random bad stuff happens to Ariah and he's just magically pulled out of it and is fine again, only to do the same thing over and over. It didn't feel to me like he learned from anything he did.
I also desperately wanted to like the lore and world building, but a lot of it was never explained and I wasn't able to intuit exactly what certain aspects of the magic and the world were like or what they meant. I like a little bit of hand holding around my world building but this book didn't really have any explanations at all. I wanted to like it so badly. I gave it a good ole try and eventually just skimmed the rest of it. It wasn't for me but I did definitely like certain bits.
There was just so much happening all the time while nothing really happened at the same time. On a micro scale, the reading was incredible. I liked how this book talked about feelings and about the way that things feel, but the more I scaled out and thought about what was happening in terms of any sort of plot the less I liked it. And normally I go in for books with winding plot or no plot at all. I wanted to like Ariah but I didn't really, and I only really liked Sorcha. I couldn't stand Dirva. I did really like all the bits about Dirva and Sorcha's family and their dynamics. The bit in the middle where all three of Ariah, Sorcha, and Shayat come together was very good and well done but it couldn't hold it together for me. A lot of kind of random bad stuff happens to Ariah and he's just magically pulled out of it and is fine again, only to do the same thing over and over. It didn't feel to me like he learned from anything he did.
I also desperately wanted to like the lore and world building, but a lot of it was never explained and I wasn't able to intuit exactly what certain aspects of the magic and the world were like or what they meant. I like a little bit of hand holding around my world building but this book didn't really have any explanations at all. I wanted to like it so badly. I gave it a good ole try and eventually just skimmed the rest of it. It wasn't for me but I did definitely like certain bits.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A wonderful creation of fantasy cultures and settings, and an exploration of different forms of intimacy that I haven’t seen in any other book.
It takes a moment to be pulled into the narrative style, but it’s well worth the read! Once you get to Sorcha everything is great. The book is far more character driven than plot driven, but we are shown a vast amount of the fantasy world that Sanders has created.
Main gripe is a lack of strong female characters. Lots of gay men but no gay women, let alone women that actually talk to each other.
It takes a moment to be pulled into the narrative style, but it’s well worth the read! Once you get to Sorcha everything is great. The book is far more character driven than plot driven, but we are shown a vast amount of the fantasy world that Sanders has created.
Main gripe is a lack of strong female characters. Lots of gay men but no gay women, let alone women that actually talk to each other.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Homophobia, Slavery, Xenophobia, Death of parent
Moderate: Drug use, Rape, Sexual content, Violence
Minor: Animal death
I really wanted to like this, because all the themes are right up my alley, but the chaotic pacing and sheer lack of depth of descriptions of the setting and the world made it feel liminal and transient in a bad way. Compelling concepts, but felt overall under-developed for my taste. It felt more like reading an extremely long summary of events than an actual narrative.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Biphobia, Drug use, Homophobia, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Xenophobia, Death of parent
Moderate: Biphobia, Drug use, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Police brutality, Grief, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Abandonment
Minor: Confinement, Cursing, Blood
Re: sexual assault/rape and gaslighting—all of this happens due to magical charm effects/abilities
Re: racism/xenophobia/slavery—against fictional fantasy races (elves, of all skin tones and multiple cultural groups); racism and slavery perpetrated by humans against elves, xenophobia in general occurs between various elven and non-elven characters who don’t understand each other’s customs.
What do I say about a book that I feel fundamentally changed me as a person? How do I describe the experience of taking a pumice stone to the very marrow of your being and emerging raw and clean?
