jakepcole 's review for:

Too Like the Lightning by Ada Palmer

2.0

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This had so much potential. I liked the conceit of tying a futuristic depiction of politically correct self-censorship to the writing style of Ancien Regime authors tailoring their criticisms to the nobles funding and reading their work; and it cleverly suggests that a seeming post-national utopia of progressivism would ultimately create a kind of neo-caste system that mistook kinds of jobs for ideological identity. But it takes very little time for Palmer to establish these foundations and then the book never builds anything out of them, either by fleshing in the world or crafting anything compelling out of its scattershot mystery story. The protagonist is the only character of substance and the political intrigue that is repetitively harped upon never feels like a revelation because it's obvious from the start that this supposedly post-capitalist, post-nationalism world is still deeply enmeshed in personal greed and territorial grievances.