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proust_mobile 's review for:
The Blazing World
by Margaret Cavendish
The Blazing World is dense and does not wait up for you, although its playfulness and occasional humor offer some reprieve. Nearly half the book is dedicated to a seemingly endless list of queries into the logic, social structure, and philosophy of a newly discovered hidden world. Though this passage is impressive in its scope, it was draining to read all at once. The Blazing World's big appeal for me is how its many fantastic elements are used to disarm the reader to illustrate how these questions and their answers could just as easily be applied to our own world, a core function of so much science fiction. While it's often tricky to get a handle on this 1666 book, it's easy to understand how it was so foundational to the genre.
After a delightful yet dull middle section, the interdimensional war plot that shows up toward the end was a blessing, even though it casually advocates for total monarchy through genocide. Different times! It's hard to properly judge this book on its actual merits and not just as a curious early entry in a vast genre, but the best I can say is I had a good time with this bonkers and scatterbrained tour of a parallel world.
After a delightful yet dull middle section, the interdimensional war plot that shows up toward the end was a blessing, even though it casually advocates for total monarchy through genocide. Different times! It's hard to properly judge this book on its actual merits and not just as a curious early entry in a vast genre, but the best I can say is I had a good time with this bonkers and scatterbrained tour of a parallel world.