Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.49 AVERAGE
3.49 AVERAGE
mysterious
tense
medium-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
This queer space opera flirts with greatness, and touches the borders of the truly strange and imaginative. The writing was an excellent balance between the transcendent and the informal, and I can tell this author has serious promise.
The story follows an unreliable and bullheaded young person as they find themselves the unintended messiah of a distant future spacefaring religion. She struggles to make sense of the visions she sees, which she believes to be symptoms of space-madness rather than visions of the divine, despite mounting evidence to the contrary. She seems unable to put the dots together, uncurious about any alternative explanations for her condition, a characteristic that always makes protagonists very frustrating for me to read.
Ultimately I liked everything about this book except the protagonist herself. Her motivations seem undirected and inconsistent. She goes from a cornered street rat conman just doing her best to survive, to essentially a cult leader, half deliberately manipulating those around her, half drunk on her own kool-aid, seemingly instantly. The turn was incomprehensible, and the generally arrogant and self-assured nature of this person who spends the whole book being surprised and proven wrong was very frustrating, but maybe that was the point.
The world the author constructs wears its influences on its sleeve, but takes it in a novel direction. The techno-spiritualist society is full of intrigue and mystery, a never-ending source of conflict and and discovery. I'd be very interested in exploring it further, and when the sequel arrives, I'll be first in line.
The story follows an unreliable and bullheaded young person as they find themselves the unintended messiah of a distant future spacefaring religion. She struggles to make sense of the visions she sees, which she believes to be symptoms of space-madness rather than visions of the divine, despite mounting evidence to the contrary. She seems unable to put the dots together, uncurious about any alternative explanations for her condition, a characteristic that always makes protagonists very frustrating for me to read.
Ultimately I liked everything about this book except the protagonist herself. Her motivations seem undirected and inconsistent. She goes from a cornered street rat conman just doing her best to survive, to essentially a cult leader, half deliberately manipulating those around her, half drunk on her own kool-aid, seemingly instantly. The turn was incomprehensible, and the generally arrogant and self-assured nature of this person who spends the whole book being surprised and proven wrong was very frustrating, but maybe that was the point.
The world the author constructs wears its influences on its sleeve, but takes it in a novel direction. The techno-spiritualist society is full of intrigue and mystery, a never-ending source of conflict and and discovery. I'd be very interested in exploring it further, and when the sequel arrives, I'll be first in line.
4.5 stars, rounded up because the overall experience of reading this book was so dang enjoyable, and I can tell I'll be thinking about it for a good long while.
I was sold on The Genesis of Misery based on its concept of "nonbinary Joan of Arc-inspired space opera," but this book ended up having SO many of my favorite things. Namely:
- a stone-based magic system
- worldbuilding that is casually queer and inclusive without in-world queerphobia
- fraught sibling dynamics
- a chosen one trope / but they don't want to be / but they're lying / but it's complicated
Depicting a character like Misery (a chosen-by-god, messiah-type character) as a fully developed, complicated figure seems like such a challenge, and yet it was done so, so well. I loved the arc Misery went on and I loved all the twists and turns along the way. Some other less-than-stellar reviews mention the fact that the novel is *too* focused on Misery at the exclusion of the other characters, but I didn't take issue with this. I actually thought the limited narration and the way the story is told to the reader to be one of the novel's strengths, but YMMV.
Can't wait for this series to continue!
I was sold on The Genesis of Misery based on its concept of "nonbinary Joan of Arc-inspired space opera," but this book ended up having SO many of my favorite things. Namely:
- a stone-based magic system
- worldbuilding that is casually queer and inclusive without in-world queerphobia
- fraught sibling dynamics
- a chosen one trope / but they don't want to be / but they're lying / but it's complicated
Depicting a character like Misery (a chosen-by-god, messiah-type character) as a fully developed, complicated figure seems like such a challenge, and yet it was done so, so well. I loved the arc Misery went on and I loved all the twists and turns along the way. Some other less-than-stellar reviews mention the fact that the novel is *too* focused on Misery at the exclusion of the other characters, but I didn't take issue with this. I actually thought the limited narration and the way the story is told to the reader to be one of the novel's strengths, but YMMV.
Can't wait for this series to continue!
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Something about the execution just really missed the mark for me. The ideas were there, space mechs, war, religious fanaticism, eldritch horror in the form of the Nullvoid... but few of those are ever properly explored.
