A review by mdpenguin
Alanya to Alanya by L. Timmel Duchamp

adventurous dark emotional tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

There was a lot that was interesting and even good in this, but it did have its weaknesses and, ultimately, I didn't really enjoy reading it. I think that the biggest problem for me was that I didn't really believe in either Zeldin or Sedgewick. I also never really came to sympathize with Zeldin, which was a problem since the vast majority of the story was told from her perspective. I kind of liked Magyyt, but Martha was too naive for me and never really felt like a character worth following. I think that if there had been a better perspective for me to follow and it focused less on the Zeldin/Sedgewick dynamic then I'd have enjoyed it a lot more. 

As to the general plot and the world, the book is heavy-handed, but that doesn't bug me that much. What does, though, is that it doesn't explain its world that well. The result for me was a world coming across as functionally too simplistic but with a sociopolitical structure that seems like it's actually fairly complex that doesn't get enough of an explanation. It's also way too US-centric while also more or less explicitly criticizing itself for being so, making it pretty much impossible to ignore. And there was some mild hints of people who weren't white folks descended from western Christendom, but they didn't play a particularly large role. In fact, the only character whom I might have actually wanted to follow was a Black activist named Jo Josepha, who is introduced like she's a big deal in the beginning but later just fades away. There are other issues, in terms of believability, but considering that it's basically a allegorical polemic, I can shrug off a lot of that. Overall, I'm interested in where the world is going later in the series, but can't bring myself to read on.