Reviews tagging 'Colonisation'

Опиумная война by R.F. Kuang

1143 reviews

adventurous challenging dark informative sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

A wild ride.

Throughout the book there were some pacing and characterisation (in the middle) issues.
What hit the hardest for me
were the page long rape descriptions from Venka
as well as
the general descriptions of the state in Golyn Nii

Nonetheless, there was still some humor given throughout the book. Rin is a perfect protagonist. She emotionally complicated and annoys you every few pages (at least). I ex remely dislike Altan.

I really don't know what else to say. I just feel disturbed.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark emotional 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

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark emotional sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Kuang is easily the best writer I have read. This story is compelling and original. The power structure is not one I have encountered before. While this books spans multiple years and skips over the daily life you do not miss out on world building, character or relationship development, and every character you encounter from the MFC to minor characters in a few pages feels fleshed out and real. 

You care for Rin but her imperfections and real and tangible. What compels her is clear and follows through the whole book. 

This books has some violent pages, that were incredibly difficult to read but is up front about violent acts that have been committed and are being committed in the effort to colonize "savage" peoples. Where most authors would shy away Kuang holds up a mirror to the way power can lead anyone to commit atrocities and to forget the humanity of another.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous challenging dark tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This is an amazingly well written book with a ton of world building and very complex characters and themes. At some points it felt like it dragged a bit but I think that's because we see a very long development and I don't think I was prepared to get so sucked in. That's why I gave it a 4.5 star. But I would LOVE to come back at a later time and really closely reread and annotate this book because I think it is the type that would be fun to comb over like that. Definitely recommend if you enjoy historical fiction and fantasy, this book is a great combination of the two genres. I will also add this book has some tough to read moments. It does deal with war, drug use/addiction (opium), murder/death, and has some really dark parts -- definitely check out the TWs. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark 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: Yes

There’s been talk in a lot of bookish spaces about fantasy as a genre having an empire problem. R.F. Kuang completely subverts that trope. Empires are bad. Power of any type is bad. She pulls no stops with this book. It’s brutal. It’s disgusting. It’ll make you question your life choices and reconsider everything you think you know about world history. I need the rest of the series immediately.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark emotional 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

Whenever I'm in a reading slump, I can come to this book and be emotionally destroyed but it breaks me out of my rut. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Definitely check trigger warnings before reading this book.

The first 100 or so pages are slow paced but then after that it gets fast faced really fast until the end. 

Absolutely broke me into a thousand tiny hurting bits. Altan is my favourite nobody understands him like I do. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
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

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
adventurous dark sad slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings