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A review by champsey13
The Starless Crown by James Rollins
3.0
This book had a lot of elements that could have made it super great. I loved the conceit of a world tidally locked to the Sun, with a narrow habitable zone and a mythology and lore that arose from humans living in such an arrangement. (Like, being locked in permanent twilight for example. Such a rich idea that I've only ever otherwise encountered in Kingdom Hearts of all places.) I also think it's a great idea to have a lot of PoV characters in such a case, because then you naturally get a lot of different cultures and backstory that help flesh out the world without having to make the characters stop and discuss things like history that they should all be taking for granted.
But I really really struggled with the linguistics of the world. All the fantasy words were just English words but spelled with a 12 year old's idea of what a cool fantasy word would look like. It came off as so clunky and juvenile that I ceased to be able to take the book seriously. (For example, every time the spooky priest sect said "horn'd snaken" when referring to an icon of a snake with horns, I wanted to stab myself in the eye.) Look, I don't expect every high fantasy author to be J.R.R. Tolkien and have three doctorates in philology and linguistics and invent nine conlangs, but you can't just spell a bunch of English words in a goofy way and call that linguistic world-building, especially when they otherwise have no structure or relation to one another. It took me out of the world on every other page until I gave up on taking the word seriously at all.
The characters were very hit or miss for me; I like Kanthe the most, and Frell. Nyx could be good if she built more relationships with the other characters, although her backstory and current circumstances certainly justify her being somewhat detached from other humans. She did build relationships with the Kethra'kai but since none of the Kethra'kai were PoV characters, they felt more like tools in her story than real characters with consequences to Nyx's character arc. I also felt a bit cheated because the book started off strong with a central female character, but the rest of the PoV characters are male, and both main female characters (Nyx and Shiya) are involved with the plot because of being living magical MacGuffins that everyone wants to get a piece of, which is less interesting to me than being involved with the plot because of royal intrigue (Kanthe) or scientific curiosity (Frell) or loyalty (Jace, Graylin) or being on the run from a hard life (Rhaif, Pratik). I notice this tends to happen in fantasy stories written by men. Is it because men subconsciously see women as "people who have something (sex, magic powers, magic powers that are a metaphor for sex) that men want access to?" and have trouble imagining them to have other kinds of motivations? I'd hate to think so, but [long meaningful glance at James Rollins' byline].
All that said, I did like that all the main characters had a vibrant variety of skin colors and came from different areas and cultures. (Though I'm on the fence about Pratik's (a dark-skinned man) defining characteristics being "was a castrated slave in chains, from a desert culture where prestige is tied to the number of enslaved persons owned, also that culture is big on wearing facial and full body coverings." Like. Hmmmmmmmmmm. I at least hope that Pratik's scientific prowess in alchemy takes the lead in his PoV chapters next book.) The Crown is definitely on the spectrum of dark fantasy where people are racist and sexist, but they're racist and sexist in newly imagined ways unique to the fantastical cultures they come from, which at least is fresh to read. Also interesting to see a culture where abortion isn't taboo, especially where that plays into Nyx's backstory. Overall I wouldn't call The Starless Crown a progressive masterpiece but the author clearly put effort into crafting the cultures of the world in ways that don't take a Western POV as for-granted background noise. YMMV on whether it was *successful,* but it's refreshing for me to see the effort.
[Spoilers follow]
Obviously, the dumb English-but-spelled-goofy words were meant to be an early clue that this fantasy world is in fact Earth But In The Future, but I had already guessed that before I was halfway through. And I don't even think it was that valuable for the world to be super-future-Earth-after-the-Sun-grew-big-enough-to-tidally-lock-the-planet because now it means that all the subtle fantastical elements are going to have to be revealed to be Crazy Futuristic Technology instead, and that's just not as exciting to me as an explicitly magical world in a tidally locked zone. Also they have to get the Earth spinning again to disrupt the Moon's trajectory, and I don't know how I'm expected to believe they can accomplish that without some Actual Factual Non-Scientific Magic.
