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A review by shimauchiha
An Accident of Stars by Foz Meadows
4.0
I absolutely love Goodreads. I love the infinite lists and recommendations and my never-ending to read list. However, there is one thing I miss about life before Goodreads and that's the joy of discovering books in a bookshop simply by looking at a cover and reading the synopsis, no reviews, no ratings. Nowadays, almost all the books I read are based on what I've researched and decided on before even leaving the house. I have found some of my absolute favourite books this way, however, it's taken some of the joy out of going to a bookshop.
So this time, I took a risk and picked this up from my local bookshop without ever having heard of it. I didn't recognize the writer, I hadn't seen it in any list and I didn't quickly check the rating with my phone. The cover was beautiful though, the first page was interesting and the synopsis told me it was a portal fantasy. It made me realise how truly long it had been since I read a portal fantasy. It's true that they've fallen out of fashion. Right now serious fantasy is all about hard magic and intricate world building in another universe with no connection to ours and I love it. However, there is something nostalgic about a simple good old portal fantasy where you get everything explained to you because the main character needs the information and you always have pop culture references because the MC just can't stop themselves from making wierd comments and being met by confused stares of other characters. Portal fantasy may be old fashioned, but it's easy and comfortable and fun.
So I picked this up, I started reading and then I regretted my choice within the first ten pages. The writing seemed so unbelievably clumsy. The narrative voice was strange, the shifts between POVs was clumsy and there was an info dump every few pages. As soon as we entered the new world, it was like the author was standing there with a huge red sign saying "Here are a bunch of weird sounding words to cover up the fact that there isn't really that much world building!"
The thing with finding books on Goodreads is that while there are still a lot of times where I don't like a book or don't see what the hype was about, those are generally cases of personal opinion. Books that get famous on Goodreads usually at least have good writing and meet the basics of everything. In the first few chapters, it seemed to me that I should just stick with that method from now and save myself all the trouble of reading badly written books with nice covers.
Then, however, something magical happened. The book started improving rapidly. After the author stepped away from bombarding me with information I could actually see that there was some decent world building beneath all the thermology. The magic may not have been the structured, limited hard magic of new fantasy but it wasn't just some convenient problem solver either. In fact, it didn't play that big of a part in the book, instead, it focused on the characters and through them, it tackled so many big issues so boldly. Race, gender, sexuality and disability were all freely discussed, yet it didn't feel overwhelming or preachy, just a natural part of the characters' lives.
Speaking of characters, they're one of the strongest points of this book. They're interesting, complicated people who actually have bad shit happen to them. They don't get out of every situation unscathed, in fact, they don't get out of any situation without sacrificing something. That's the most modern aspect of the book, that our heroes are actually human and aren't in possession of some sort of supernatural luck which lets them just walk in and out of dangerous situation after dangerous situation without a hair out of place.
Saffron reacts to this new world in a way that actually seems real. She doesn't turn into some superhero warrior badass in a day. They give her an axe and she swings it like a Tennis racket. She feels confused and overwhelmed, but also excited because she is in a FREAKING new world. She worries about what's happening back home. She gets hurt and her actions in this world aren't a separate part of her life but they have real and lasting consenquences. She isn't perfect, she worries about her a scar affects her looks even though she knows it's vain and she acknowledges it. She notices when she is acting unconsciously racist and stops herself. She is capable and smart and strong. A heroine worth reading about.
There are many other points I wanted to go through, but in the end what really matters is that it's different. It's not mainstream fantasy, it's not just another portal fantasy either. It's something worth taking a chance on, even though that's the last thing I thought I would say when I first started reading it.
So this time, I took a risk and picked this up from my local bookshop without ever having heard of it. I didn't recognize the writer, I hadn't seen it in any list and I didn't quickly check the rating with my phone. The cover was beautiful though, the first page was interesting and the synopsis told me it was a portal fantasy. It made me realise how truly long it had been since I read a portal fantasy. It's true that they've fallen out of fashion. Right now serious fantasy is all about hard magic and intricate world building in another universe with no connection to ours and I love it. However, there is something nostalgic about a simple good old portal fantasy where you get everything explained to you because the main character needs the information and you always have pop culture references because the MC just can't stop themselves from making wierd comments and being met by confused stares of other characters. Portal fantasy may be old fashioned, but it's easy and comfortable and fun.
So I picked this up, I started reading and then I regretted my choice within the first ten pages. The writing seemed so unbelievably clumsy. The narrative voice was strange, the shifts between POVs was clumsy and there was an info dump every few pages. As soon as we entered the new world, it was like the author was standing there with a huge red sign saying "Here are a bunch of weird sounding words to cover up the fact that there isn't really that much world building!"
The thing with finding books on Goodreads is that while there are still a lot of times where I don't like a book or don't see what the hype was about, those are generally cases of personal opinion. Books that get famous on Goodreads usually at least have good writing and meet the basics of everything. In the first few chapters, it seemed to me that I should just stick with that method from now and save myself all the trouble of reading badly written books with nice covers.
Then, however, something magical happened.
Spoiler
The main character got her fingers chopped off! Not seriously, though that was cool.Speaking of characters, they're one of the strongest points of this book. They're interesting, complicated people who actually have bad shit happen to them. They don't get out of every situation unscathed, in fact, they don't get out of any situation without sacrificing something. That's the most modern aspect of the book, that our heroes are actually human and aren't in possession of some sort of supernatural luck which lets them just walk in and out of dangerous situation after dangerous situation without a hair out of place.
Saffron reacts to this new world in a way that actually seems real. She doesn't turn into some superhero warrior badass in a day. They give her an axe and she swings it like a Tennis racket. She feels confused and overwhelmed, but also excited because she is in a FREAKING new world. She worries about what's happening back home. She gets hurt and her actions in this world aren't a separate part of her life but they have real and lasting consenquences. She isn't perfect, she worries about her a scar affects her looks even though she knows it's vain and she acknowledges it. She notices when she is acting unconsciously racist and stops herself. She is capable and smart and strong. A heroine worth reading about.
There are many other points I wanted to go through, but in the end what really matters is that it's different. It's not mainstream fantasy, it's not just another portal fantasy either. It's something worth taking a chance on, even though that's the last thing I thought I would say when I first started reading it.