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A review by apersonfromflorida
To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods by Molly X. Chang
Did not finish book. Stopped at 69%.
why are the romans here and why do they have fighter jets.
the more i thought about the world and the potential the worldbuilding had, the angrier i got. you can't have a dichotomy of magic and science and fail to intertwine the two aspects to make a coherent magic/science system. is there something about diminishing magic that's affecting how scientific discoveries are made? are there new magic systems now that pangu is exposed to the science of the west? does pangu have it's own version of "science" via alchemy/divination? so much was thought about so little it makes me genuinely angry. so many books handle the magic vs science aspect so much better, even in books like The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang or The Vorrh by B. Catling.
even with how the "inspiration" for unit 731 was handled without grace and used to shock readers before even going into the meat of the story. if you want a better handling, read "The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary" by Ken Liu in his short story collection The Paper Menagerie.
and that doesn't even cover the gross orientalism and colonizer romance that this entire book devolves into. It left a bad taste in my mouth. One Star.
the more i thought about the world and the potential the worldbuilding had, the angrier i got. you can't have a dichotomy of magic and science and fail to intertwine the two aspects to make a coherent magic/science system. is there something about diminishing magic that's affecting how scientific discoveries are made? are there new magic systems now that pangu is exposed to the science of the west? does pangu have it's own version of "science" via alchemy/divination? so much was thought about so little it makes me genuinely angry. so many books handle the magic vs science aspect so much better, even in books like The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang or The Vorrh by B. Catling.
even with how the "inspiration" for unit 731 was handled without grace and used to shock readers before even going into the meat of the story. if you want a better handling, read "The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary" by Ken Liu in his short story collection The Paper Menagerie.
and that doesn't even cover the gross orientalism and colonizer romance that this entire book devolves into. It left a bad taste in my mouth. One Star.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Toxic relationship, Colonisation
Moderate: Drug abuse, Death of parent
Minor: War