I will probably read the next book because I'm a little curious, but I would only recommend this book to a hardcore high fantasy lover who can forgive the genre's dumbest excesses, which this book definitely indulges in.
But I really really struggled with the linguistics of the world. All the fantasy words were just English words but spelled with a 12 year old's idea of what a cool fantasy word would look like. It came off as so clunky and juvenile that I ceased to be able to take the book seriously. (For example, every time the spooky priest sect said "horn'd snaken" when referring to an icon of a snake with horns, I wanted to stab myself in the eye.) Look, I don't expect every high fantasy author to be J.R.R. Tolkien and have three doctorates in philology and linguistics and invent nine conlangs, but you can't just spell a bunch of English words in a goofy way and call that linguistic world-building, especially when they otherwise have no structure or relation to one another. It took me out of the world on every other page until I gave up on taking the word seriously at all.
The characters were very hit or miss for me; I like Kanthe the most, and Frell. Nyx could be good if she built more relationships with the other characters, although her backstory and current circumstances certainly justify her being somewhat detached from other humans. She did build relationships with the Kethra'kai but since none of the Kethra'kai were PoV characters, they felt more like tools in her story than real characters with consequences to Nyx's character arc. I also felt a bit cheated because the book started off strong with a central female character, but the rest of the PoV characters are male, and both main female characters (Nyx and Shiya) are involved with the plot because of being living magical MacGuffins that everyone wants to get a piece of, which is less interesting to me than being involved with the plot because of royal intrigue (Kanthe) or scientific curiosity (Frell) or loyalty (Jace, Graylin) or being on the run from a hard life (Rhaif, Pratik). I notice this tends to happen in fantasy stories written by men. Is it because men subconsciously see women as "people who have something (sex, magic powers, magic powers that are a metaphor for sex) that men want access to?" and have trouble imagining them to have other kinds of motivations? I'd hate to think so, but [long meaningful glance at James Rollins' byline].
All that said, I did like that all the main characters had a vibrant variety of skin colors and came from different areas and cultures. (Though I'm on the fence about Pratik's (a dark-skinned man) defining characteristics being "was a castrated slave in chains, from a desert culture where prestige is tied to the number of enslaved persons owned, also that culture is big on wearing facial and full body coverings." Like. Hmmmmmmmmmm. I at least hope that Pratik's scientific prowess in alchemy takes the lead in his PoV chapters next book.) The Crown is definitely on the spectrum of dark fantasy where people are racist and sexist, but they're racist and sexist in newly imagined ways unique to the fantastical cultures they come from, which at least is fresh to read. Also interesting to see a culture where abortion isn't taboo, especially where that plays into Nyx's backstory. Overall I wouldn't call The Starless Crown a progressive masterpiece but the author clearly put effort into crafting the cultures of the world in ways that don't take a Western POV as for-granted background noise. YMMV on whether it was *successful,* but it's refreshing for me to see the effort.
[Spoilers follow]
Obviously, the dumb English-but-spelled-goofy words were meant to be an early clue that this fantasy world is in fact Earth But In The Future, but I had already guessed that before I was halfway through. And I don't even think it was that valuable for the world to be super-future-Earth-after-the-Sun-grew-big-enough-to-tidally-lock-the-planet because now it means that all the subtle fantastical elements are going to have to be revealed to be Crazy Futuristic Technology instead, and that's just not as exciting to me as an explicitly magical world in a tidally locked zone. Also they have to get the Earth spinning again to disrupt the Moon's trajectory, and I don't know how I'm expected to believe they can accomplish that without some Actual Factual Non-Scientific Magic.
I will probably read the next book because I'm a little curious, but I would only recommend this book to a hardcore high fantasy lover who can forgive the genre's dumbest excesses, which this book definitely indulges in.