Scan barcode
A review by kivt
An Accident of Stars by Foz Meadows
2.0
i wanted to like this but i just didn’t. i liked being dumped into the portal world just like Saffron, with events and relationships already in motion that i just needed to figure out. i did not like how Meadows handled exposition, which is the book’s main flaw. it felt like every five pages there was a massive block of text, usually Gwen’s internal monologue or another character externally monologuing, to explain the history of the world, the characters, their beliefs, and how and why Kena is different from Earth. it was genuinely interminable.
my biggest problem with “classic genre or trope, but make it inclusive” books (which i read a lot of because i want them to be good) is when books explore social themes through telling or lecturing rather than showing. you can do a lot with a diverse cast of characters that interact in a realistic way. you can’t do much with a cast of characters that feels like you were hellbent on completing your diversity pokédex at any cost, especially when you don’t let them make mistakes with each other. if polyamory or asexuality are going to be cultural norms, i want to see the evidence in how that culture functions, how people within it relate to those norms, and what they think to explain or not explain to an outsider. i don’t want long fuckin lectures about it between stale characters who seem to adapt to each other’s differences with no real friction. you include a diverse cast and wrestle with social issues to tell a more interesting story than the genre’s overabundance of white dude stories about whites dudes, and/or to make a political argument. this book did neither and as a result was incredibly boring.
the pacing was also rushed and the characters really underdeveloped.
my biggest problem with “classic genre or trope, but make it inclusive” books (which i read a lot of because i want them to be good) is when books explore social themes through telling or lecturing rather than showing. you can do a lot with a diverse cast of characters that interact in a realistic way. you can’t do much with a cast of characters that feels like you were hellbent on completing your diversity pokédex at any cost, especially when you don’t let them make mistakes with each other. if polyamory or asexuality are going to be cultural norms, i want to see the evidence in how that culture functions, how people within it relate to those norms, and what they think to explain or not explain to an outsider. i don’t want long fuckin lectures about it between stale characters who seem to adapt to each other’s differences with no real friction. you include a diverse cast and wrestle with social issues to tell a more interesting story than the genre’s overabundance of white dude stories about whites dudes, and/or to make a political argument. this book did neither and as a result was incredibly boring.
the pacing was also rushed and the characters really underdeveloped.