Scan barcode
A review by iam
Metal from Heaven by August Clarke
challenging
dark
tense
slow-paced
- Loveable characters? No
2.5
I liked a lot of things about this book. I liked the idea of a lesbian revenge fantasy, the backdrop of industrial revolution and labor strikes, the lyrical writing of the author, and the expansive worldbuilding - unfortunately, the narration kind of killed the vibe for me.
Content warnings include: death, seizures, hallucinations, violence, organised crime, robbery, sex on-page, homophobia.
One of my biggest issues was that the main plot that is described in the book description - the bit about the main character Marney seeking revenge on the the man who killed her family, so to get close she starts courting for his daughter's hand - doesn't even come up until after 50% into the book. This is already a pet peeve of mine, but unfortunately the bits between the very beginning, where Marney's family is killed, and the plot really starting, were not my cup of tea.
Not because of what was happening - Marney growing up with bandits - but because of the narration.
For a huge part the book is written as Marney telling what happened to her to "you", her childhood friend who died with her family. Meaning the events are not written as if they are happening to Marney, but as if they had happened in the past and she is recounting the events. I simply did not like that.
The book was not well written - the writing is very beautiful, and I have enjoyed it already in the author's other works. However, the very lyrical writing, combined with the retrospective narration, and how the reader is thrown into the entire world without much explanation made it confusing to read at times. Usually I don't mind a bit of confusion while reading (the book is compared to Gideon the Ninth after all, which is famously confusing and one of my favourite books) but in this case this specific combination made me not particularly engaged with the book or plot.
Additionally, while the characters were pretty cool, they also felt very scattered and surface level. Even some of the most important characters I had no grasp on as I finished the book, and since a lot of the characters switched around, appeared out of nowhere just to disappear again, it was hard to really get invested into any of them as they were discarded so quickly even when they seemed important. And even the ones that reappeared never got much depth.
Conversely, it actually felt like there was a lot of depth to the setting and worldbuilding, but following it was difficult, and I admittedly just gave up on some of the world politics and countries/players involved. I wanted more from it, but couldn't quite get there.
The plot, what there was of it, was very cool. Unfortunately, it sort of just.... ends at 90%, and the rest of the book is told in a sort of omniscent epilogue style were a ton of events are summarized. It's not like it doesn't make sense for the plot, and IS explained away, but it felt like a very strange choice. It also gave some of the coolest worldbuilding reveals, but it wasn't as impactful as it could have been due to the narration, again.
Ultimately this has a super cool concept and I did enjoy parts of it, but it hugely missed the mark for me due to the narrative choices.
Content warnings include: death, seizures, hallucinations, violence, organised crime, robbery, sex on-page, homophobia.
One of my biggest issues was that the main plot that is described in the book description - the bit about the main character Marney seeking revenge on the the man who killed her family, so to get close she starts courting for his daughter's hand - doesn't even come up until after 50% into the book. This is already a pet peeve of mine, but unfortunately the bits between the very beginning, where Marney's family is killed, and the plot really starting, were not my cup of tea.
Not because of what was happening - Marney growing up with bandits - but because of the narration.
For a huge part the book is written as Marney telling what happened to her to "you", her childhood friend who died with her family. Meaning the events are not written as if they are happening to Marney, but as if they had happened in the past and she is recounting the events. I simply did not like that.
The book was not well written - the writing is very beautiful, and I have enjoyed it already in the author's other works. However, the very lyrical writing, combined with the retrospective narration, and how the reader is thrown into the entire world without much explanation made it confusing to read at times. Usually I don't mind a bit of confusion while reading (the book is compared to Gideon the Ninth after all, which is famously confusing and one of my favourite books) but in this case this specific combination made me not particularly engaged with the book or plot.
Additionally, while the characters were pretty cool, they also felt very scattered and surface level. Even some of the most important characters I had no grasp on as I finished the book, and since a lot of the characters switched around, appeared out of nowhere just to disappear again, it was hard to really get invested into any of them as they were discarded so quickly even when they seemed important. And even the ones that reappeared never got much depth.
Conversely, it actually felt like there was a lot of depth to the setting and worldbuilding, but following it was difficult, and I admittedly just gave up on some of the world politics and countries/players involved. I wanted more from it, but couldn't quite get there.
The plot, what there was of it, was very cool. Unfortunately, it sort of just.... ends at 90%, and the rest of the book is told in a sort of omniscent epilogue style were a ton of events are summarized. It's not like it doesn't make sense for the plot, and IS explained away, but it felt like a very strange choice. It also gave some of the coolest worldbuilding reveals, but it wasn't as impactful as it could have been due to the narration, again.
Ultimately this has a super cool concept and I did enjoy parts of it, but it hugely missed the mark for me due to the narrative choices.
I received an ARC and reviewed honestly and voluntarily.