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A review by em_reads_books
The Winged Histories by Sofia Samatar
4.0
Definitely a book to read with the expectation of beautiful poetic writing, intense scenes and short pieces, and an incredible sense of place and culture - but no expectation of following an overarching plot. It does something A Stranger In Olondria did exceptionally well: tell the story of an epic imperial war via characters who aren't the heroes, who are at the edges of the action. Less marginal than Jevick in Stranger, for sure, but involved in much more subtle ways than your typical fantasy hero.
So if you go in expecting that, there is a lot to love here. "But what haaaaaappened exaaaactly" is something I get stuck on easily with books like this, but I knew what I loved about Stranger and went into this looking for the same thing rather than for plot.
I would not recommend reading this without having read Stranger - you can, but I feel like Stranger did a lot of the heavy lifting in building the world.
So if you go in expecting that, there is a lot to love here. "But what haaaaaappened exaaaactly" is something I get stuck on easily with books like this, but I knew what I loved about Stranger and went into this looking for the same thing rather than for plot.
I would not recommend reading this without having read Stranger - you can, but I feel like Stranger did a lot of the heavy lifting in building the world.