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3.49 AVERAGE
3.49 AVERAGE
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I enjoyed the worldbuilding and would love to know more about the civilization Yang invented. What is a saint? How does one become one? Will Misery ever break through the religious absolutism of their upbringing and discover why they interact with stones and seraphim the same way that Heretics do? Misery's journey from frightened prisoner to defiant prisoner and the themes around duty, constriction, and blind acceptance were consistently reinforced. However, I found Yang's prose very unpleasant. Their most annoying habit started on page 3, when they describe a character as "pale, dark-haired, all long and narrow limbs." They used this phrasing constantly - "Arms all strong and supportive," "a hollow puppet, all clay and brittleness," etc. They also lost me completely about 3/4 of the way through the book when they introduced holy pearl - PEARL IS NOT A STONE. I read the book in a single day because I brought it to jury duty. I'm rereading their Tensorate series at the same time and their first works seem much more tightly edited.
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
adventurous
dark
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Spectacular science fiction story with modern twists. Queer space opera. Wonderful. Kind of messed up. Pretty violent religious war, tho nothing too gruesome in detail. Can't wait to read more from this author.
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
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:
Yes
It was an enjoyable read in the end, an interesting concept with a pretty good cliffhanger.
I did find the prose a bit chunky making it a slow read before I adjusted to the writing style, I would also say the perspective creates a distance from the character that is hard to cross, again making it a hard world and set of characters to relate to.
I did find the prose a bit chunky making it a slow read before I adjusted to the writing style, I would also say the perspective creates a distance from the character that is hard to cross, again making it a hard world and set of characters to relate to.
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
The writing was ham fisted, relying on purple prose and over dramatic scenes. Dialogue was stilted and there were far too many info dumps.
Didn’t vibe w the audiobook narrator :(
Truly insufferable. I couldn't get through the first chapter. It's not the fact that the characters are queer and use a variety of pronouns - my friends and I do too. The problem lies in the writing. To say it's atrociously bad would be an understatement. You do NOT put pronouns for your characters in parentheses after their name when you first introduce them. YOU JUST DON'T. It looks stupid in a book and sounds even stupider.
I have no idea if the story is even any good because I couldn't get over the fact that the author seemed to be writing this book in order to be able to say, "Ha! Take that, you idiot! My book is the most diverse book ever written!" Obviously there's nothing wrong with diversity. It should be celebrated and encouraged. But when you aren't a good enough writer to do it well, it makes it feel like a cheap tactic to sell books and get people talking.
I have no idea if the story is even any good because I couldn't get over the fact that the author seemed to be writing this book in order to be able to say, "Ha! Take that, you idiot! My book is the most diverse book ever written!" Obviously there's nothing wrong with diversity. It should be celebrated and encouraged. But when you aren't a good enough writer to do it well, it makes it feel like a cheap tactic to sell books and get people talking.
Audio, solid 3 star
That was fun, interesting worldbuilding, Dunelike in the god-messiah stuff.
That was fun, interesting worldbuilding, Dunelike in the god-messiah stuff.