deepreadbelle 's review for:

Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer

4.0

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Okay. Listen. Did I truly know what was going on in this book at any given point in time? Barely. Questionable, honestly. What begins as intimidatingly cerebral, with an Earth without war and religion and gender and national borders, morphs into a something altogether violent and slutty in its latter half, with the world’s most powerful leaders

gathering to cosplay the 18th century and have lots and lots of orgies, and there may be two god-like figures in play? And a hell of a lot murders??

This book is a prime example of why I’m not a DNFer, because it was pissing me the hell off for nearly half of the book and then it blooms into this messy, ecstatic, erotic, blood-spattered rumination on philosophy and God and politics, and there is some cannibalism in there, too….? I need to know what happens next and I know this story will make me EARN it.