Misery wasn't likable (which, to be fair, isn't necessary) or even interesting (which is necessary) to me. I thought I was the one going mad, not Misery, with how completely and utterly resistant to thinking about their situation they were, and I mean before the zealotry really set in as well. To a degree, sure, makes sense with their character but it just got infuriating.Not once in literal years did they ponder their necklace? "Damn I never see Ruin when I'm separated from the necklace... anyway!" "Oh this looks like the seraph tokens... anyway!" "Man it really seems like a very reactive piece of jewellery... anyway!" Or not a single thought went into reconsidering what Jericho is after they learned they're by all accounts not voidmad. Not ONE. And then blaming him for tricking them as if they didn't do 90% of the work themselves. And those are just a very small fraction of the examples.
A little less time spent on sermons and a bit more on developing literally any character would've been nice as well. I would've liked to learn something more about Ghost, they seemed like the most interesting character on the crew but they participate in conversation maybe a grand total of three times in the entire book.
The worldbuilding had potential but it just didn't go anywhere, not even in the sense of an open ending. There seemed to be so much to explore that's never touched upon beyond surface level, if at all.
Misery wasn't likable (which, to be fair, isn't necessary) or even interesting (which is necessary) to me. I thought I was the one going mad, not Misery, with how completely and utterly resistant to thinking about their situation they were, and I mean before the zealotry really set in as well. To a degree, sure, makes sense with their character but it just got infuriating.
A little less time spent on sermons and a bit more on developing literally any character would've been nice as well. I would've liked to learn something more about Ghost, they seemed like the most interesting character on the crew but they participate in conversation maybe a grand total of three times in the entire book.
The worldbuilding had potential but it just didn't go anywhere, not even in the sense of an open ending. There seemed to be so much to explore that's never touched upon beyond surface level, if at all.
I really enjoyed the world building and how queer-focused it was. But there were a few things that took away my enjoyment of this book.
1) I loved the guessing of whether Misery was mad or not, a knowing fraud. That changed in the 2nd half, and it wasn't nearly as fun. I got rather bored of the religious sermons and "divine purpose" talk (yes, I know it's Joan of Arc but still). I read the last quarter just so I could say I finished it.
2) Why were there so many typos? Who copyedited and proofread this? How did no one catch that a character is named incorrectly? At one point, there were typos on 2 consecutive pages! This may seem banal, but as a freelance editor, it's grating.
3) All the reviews I saw before publication date were saying that this book explores fanatical religion and its impact. I would say it skimmed the surface, rather than explored it.
Overall, this isn't a bad book by any means! If you can deal with religious sermon-ing this book is rather fun. It has a writing style similar to Gideon the Ninth-- purposefully rough with a sarcastic and cynical MC. I loved the first half of the book, and who doesn't love giant mecha battles!
1) I loved the guessing of whether Misery was mad or not, a knowing fraud. That changed in the 2nd half, and it wasn't nearly as fun. I got rather bored of the religious sermons and "divine purpose" talk (yes, I know it's Joan of Arc but still). I read the last quarter just so I could say I finished it.
2) Why were there so many typos? Who copyedited and proofread this? How did no one catch that a character is named incorrectly? At one point, there were typos on 2 consecutive pages! This may seem banal, but as a freelance editor, it's grating.
3) All the reviews I saw before publication date were saying that this book explores fanatical religion and its impact. I would say it skimmed the surface, rather than explored it.
Overall, this isn't a bad book by any means! If you can deal with religious sermon-ing this book is rather fun. It has a writing style similar to Gideon the Ninth-- purposefully rough with a sarcastic and cynical MC. I loved the first half of the book, and who doesn't love giant mecha battles!
adventurous
lighthearted
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
"And what are you here to do?"
It's a trap, this query. She answers it the way the Church always answers difficult questions: with soapwater bullshit. "I have come to do what I am asked."
This book is a Joan of Arc retelling set in space (sci-fantasy?) where queerness and polyamory are "normalised" and you almost always get characters pronouns right when they are introduced. I feel like Yang went all the way out on the pronouns in this one (the book includes several neopronouns) and I really loved that! The worldbuilding is also intriguing, especially the bits about holy-stones that are a sort of magical element in this world. I have a complicated relationship with our protagonist Misery, but I really liked her love interest Lady Alodia Lightning, the royal princess aka the deranged lady with sword. This book was really hard for me to get through and... I liked the characters until I started to be extremely annoyed by them and in the end... actually not really caring about them at all.
