A review by narratricenessa
Navola by Paolo Bacigalupi

dark sad slow-paced

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I received an eARC of this book through NetGalley, courtesy of the publisher, Head of Zeus, in exchange for an honest review. 

With echoes of Renaissance Italy, The Godfather, and Game of Thrones, Navola is a stunning feat of world-building and a mesmerizing depiction of drive and will.  

When I first saw the blurb and the above quote about Paolo Bacigalupi's novel Navola, I was greatly intrigued, for it seemed exactly like the type of book I would enjoy and maybe even say it was written for me. Unfortunately, and I am sad to say this, Navola was not the book for me.

Despite the intriguing premise and the promise of complex political machinations, intrigues, conspiracies and events that would keep the reader flicking through the pages long into the night Navola slowly muddles through its plot. Although I don't mind slow starts, especially in epic fantasy, the writing drags out and frequently unnecessarily emphasises lust, desire, sex, nudity and seduction (especially by female characters), thus forcing the reader out of the enjoyment of the plot and making them wonder why the author keeps stressing this and going on and on about this. 

It does not provide any new information or insight about the characters we didn't know or deduced previously, nor does it deepen our understanding of the characters and plot. One has to continuously wonder why the author has dedicated so much space to emphasise that the main protagonist and narrator was a horny teenager that was simultaneously fascinated by sex and revolted by it? 

However, Navola's biggest "crimes" (in my opinion) aren't its dragged-out writing or the unnecessary emphasis on sex or the portrait of characters (women portrayed as seductresses, or femme fatales or naive innocents), but rather the fact that I just stopped caring about the characters and the plot at a certain point in the book. I just wanted to reach the ending so I was done with the book because I could not anymore. This is a terrible shame because this book has an excellent premise, but the execution just fell flat to me.