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knightjpg 's review for:
Raven Stratagem
by Yoon Ha Lee
I kept waiting for it get good, and the final verdict is that it never did.
I thought Ninefox Gambit was fantastic! but Raven Stratagem is a very disappointing follow-up.
You have the same "you don't really know what's going on but it's fine even if you don't understand because the characters are compelling and the prose is beautiful", except the characters aren't compelling, the prose is dry and bland, and the fact that you don't understand what's happening adds to the lack of pleasure reading.
I hated Brezan. I wish I could explain it better, but I found him appalling and completely uninteresting at the same time. I didn't care about him, and his parts of the book I had to force myself to get through.
Khiruev was bland. She was just. There.
Mikodez at least had the decency to be vaguely eccentric, but I felt disconnected from his character because he was so vague I never understood what he was doing and why. Also, why the fuck was there incest. This whole book would have functioned in exactly the same way -- no, would have been better had there been no incest. Why. There was literally no reason for it.
Cheris, the star of Ninefox Gambit, was nowhere to be seen. This book was so utterly boring that, when at the very end things picked up a little, I had lost interest: it was too little too late. This book kept you waiting for the twist it never alluded to only to be a letdown.
TLDR: I just didn't care about anything that was happening here. The only potentially interesting things were hidden from the reader's view, and explained poorly when they finally did come to light. The characters were unappealing/uninteresting, and the story makes you sludge through a nothing-is-happening wasteland full of empty text.
I thought Ninefox Gambit was fantastic! but Raven Stratagem is a very disappointing follow-up.
You have the same "you don't really know what's going on but it's fine even if you don't understand because the characters are compelling and the prose is beautiful", except the characters aren't compelling, the prose is dry and bland, and the fact that you don't understand what's happening adds to the lack of pleasure reading.
I hated Brezan. I wish I could explain it better, but I found him appalling and completely uninteresting at the same time. I didn't care about him, and his parts of the book I had to force myself to get through.
Khiruev was bland. She was just. There.
Mikodez at least had the decency to be vaguely eccentric, but I felt disconnected from his character because he was so vague I never understood what he was doing and why. Also, why the fuck was there incest. This whole book would have functioned in exactly the same way -- no, would have been better had there been no incest. Why. There was literally no reason for it.
Cheris, the star of Ninefox Gambit, was nowhere to be seen. This book was so utterly boring that, when at the very end things picked up a little, I had lost interest: it was too little too late. This book kept you waiting for the twist it never alluded to only to be a letdown.
TLDR: I just didn't care about anything that was happening here. The only potentially interesting things were hidden from the reader's view, and explained poorly when they finally did come to light. The characters were unappealing/uninteresting, and the story makes you sludge through a nothing-is-happening wasteland full of empty text.