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A review by natcat
Stone and Steel by Eboni J. Dunbar
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
I liked a lot of the concepts and ideas in this novella, but I really wanted more of all of them! The story covered huge amounts of ground in a limited number of pages, which meant it all felt kind of underbaked to me, and that the emotional impact of a lot of events was rather flat. The whole section where they go to ask for help from a neighboring king, discover the king's lover is the main character's father, and then the dad and the king agree to personally come help them defeat the queen just seemed very rushed and didn't make a lot of sense to me. I did love the focus on Black and queer characters though, and I really appreciated worldbuilding that wasn't just grounded in vaguely Western European fantasy concepts.
Unfortunately the editing of this book was also not good, including multiple instances where there were not line breaks when different characters started talking, which made keeping track of conversations very difficult, and incorrect spelling and punctuation scattered throughout.
But I am definitely interested to see what else this author writes, abd I'd love to see what they could do with a full length novel to world- and character-build in.
Unfortunately the editing of this book was also not good, including multiple instances where there were not line breaks when different characters started talking, which made keeping track of conversations very difficult, and incorrect spelling and punctuation scattered throughout.
But I am definitely interested to see what else this author writes, abd I'd love to see what they could do with a full length novel to world- and character-build in.