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kadomi's review against another edition
- 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
3.0
In any case, this is a challengingly written sapphic revenge story that is very anti-capitalist. The first person narrator Marney (a terrible narrator, I kinda hated her) loses her family as a kid at a peaceful worker protest. Her family all worked in the ichorite industry, a mysterious metal that is driving industry, and Marney is a so-called lustertouched, highly sensitive to this metal to the point it makes her ill, but also able to manipulate it. Marney then runs into a band of bandits, let's say they're communist, as they're also plotting to overthrow evil nobility and capitalists. Oh, and just about everyone is a 'crawly', a lesbian.
Eventually, Marney falsely pretends to be a baron's daughter, in the running to marry the ichorite industrial's daughter, so she can finally move in and kill him to avenge her family. And then it gets weird...er, I should say.
I'll give it 3 stars because it was fascinating, but I can't honestly say I would recommend it to anyone, other than admiring that such queer literature exists today.
Graphic: Body horror, Chronic illness, Sexual content, and Classism
Minor: Child abuse
a_blue_stocking's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
1.25
Graphic: Sexual content, Violence, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Child death, Gore, Vomit, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Minor: Animal death, Drug use, Torture, and Alcohol
squid_rl's review against another edition
Graphic: Chronic illness, Confinement, Death, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Police brutality, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Classism
charlieeew's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Sexual content, Violence, Police brutality, Grief, Murder, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Moderate: Body horror, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Blood, Death of parent, and War
Minor: Animal death, Drug use, Genocide, Sexual violence, Religious bigotry, Lesbophobia, and Alcohol
nittiotvaan's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Graphic: Death, Violence, and Classism
Moderate: Homophobia, Mental illness, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Blood, Police brutality, Grief, Death of parent, Lesbophobia, and War
timac's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Homophobia, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Lesbophobia, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
ellie_1997's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Death of parent, and Classism
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child death, and War
Minor: Animal death, Abortion, and Colonisation
blacksphinx's review against another edition
- 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
My number one tip to you is to keep paper and pencil at hand to write down character names and attributes because this book does no hand-holding and every character has at least three names, sometimes up to five. It takes place in a fully realized fantasy world of many different cultures and religions and there's no guide to help you keep it all sorted (unless it's added to the official release). It's a glorious mess.
So, what the hell is this book even about? Our protagonist Marney is the only survivor of strike-breaking massacre at a factory that refines a strange and magical metal called ichorite. She is "lustertouched", born allergic to ichorite but also with a magical resonance to it. In the aftermath of the massacre she winds up joining the Choir, a gang of political radicals who have overthrown a baron and are keeping up the charade of him still being alive while the people live in a socialist commune funded by stealing from the rich. There are many ways the charade can fall, and the most obvious ticking clock is that the baron had a young daughter who at some point needs to appear in high society or things will get too suspicious. Meanwhile, Marney has sworn to kill Yann Industry Chauncey, the man who discovered how to refine ichorite and ordered her family killed. These threads eventually come together as the Choir spies an opportunity to kill two birds with one stone by entering a disguised Marney into a competition among nobility for the hand of Chauncy's daughter in marriage.
We must resist the ossification of precedent. We march toward Hereafter, not tomorrow, we march past tomorrow, we know tomorrow will be hard.
This is an intensely political book. While many different political philosophies are exposed by characters on the page, the true core is to the far left. Reading such a radical political underpinning in a fantasy novel, a genre with deep conservative roots, was extremely refreshing. I've never experienced it before and I hope it blasts open a dam. It felt like clarke was writing this book because they wanted to read it, not to chase any trends or to the tastes of the mass market. I hope it blows up. I hope it goes nuclear.
It's also extremely queer. I immediately made the connection from the in-book word crawly to queer (and several other words I fear I don't have the license to type), especially when Marney starts using it around people who call themselves Lunarists or astrologists. It's wonderful to have a stone butch protagonist. The sex scenes are perfectly woven into the story. It's a sapphic book for messy, sexual, sapphic punks.
The actual storytelling is where I struggled. This book meanders. Marney often reflects on things and directs a large amount of her narration to her dead first love, sometimes in the middle of other things. Marney is also prone to seizures, hallucinations, and fits when exposed to ichorite. It's a book you cannot skim or listen to at 3x speed. I feel a lot of fantasy is written where the prose is as unobtrusive as possible, so you barely notice the words as you turn the pages. This prose is sharp and present; the book demands you look at each word. If you don't, you actually can skim right over important plot developments. Overall, I found the back 60% to be far more enticing than the 40% that came before. The pacing also speeds up beyond that point. The ending is beyond my dreams.
In short, it's a damn fine novel that didn't work perfectly for me. I want to give a copy to every radical that helped shape my burning queer self as I came of age, into the hands of all my friends making messy queer art, and to all people who are dreaming of the Hereafter.
Thank you NetGalley, Kensington Publishing, and Erewhon Books for this ARC I received in exchange for my honest review.
Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Homophobia, Sexual content, Violence, Police brutality, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Lesbophobia, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Moderate: Animal death, Sexism, Terminal illness, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, and War
Minor: Infidelity, Vomit, Abortion, and Dysphoria
mals_reads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
METAL FROM HEAVEN checks every one of my boxes for a powerful queer political fantasy, and it rightfully left its mark on me - I hope those who need this story can find it, and find themselves in it.
Graphic: Death, Violence, War, and Classism
Moderate: Child death, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, and Lesbophobia
Minor: Xenophobia, Abortion, and Toxic friendship