Reviews

Phoenix Extravagant by Yoon Ha Lee

yuck1209's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious 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? No

3.25

I thought the premise sounded interesting, but I struggled with the main character. The first two sentences of the book description are completely right.  

Gyen Jebi isn’t a fighter or a subversive. They just want to paint.

Like that’s exactly it. My challenge with Jebi is how little they care about the whole revolution thing. And while I suppose that’s a legitimate response to committing erasure on behalf of your colonizer government, it’s not a particularly compelling character arc to follow. 

ronnie_arsonie's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring medium-paced

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.75

girlreactionreads's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

There was a lot I liked about this. The magic had such cool (and yet disturbing!) elements (even just the idea between how the glyphs are created and what they can do). But the tone had a weird mix of adult topics (sexy sex scenes, dissection of colonialism, empire, race/class) and teenage feelings (Jebi seems like SUCH an 8th grader, a lot of the conversations have a very silly feel, there’s a bit of “here we go on our grand adventure” tweeness to it). I felt like the tone wasn’t quite consistent about who its audience is/was. AND although I did like it, it QUITE pales in comparison intellectually to the Ninefox Gambit. Then again, ALL one’s novels can’t be the world’s most intriguing mindfuck, can they. 
Also Arazi was so by far my favorite character…but his conversation while delightful often felt so juvenile. But then…perhaps it should? Does gifted sentience need time to mature? I don’t know. Something to think about.

rory_o_rama's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War and Violence

Moderate: Abandonment

stonehedger's review against another edition

4.0

I really love the concept of the book and storyline, but whether because the lead character was non-binary or it was poorly translated, there are no true personal pronouns. So every reference to characters used they, their, them throughout the book. No she or her. This is further compounded by a second main character called Vei, pronounced vay. I hope it is the translation and not something I missed that caused this. Perhaps the book can be further transcribed to put these vital references in.
Great story though.

tessofthetales's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

nerdbrarian's review against another edition

5.0

Nonbinary representation. Magic system based in the power of art. Rebels opposing an oppressive and racist regime of invaders. And an automaton dragon. Yoon Ha Lee had me at all of the above, but then delivered with beautiful, lyrical writing that among other things sneakily considers the ethics of violence and personhood without you realizing it's happening. For those who don't like this sort of thing, there is romance, and though it's not initially the center of the story, it's complex and earns its place is the narrative, I promise.

mousegoddess's review against another edition

Just not vibing rn

smittenforfiction's review

4.0

Hey book lovers! After loving Dragon Pearl, I snatched up an e-arc of Phoenix Extravagant, a standalone fantasy novel about a nonbinary main character who teams up with a magic mechanical dragon and a trained super fighter to take on an evil empire. Due to the pandemic, the original release date for June 2020 was pushed to October 20, 2020.

About The Book

baksaydora's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.5

I wanted to like this book much more that I actually did. 
Over time the main character grew on me, probably because they are a normal person, they don't have any kind of special talent, weren't good at manipulation, and they aren't that charming. The sister I did not like from the start.  I appreciated that our main character is non-binary which is rare in the sff genre. My favourite character was Arazi, the dragon automata. 
The romance wasn't bad,  but I would not call it good either. 
The magic system was easy to follow, we don't spend a long time on the rules, though I personally wanted to know more about it.
It was a solid standalone fantasy, in which for the worldbuilding the author got it's inspiration from Japan's occupation of Korea.