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A review by nerp
The Winged Histories by Sofia Samatar
5.0
One of the most exquisite books I've ever read. The writing is unbelievable! But I don't know if I could recommend this to non-writers. This is Literary Fantasy with capital letters, without exposition, without handholding; the worldbuilding is between the lines, the characters aren't telling a linear narrative, and you as a reader have no sense of what is going on until about 100 pages into the book. *Some*how, Sofia Samatar pulls it off.
But if you were to ask me the plot of this book, I'm not sure what I'd say beyond "A war from four perspectives." It's so much more than that, a treat to be savored and reread again and again, but I just don't know if someone who isn't interested in writing as a craft will enjoy this. I came away without a strong understanding of the political world inside the book—heck, even the worldbuilding in general—but I completely trust the author in knowing what I do not, and I am not mad at ALL with all I don't understand. I have a feeling a reread will be most illuminating.
(Note: I haven't read A Stranger in Olondria; I found this book comprehensible without it, though I wonder if I would have understood what was going on before the end of the first part if I'd read ASiO before.)
But if you were to ask me the plot of this book, I'm not sure what I'd say beyond "A war from four perspectives." It's so much more than that, a treat to be savored and reread again and again, but I just don't know if someone who isn't interested in writing as a craft will enjoy this. I came away without a strong understanding of the political world inside the book—heck, even the worldbuilding in general—but I completely trust the author in knowing what I do not, and I am not mad at ALL with all I don't understand. I have a feeling a reread will be most illuminating.
(Note: I haven't read A Stranger in Olondria; I found this book comprehensible without it, though I wonder if I would have understood what was going on before the end of the first part if I'd read ASiO before.)