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stefhyena's review against another edition
2.0
I am sort of 2.5 actually but I gave it the benefit. I love the plot, the plot and the world are very good. I like the message (anti-xenophobia) but the book was hard to read because it is quite poorly written and in parts that just makes it swampy going. The language use itself I mean. I also found the characters stereotypical and badly needing some critical whiteness and critical masculinity thought about privilege in how the main character relates (benevolently but without equality) toward other races and the way all female characters however powerful are reduced to someone's wife, sweetheart or love interest by little needless innuendos. I feel the authors meant to do better than they did in reference to race and gender but honestly see the world through the eyes of the triumphant white male. I particularly didn't take to Cassandra as a character which was unfortunate because she was the only female that was more than background (barely). It didn't help that every time she appeared the writing turned to her appearance more so than anything she did or said, that she had no thoughts that we the reader could be privy to but when other characters speculated (all major male characters got to share their thoughts with the reader at some stage) or read her body language it was always about her chemistry toward Timothy rather than her ambition, motivation or intelligence. I really do think the world, concept and fantastically shaped plot(with a much better than average ending for a middle of series book)all show potential but are let down by these flaws.
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