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adventurous
challenging
dark
hopeful
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, Blood, War
Moderate: Rape, Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Addiction, Colonisation
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Murder, Sexual harassment, War
Minor: Addiction, Death, Genocide, Blood, Grief
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I really liked the first half of the novel, strong world building and I also love a good training arc. Towards the latter half it started falling more flat? mmm there didn’t seem to be that much character development and the mc seemed to just circle around the same things(probably the point). The action scenes felt more muddled and I felt myself getting lost while reading . But when it picked back up, it was brutal and just wow. Overall was a good read very invested in the storyline and yeah it just gives everybody gone die. But it’s really interesting to see this story playing out history in a world where humans evoke gods and act through them.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Bullying, Child abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Blood, Grief, Injury/Injury detail
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Siento que leí una trilogía en un solo libro, la primera parte podría ser cualquier libro de fantasía que se sitúa en una academia militar pero Kuang se niega a caer en los plots fáciles y digeribles por el publico, y, a partir de la segunda parte, nos deja en claro que va a hacer lo que sea necesario para mostrar las consecuencias de la guerra de la manera más realista posible y va a hacer preguntas muy incomodas que tienen que ver con la venganza, el genocidio, la xenofobia, etc.
Mi única critica es que algunos de los pensamientos de Rin eran algo repetitivos, pero dentro de todo me gusto mucho su prosa y cumplió con su cometido.
Ah otra cosa, hubo un punto en la tercera parte del libro en el que Rin parecía solo observar lo que pasaba a su alrededor y Altan se convertía en el protagonista, tipo fue medio raro.
Mi única critica es que algunos de los pensamientos de Rin eran algo repetitivos, pero dentro de todo me gusto mucho su prosa y cumplió con su cometido.
Ah otra cosa, hubo un punto en la tercera parte del libro en el que Rin parecía solo observar lo que pasaba a su alrededor y Altan se convertía en el protagonista, tipo fue medio raro.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Genocide, Physical abuse, Racism, Xenophobia, Blood, Toxic friendship, War
Moderate: Addiction, Rape
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Drug use, Genocide, Torture, Blood, Murder, War
adventurous
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Murder, War, Classism
Moderate: Genocide, Rape
challenging
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book has been on my TBR for over a year, and finally I got my hands on a copy to read and <I> boy </I> was it a read. First of all, the writing! I knew RF Kuang was a phenomenal writer because of <I> Babel </I> and <I> Yellowface </I>, but I wasn’t expecting this. The world was so well thought out, the way the universe magic and supernatural worked so immaculately planned that it didn’t cause my brain to hurt thinking about. Every line felt like it had so much meaning to the rest of the story, painting pictures even without the context.
There were a couple things that immediately caught my attention. First was the way that she used the puppet show to tell the history of the world. The reader leant everything at the same time as Rin, and I think using the puppet show for this was an amazing way to give her (and us) the history without making it some long winded monologue. It also allowed for us to see not only Runin’s reaction, but also that of Kitay. The second piece that had me immediately was the conversation about religion between Jiang and Runin. I don’t have words for how that conversation hit, and how it seemed to encapsulate both sides of the arguments for and against religions.
I’m excited to read the next book in the trilogy, even though I know I’m going to be emotionally destroyed again.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Child death, Drug use, Genocide, Blood
adventurous
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Genocide, Gore, Torture, Violence, Blood, War, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Rape
Minor: Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual harassment
adventurous
challenging
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Genocide, Violence, Blood, Murder, War
Moderate: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Rape, Sexual violence, Torture, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I'm not usually into military fiction, but because it's R.F. Kuang and I've enjoyed two novels by her, I decided to give this series a shot. I'm glad I did. It's a sprawling, gutsy novel in my opinion. It actually kept my attention, which this subject material doesn't typically do. I enjoyed the esoteric knowledge angle, which probably made the military-focus a bit more bearable. Definitely looking forward to reading the second book in this series.
Content Warnings
Graphic: War
Moderate: Death, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood
Minor: Medical trauma