Reviews with content warning for Deadnaming - I Fili Rossi della Fortuna

Reviews tagging 'Deadnaming'

I Fili Rossi della Fortuna by Neon Yang

13 reviews

i_am_lali's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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gardens_and_dragons's review against another edition

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adventurous tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.0

This was a good novella that explores a mothers grief, and the fallout that it can take. Entertaining monster hunting action, neat use of gender exploration, a cool fantasy world. I wish that it was more fleshed out, because as a novella it feels slightly rushed. I know that it’s part of a series and I listened on audio, so maybe that’s why I felt like it could have been more.

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griffinthief's review against another edition

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challenging emotional sad 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

4.25

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just_one_more_paige's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.0

The second book in the four novella Tensorate series, and of course a reminder to everyone following along that this is the current read-out-loud-before-bed books/series that my partner and I jumped into. So they are slower going than they might normally be, since we can only move forwards when we are home together at night to do so, but we are still enjoying this new-to-us-both experience (really the first of its kind, on that front, so far).

The Red Threads of Fortune picks up what seems to be a few years after the finish of the previous book. Mokoya has gone a bit off on her own, having not at all emotionally dealt with the loss of her daughter. Akeha is working alongside his now-husband with the Machinists rebels (against his and Mokoyea's mother, The Protector). I am not entirely sure what Thennjay has been up to, but he comes back into Mokoya's life in this story and plays a leading role again. And while we left them all having made big moves/choices against the Protectorate at the end of the last story, here the focus turns a bit, and we meet some new characters from other areas of the world, outside the Protectorate, and the primary story turns to...naga hunting, essentially? Mokoya meets a new lover, Rider, who is intriguing and gives her a new chance to reckon with her past/grief, as well as access to some new magical/tensing powers that make her question the uncontrollability of the "visions" she has always had.

This was a real thematic change from book one to two. From insurrection to more introspective forward movement, plus, of course, the naga hunting. It was brought back around a little bit by the end, when Mokoya makes some realizations about what she's learned about her power/visions. She really has a lot of adjusting to do, emotionally - she's really kind of a loose cannon of wild speculation and accusation and needy grasping - but, it is an interesting conversation introduced about the weight of knowing the future/visions (the curse of having that knowledge versus whether or not you have the power to change it). So, I'm interested to see how the third and fourth installations combine it all. Other than that, there was a cool concept introduced about the imprinting/projecting of a conscious/being onto another, with some narrative paralleling about loss and grief and mothers/daughters, which all provides some insightful reflection on the complex combination of PTSD and grief.

As we met people from outside the Protectorate, the holding of other genders outside a binary is more natural, which was a consideration I had while reading the first novella, and I got some vibes about it being a bit of a (subtle) commentary on colonial/imperial imposition. Along the same lines, I was a really big fan of the open acceptance and positivity around polygamy and multiple partners, with a person's needs being met by their partner(s) being more important than societal rules about who fills said needs. And we get some new insight into tensing and the magic system, which is always one of my favorite aspects of any fantasy world-building, so I was happy with that.

Finally, the language remains an absolute gem. Yang's lyrical precision with words is something really special. It's the kind of writing that makes you have to read slower, and want to reread sentences, to experience the full impact. A few examples that I wanted to call out in full are below (as per usual) but also, take this one right now: “pomegranate-ripe and slow as salt.” I mean, how gorgeous is that?

So yea, still not really blown away by this series, but invested enough to keep going for sure, to see how everything plays out and is brought together. And, of course, to experience more of Yang's writing!

“Straight lines were the precinct of creatures that knew their destination.

“Peace sat languid and unfamiliar in her chest: not the peace of familiar comforts, of old beddings and well-worn grooves in stone, but a clear kind of peace, like an ocean with stones at the bottom, its surface jade-blue and throwing off sunlight.”

“If truth had a shape, her words fit its boundaries."

“In another version of the world, where the threads of fortune had woven a different braid, they could have sat down together and fileted out a sensible truth, exposing the spine of reality that had to be buried within the slippery flesh of lies and narratives.”

“Violence is the fault of the one enacting it. Always.”

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jjjreads's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional 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? Yes

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taylorbarks's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional 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

3.0

I have strong mixed feelings about this book. The setting is marvelous and the magic system unique, and the presence of trans characters is played out as if we're just normal people-- imagine that.
I had two complaints that prevent me from saying I enjoy this book. The way the main character behaves towards her husband made her deeply unrelatable and unlikable to me; Thennjay was by far my favorite character, and he goes out of his way to be loving and gentle with Mokoya. Without spoiling, her behavior in return left a bad taste in my mouth. That's fine! Characters can do unlikable things. But I wanted to like the viewpoint MC.
The other, smaller issue was that the climax came and went in a heartbeat. The solution to the story's central conflict suddenly occurs to this character, and then with what felt like no resistance at all from the antagonist, she just... does it. It's dealt with in a page or two. It kind of felt like this book just kicked me off a truck in the last few pages.
There's also just a villain who's transphobic, I assume to help code her as a villain, but it's made clear to us in this world that gender isn't enforced or assigned, so it feels remarkably ham-handed.
All that said: I like this world. I like this concept. I like Thennjay and Rider. I don't like Mokoya, with whom I spent most of my time, and that made it hard to care what happened next.
I will read the other books. I'd recommend this to queer friends to support a queer author, but not on the basis of the plot.

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caidyn's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Another very good addition to this series! I like how it picked up with some of the same characters, just that they had gone through more things off page and were managing that. And then the inclusion of another nonbinary character! I'm excited to get into the third book.

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