The writing style feels uniquely comforting. It has the "dear reader" kind of direct narration, but not in the traditional way that puts you as an observer. The way that Ariah is telling the story with some hindsight and hints at what's to come makes it feel like he's an old friend washing and braiding your hair while you relax in a warm bath and listen to his adventures
I don't think I'll ever find another book quite like this one and I mourn finishing it. I'm not sure what to do with myself now that it's over. I might look back at this review and think it is overdramatic but right now all I can do is stare at a wall and process how this book has shaped me
The writing style feels uniquely comforting. It has the "dear reader" kind of direct narration, but not in the traditional way that puts you as an observer. The way that Ariah is telling the story with some hindsight and hints at what's to come makes it feel like he's an old friend washing and braiding your hair while you relax in a warm bath and listen to his adventures
I don't think I'll ever find another book quite like this one and I mourn finishing it. I'm not sure what to do with myself now that it's over. I might look back at this review and think it is overdramatic but right now all I can do is stare at a wall and process how this book has shaped me
There are no words for what that book did to me.
Beautifully written, the exploration of culture, politics, society, gender and sexuality masterfully woven into a very vivid fantasy setting. I'm aching thinking about those characters.
Easily top five books I've ever read.
Beautifully written, the exploration of culture, politics, society, gender and sexuality masterfully woven into a very vivid fantasy setting. I'm aching thinking about those characters.
Easily top five books I've ever read.
emotional
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Wow. Just... wow.
I don't even know where to begin. Nothing I could say would be as impactful as reading Ariah was for me.
I don't even know where to begin. Nothing I could say would be as impactful as reading Ariah was for me.
More 3.5 stars than 3 stars.
I picked this up because a blurb I read compared it to the Goblin Emperor (which I adored). I wish I hadn't read that because throughout the entirety, I just wondered how. Both of them are about young men coming of age through a whirlwind of changes, but while Maia was more or less thrust into his plot and forced to deal with what it meant to be Emperor with the undercurrent of political intrigue, Ariah just seemed to meander through his plot of leaving home and returning home. Which isn't bad, but I didn't find it particularly compelling. The characters are the reason I kept with Ariah because I loved seeing how throughout Ariah's meandering, he was able keep coming back to specifically Sorcha and Shayat. I loved how their relationships progressed throughout the novel and how it ended during the epilogue. Even by the end, however, I couldn't get a handle on the world building or how the magic really worked and it continually pulled me out of the plot because I just didn't get it. Which could very well be my own fault and not the novel's.
In short, I am glad I read it, but I wished I could have connected to it as a whole more than I did.
I picked this up because a blurb I read compared it to the Goblin Emperor (which I adored). I wish I hadn't read that because throughout the entirety, I just wondered how. Both of them are about young men coming of age through a whirlwind of changes, but while Maia was more or less thrust into his plot and forced to deal with what it meant to be Emperor with the undercurrent of political intrigue, Ariah just seemed to meander through his plot of leaving home and returning home. Which isn't bad, but I didn't find it particularly compelling. The characters are the reason I kept with Ariah because I loved seeing how throughout Ariah's meandering, he was able keep coming back to specifically Sorcha and Shayat. I loved how their relationships progressed throughout the novel and how it ended during the epilogue. Even by the end, however, I couldn't get a handle on the world building or how the magic really worked and it continually pulled me out of the plot because I just didn't get it. Which could very well be my own fault and not the novel's.
In short, I am glad I read it, but I wished I could have connected to it as a whole more than I did.
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
The Meaning of Belonging
Ariah, at 30 years of age and just barely an adult, leaves home and parents to study with a mentor and learn his gifts. His life with Dirva, his mentor, is interrupted when Dirva receives bad news from his hometown, and invites Ariah to travel with him. What follows is several lifetimes worth of living in which Ariah must unlearn his upbringing and decide how to live in places where he truly does not belong, all while battling questions about sexuality, gender, love, and the meaning of home. Excellent world building and very emotional.
Ariah, at 30 years of age and just barely an adult, leaves home and parents to study with a mentor and learn his gifts. His life with Dirva, his mentor, is interrupted when Dirva receives bad news from his hometown, and invites Ariah to travel with him. What follows is several lifetimes worth of living in which Ariah must unlearn his upbringing and decide how to live in places where he truly does not belong, all while battling questions about sexuality, gender, love, and the meaning of home. Excellent world building and very emotional.