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A review by ithiliens
Angelica by Sharon Shinn
1.0
Lol where to start.. This book was an exercise in frustration. I am shocked that more people in these reviews are not taking Shinn to task for the absurdly racist world building that felt excessive even with my low opinion of SFF's general handling of anything non-white. We get not one but TWO inherently evil races, both of whom the angels have visible and active disdain for. A white blonde haired secondary character is discouraged from having children with a character from one of these groups because his breeding is bad-- this is said by one of the wisest people in Samaria! I am NOT kidding!!!! I really hate to say it but this combined with my ambivalence toward Wrapt in Crystal is souring me on Shinn in general. Her later books have similar problems with either Orientalist tropes or fantasy racism in general but this was just beyond the pale for me. Perhaps it's because this is a work of science fiction which I am less a fan of. But then again I am used to read eye rolling stuff about aliens and purple racism in SF. the racism in THIS book however is incredibly disturbing because of the background premise of the series.
Spoilers but what the colonists of Samaria think of as a god is actually an AI, a concept that I find incredibly cynical. If that wasn't enough none of the world building holds up for me at all. Maybe some of it would be clearer if I read the others but having this "divine" appointed striation of society with angels at the top is so... horrible? I don't have a ton of knowledge of the Bible but the parallels I can see being drawn or alluded to just don't sit right with me. I looked up if Shinn is Mormon because of the whole idea of going to a new planet while the people left behind are over and over are described as being darker skinned than the darkest skinned people in Samaria is like huh!!! Maybe don't!!!!!
And to add to this, the romance was a huge disappointment. I really like political arranged marriage stories (which is what drew me to try this) and the leads do not admit their feelings for each other until the LAST PAGE. They spend so little time with each other and have such flimsy misunderstandings I really wondered what the point was. I was also frustrated by Miriam's POV constantly interrupting the flow of the story. Nothing at the end feels resolved and I think it's because the interior logic of the world would dictate the characters acting differently it instead we basically just get them accepting a "don't worry about it" and then the book ENDS!!!!!
I am really sorry to say that this has turned me off an author I like for the time being and I am honestly pretty upset about it!
Spoilers but what the colonists of Samaria think of as a god is actually an AI, a concept that I find incredibly cynical. If that wasn't enough none of the world building holds up for me at all. Maybe some of it would be clearer if I read the others but having this "divine" appointed striation of society with angels at the top is so... horrible? I don't have a ton of knowledge of the Bible but the parallels I can see being drawn or alluded to just don't sit right with me. I looked up if Shinn is Mormon because of the whole idea of going to a new planet while the people left behind are over and over are described as being darker skinned than the darkest skinned people in Samaria is like huh!!! Maybe don't!!!!!
And to add to this, the romance was a huge disappointment. I really like political arranged marriage stories (which is what drew me to try this) and the leads do not admit their feelings for each other until the LAST PAGE. They spend so little time with each other and have such flimsy misunderstandings I really wondered what the point was. I was also frustrated by Miriam's POV constantly interrupting the flow of the story. Nothing at the end feels resolved and I think it's because the interior logic of the world would dictate the characters acting differently it instead we basically just get them accepting a "don't worry about it" and then the book ENDS!!!!!
I am really sorry to say that this has turned me off an author I like for the time being and I am honestly pretty upset about it!