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A review by tzurky
The Tea Master and the Detective by Aliette de Bodard
3.0
I’m sorry to say this book is all style and too little substance. The atmosphere and the world-building are exactly on point. In fact I knew I would love the world when I picked it up. And I did.
Unfortunately, the characters and plotting rather detracted from that. Now the plot is awful with respect to pacing and uninteresting with respect to outcome, so not really redeemable in my view. But the characters could have made up for that. The POV character is very interesting and her struggles and pains are compelling and well-done, coming in at just the right moments and in the right amounts. So yay for that.
But her counterpart is less of a success. The elements of a great character are there but they don’t quite fit. They don’t really resonate on an emotional level. And, similarly, the relationship between the two characters is almost exactly what you want it to be, but not quite.
This makes me really sad because I really wanted the author to get exactly what she was going for since we seem to share aesthetic sensibilities and it would have been amazing. But unfortunately she doesn’t quite pull it off. There’s something wooden about the characters and their interactions seem telegraphed.
Still this was the perfect thing to read while sick with a cold. I’ve always been a little off in my thinking when I have a cold so I love to sink into dreamy atmospheric books. Horror does it nicely as well. Everything seems just a little less unlikely when I’m in that state.
Unfortunately, the characters and plotting rather detracted from that. Now the plot is awful with respect to pacing and uninteresting with respect to outcome, so not really redeemable in my view. But the characters could have made up for that. The POV character is very interesting and her struggles and pains are compelling and well-done, coming in at just the right moments and in the right amounts. So yay for that.
But her counterpart is less of a success. The elements of a great character are there but they don’t quite fit. They don’t really resonate on an emotional level. And, similarly, the relationship between the two characters is almost exactly what you want it to be, but not quite.
This makes me really sad because I really wanted the author to get exactly what she was going for since we seem to share aesthetic sensibilities and it would have been amazing. But unfortunately she doesn’t quite pull it off. There’s something wooden about the characters and their interactions seem telegraphed.
Still this was the perfect thing to read while sick with a cold. I’ve always been a little off in my thinking when I have a cold so I love to sink into dreamy atmospheric books. Horror does it nicely as well. Everything seems just a little less unlikely when I’m in that state.