Okay... so I have to be honest here. If this wasn't [a:Neon Yang|20723446|Neon Yang|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1615449393p2/20723446.jpg]'s book I would have DNFed it. Right, I hate DNFing books, I have huge respect for people who can do it, but generally I can't (I DNF like 1 book a year). I guess I just like to wallow in Misery (ha!). My point is, I should have DNFed but I'm really enjoying Tensorate series right now and I hope that even though this read was full of misery for me, I would at least be rewarded by the way things will come together at the end, but... nope.
I'm balancing on a thin blade here, because I'm not actually entirely sure what went wrong with me for this read. I guess it was partly that I expected the story to be different. To keep it vague, Misery is very likeable protagonist, but also very grey one, but for a big chunk of the book, I wasn't sure if the author even realised what kind of character they were writing because there was no reassurance! It was highly uncomfortable position to be in, even though you would think that after
Spoiler
committing a mass murder & torturing a helpless prisonerI read this book over a month, because I couldn't get through it, even when I thought the book was cool (at the beginning) I wasn't really invested at all and gradually I started to feel extremely uncomfortable. This might be the author's intent and I think uncomfortable books are so important (and I tend to like them! Like [b:Manhunt|53329296|Manhunt|Gretchen Felker-Martin|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1623167555l/53329296._SY75_.jpg|80731563]), but it just didn't work for me. I mean [a:N.K. Jemisin|2917917|N.K. Jemisin|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1438215930p2/2917917.jpg] and [a:Kameron Hurley|4369922|Kameron Hurley|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1616250384p2/4369922.jpg] also write deeply uncomfortable books, but they are capable of reassuring me along the way that they are going to handle things all right, even if they'll crush my heart in the process. I didn't feel that here. Which is strange, because previously I thought it was about the trust you had in the author, which I would say that I have in Yang.
About quarter in, I switched to the audiobook, which actually made finishing of this book possible for me and I'm so grateful for it's existence! But I wasn't the biggest fan of that either... Idk, I guess I just didn't vibed with the narrator.
To sum this up; I have no idea what happened here. I thought the idea behind this book was pretty solid, but the execution didn't work for me. I feel like this book was trying to be nuanced, but missed the mark. Futuristic religions is usually something that I enjoy seeing, but it felt over-repeated and not so interesting here. If you are looking for a book to try out Yang, I would recommend you check out [b:The Black Tides of Heaven|33099588|The Black Tides of Heaven (Tensorate, #1)|Neon Yang|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1634814752l/33099588._SY75_.jpg|53763120] instead!
P.S. Some commentors seem to think this is going to be a trilogy? Really?! I thought that it worked pretty well as a stand-alone and can't really imagine what you could do with two more books? But I guess getting more from the Heretics POV would be nice... I kind of don't want the next book to happen though, because then I would be tempted to read it... I know myself too well.
BRed at WBtM: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/22495413-the-genesis-of-misery-by-neon-yang---july-2023?page=1
Tough to give what is, in my opinion, a very well written book only 3 stars, but in a lot of ways I only liked it.
There is some excellent and delightful prose in this book, but the places the author chooses to put focus on are places I just don't enjoy as much. There's a lot of descriptions of environment, descriptions of how the MC is feeling and what they're thinking, and a lot of descriptions of what's happening. Less so is just letting things happen, showing character thought and feeling through action, etc.
In many ways this book is very much "tell, don't show." Now I do think "show, don't tell" is grossly overused. I actually think this book is an excellent example of why "tell, don't show" *can* work, and also why "show, don't tell" is great storytelling (despite my misgivings with it). The way this book tells you about things works really well when it works. The problem is that's most of the book, and there's not nearly enough showing to balance it out, at least for me.
Also, I think the MC's arc works really well on paper, and it wasn't bad in the book but it could have been better.
Almost had Jean D'Arc Gundam, but not quite. 3/5 stars.
There is some excellent and delightful prose in this book, but the places the author chooses to put focus on are places I just don't enjoy as much. There's a lot of descriptions of environment, descriptions of how the MC is feeling and what they're thinking, and a lot of descriptions of what's happening. Less so is just letting things happen, showing character thought and feeling through action, etc.
In many ways this book is very much "tell, don't show." Now I do think "show, don't tell" is grossly overused. I actually think this book is an excellent example of why "tell, don't show" *can* work, and also why "show, don't tell" is great storytelling (despite my misgivings with it). The way this book tells you about things works really well when it works. The problem is that's most of the book, and there's not nearly enough showing to balance it out, at least for me.
Also, I think the MC's arc works really well on paper, and it wasn't bad in the book but it could have been better.
Almost had Jean D'Arc Gundam, but not quite. 3/5 stars.
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated