A review by myhomextheroad
Metal from Heaven by August Clarke

challenging hopeful sad

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

This book fucking slapped. The end credits list Disco Elysium as an influence, and if you like that, I think you'll like this. The prose is vivid and slippery and poetry. The rhythm of it gets stuck in my head. I do think your reception of this book will be influenced by your opinions of communism. (My own opinions on the matter are complicated, but like, I can use my suspension of disbelief to deal with good monarchs in fantasy fiction, and I think that this book does what it does very successful. It's thematically interested in a more anarchistic kind of communism than Stalinism, so I'm not going to expect it to give a long treatise on a fantasy analogue to the USSR. Though the political machinations in this book & the way it gets into the nuances of reform v revolution v collaboration are really interesting.)

Anyway—this is a book which achieves what it sets out to do. The characters are vibrant and brilliant. I am in love with the Fingerbluffs and the culture & ecology of the world, which avoids the neat fantasy counterparts for contemporary nations. It's unlike anything else I've read, and I love it for that.