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shellbellbell 's review for:
Steel Crow Saga
by Paul Krueger
Pokemon, but make it early-20th-century Asian history. And make it gay.
This is a fantasy action-adventure, with a magic system heavily influenced by Pokemon and Avatar: The Last Airbender/Korra (Normally I hate it when books are marketed based on their resemblance to other more popular works in the genre, but the author made direct references to Pokemon in this book so it's an apt description, this time). Have you ever had a discussion with your nerd friends about whether or not Pokemon training is slavery? Have you wondered about the conspicuous absence of queer people in the history books? Then you might like this book!
There is a lot to like in this book. It's set in a fantasy world based in Asian history, with four warring nations that are analogues of China, Japan, Korea, and The Philippines. There are queer people everywhere, and for once it's nice to have a semi-historical setting where the old Emperor had a husband and it was NBD. There were several queer romance plots here too, I happened to enjoy all of the romance plots. There was a lot of action, and the plot was always moving forward.
But...I got bored halfway through. It wasn't really the story, because that was always moving, I just didn't really feel engaged with the characters (and there are many - it's a 4-person POV). They felt more like archetypes than real people and I didn't get much of a sense of who they were beyond how they were reacting to the events at hand. Towards the end I actually kept mixing up two of the characters...not great. I did keep reading and pushed through to the end, which was good! But overall the book was just meh for me.
I think that this book would be good for younger readers, those new to the fantasy genre, those who want to read but feel like they're watching an action movie, anyone who wants a fun ride that doesn't go too deep, or Pokemon fans. Or Brandon Sanderson fans (sorry not sorry, in my opinion Mistborn suffered from the same problems).
Whew, this review is getting as long as this book was. Overall, I think the author is a good writer and there were no glaring objective issues. This just wasn't the book for me right now. I kept thinking about the better books that I have waiting for me on my TBR list.
Representation notes: Queer people and relationships! Not just one but more than one! Two visibly bisexual characters, two other queer characters, one visibly trans character! As this takes place in Analogue Asia, there are no white characters (except for maybe one? I'm not sure). Author is a Filipino-American man.
This is a fantasy action-adventure, with a magic system heavily influenced by Pokemon and Avatar: The Last Airbender/Korra (Normally I hate it when books are marketed based on their resemblance to other more popular works in the genre, but the author made direct references to Pokemon in this book so it's an apt description, this time). Have you ever had a discussion with your nerd friends about whether or not Pokemon training is slavery? Have you wondered about the conspicuous absence of queer people in the history books? Then you might like this book!
There is a lot to like in this book. It's set in a fantasy world based in Asian history, with four warring nations that are analogues of China, Japan, Korea, and The Philippines. There are queer people everywhere, and for once it's nice to have a semi-historical setting where the old Emperor had a husband and it was NBD. There were several queer romance plots here too, I happened to enjoy all of the romance plots. There was a lot of action, and the plot was always moving forward.
But...I got bored halfway through. It wasn't really the story, because that was always moving, I just didn't really feel engaged with the characters (and there are many - it's a 4-person POV). They felt more like archetypes than real people and I didn't get much of a sense of who they were beyond how they were reacting to the events at hand. Towards the end I actually kept mixing up two of the characters...not great. I did keep reading and pushed through to the end, which was good! But overall the book was just meh for me.
I think that this book would be good for younger readers, those new to the fantasy genre, those who want to read but feel like they're watching an action movie, anyone who wants a fun ride that doesn't go too deep, or Pokemon fans. Or Brandon Sanderson fans (sorry not sorry, in my opinion Mistborn suffered from the same problems).
Whew, this review is getting as long as this book was. Overall, I think the author is a good writer and there were no glaring objective issues. This just wasn't the book for me right now. I kept thinking about the better books that I have waiting for me on my TBR list.
Representation notes: Queer people and relationships! Not just one but more than one! Two visibly bisexual characters, two other queer characters, one visibly trans character! As this takes place in Analogue Asia, there are no white characters (except for maybe one? I'm not sure). Author is a Filipino-American man.