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chestnut_pod 's review for:
The Hands of the Emperor
by Victoria Goddard
I am clearly the odd one out here, but like… autocratic technocracy is a bad thing? The author expects us to believe this one guy is creating utopia and he hasn’t even abolished the death penalty? It’s all Ra Ra Democracy, but do we ever see some actual DEMOCRACY? (No spoiler to say no!) We never even see a republic! Are there unions?
And look, I’m sorry, but you can’t attribute this guy’s benevolent political genius to his Indigenous lifeways, engage in a fairly deep way with these traditions, borrowed from Polynesian cultures, and then not really deal with the GIANT EMPIRE he is a part of?
Also, man, I don’t actually think you get to have that cannibal character. I don’t think you get to do that at all!
And the MANY moments of “Cliopher is so underappreciated, poor Cliopher, let’s make him Bureaucratic Ayla and justify all his decisions in public AGAIN,” were clearly meant to be raspberry mousse for someone’s id, but uh, that’s not my id. He could have tried talking to people? Or not majorly messing up the governance of his home province, as, you know, happens under autocracies, however supposedly benign? And the repetition drove me up the wall.
Yet ANOTHER book where nothing at all was earned. And yes, I did notice the fatphobia and cissexism, thanks very much. Also the many copy-editing errors, especially in the first half of the book — just saying.
And look, I’m sorry, but you can’t attribute this guy’s benevolent political genius to his Indigenous lifeways, engage in a fairly deep way with these traditions, borrowed from Polynesian cultures, and then not really deal with the GIANT EMPIRE he is a part of?
Also, man, I don’t actually think you get to have that cannibal character. I don’t think you get to do that at all!
And the MANY moments of “Cliopher is so underappreciated, poor Cliopher, let’s make him Bureaucratic Ayla and justify all his decisions in public AGAIN,” were clearly meant to be raspberry mousse for someone’s id, but uh, that’s not my id. He could have tried talking to people? Or not majorly messing up the governance of his home province, as, you know, happens under autocracies, however supposedly benign? And the repetition drove me up the wall.
Yet ANOTHER book where nothing at all was earned. And yes, I did notice the fatphobia and cissexism, thanks very much. Also the many copy-editing errors, especially in the first half of the book — just saying.