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A review by slinkmalink
The Unbalancing by R.B. Lemberg
adventurous
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
I enjoyed reading most of this but I think it came down to okay for me.
I liked the way they talked about the connecting of the deepnames but the magic system as a whole wasn't quite established enough for me (maybe it is more in the first book but I haven't read that). I did however like all the bird imagery - still on the fence about the replacement of 'fuck' as a swear word with 'pluck'.
I just didn't feel the ending was that satisfying as well? For all the buildup it just felt a little underwhelming for me.
I also felt like I wasn't made to care enough about Veruma for how much it kept coming back to her.
I thought the diversity in terms of gender/relationships was cool obviously, esp the canonically aspec characters were cool for me. I thought the exploration of gender was really interesting, and there are so many non-binary characters which is great (Disclaimer: I'm not nb so coming at it from an outside pov, while I liked the little tokens I was a bit confused about to what extent there became set ways of presenting yourself in terms of gender? But I mean they established that their society is super accepting and none of the characters seemed to feel pressured to work things out to maybe I just see too much disk horse and again outside pov so if it works for NB people great and I rescind my questioning).
(Again outside pov but) it seemed to me a good portrayal of an autistic main character and it was good to have that in it and also to see Renra having to make conscious choices about how to respect Lilun's needs even when it didn't come naturally to her.
Overall the vibes were there for me but the execution not quite.
I liked the way they talked about the connecting of the deepnames but the magic system as a whole wasn't quite established enough for me (maybe it is more in the first book but I haven't read that). I did however like all the bird imagery - still on the fence about the replacement of 'fuck' as a swear word with 'pluck'.
I also felt like I wasn't made to care enough about Veruma for how much it kept coming back to her.
I thought the diversity in terms of gender/relationships was cool obviously, esp the canonically aspec characters were cool for me. I thought the exploration of gender was really interesting, and there are so many non-binary characters which is great (Disclaimer: I'm not nb so coming at it from an outside pov, while I liked the little tokens I was a bit confused about to what extent there became set ways of presenting yourself in terms of gender? But I mean they established that their society is super accepting and none of the characters seemed to feel pressured to work things out to maybe I just see too much disk horse and again outside pov so if it works for NB people great and I rescind my questioning).
(Again outside pov but) it seemed to me a good portrayal of an autistic main character and it was good to have that in it and also to see Renra having to make conscious choices about how to respect Lilun's needs even when it didn't come naturally to her.
Overall the vibes were there for me but the execution not quite.