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A review by gayancalime
Machine's Last Testament by Benjanun Sriduangkaew
i think im officially a fan! i liked the characters and the world building so much in this one though suzhen was my favorite. sriduangkaew has a real way with melancholy and depressed characters--it never felt claustrophobic to be in suzhen's head but her despair and listlessness and depression felt REAL and lived in. i was really expecting more from her relationship with ovahu and i think frankly she ran out of space and i would love to see her write an actual full length novel (goodreads says the full length is 400 pages but its actually 218--a long novella imo). the resolution of the polyam situation felt--though good and genuine--truncated and i would have liked for the romance to have had more space to unfold between the three of them! i also loved taheen very much and this is PART OF THE REASON i wanted more of the romance is we learn something really crucial about them and their relationship to suzhen and it gets buried in the rush to the resolution. very upsetting to me personally who loves a good romance. especially when sriduangkaew's the sort of writer where i would have trusted her to build out a polyam relationship that didnt feel entirely motivated by the ethical nonmonogamy of online white queer discourse and culture.
i loved sriduangkaew's world building--the closed world of annata and the closed world of shenzen felt really similar and i like that she keeps returning to AIs in discord!! i think she really excels at approaching and dissambling the various problems of god-ai in a way that is really engaging; there is no perfect solution and i like that. there are lots of parts of this world that i would have liked to spend more time in--any of the warships or generation cities, MAHAKALA, HELLO. and so on--but i also am beginning to understand im a huge series reader and while i love these slips in and out of settings, i really really want more. so im hoping she comes back to this world! im not a huge fan of polyam romances but this felt both genuine and earned.
anyway, it has been a long time since ive wanted to be in a world this much and lamented having to leave it, so im very glad to have picked this up!
eta: maybe don't write reviews at 230am lmfao
i loved sriduangkaew's world building--the closed world of annata and the closed world of shenzen felt really similar and i like that she keeps returning to AIs in discord!! i think she really excels at approaching and dissambling the various problems of god-ai in a way that is really engaging; there is no perfect solution and i like that
Spoiler
when they leave everyone is like maybe kelsa will fail! but at least we have been liberated from samsara and we can begin anewanyway, it has been a long time since ive wanted to be in a world this much and lamented having to leave it, so im very glad to have picked this up!
eta: maybe don't write reviews at 230am lmfao