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tilduke's reviews
161 reviews
A Stranger in the Citadel by Tobias S. Buckell
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Ratings
Cover: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Initial Draw: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Characters: ⭐
Plot and Pacing: ⭐⭐⭐
Last Page Feeling: ⭐⭐⭐
Note: For transparency - I received this book as an eARC from NetGalley. This will not impact my review.
Synopsis
A young royal "musketress", Lilith, lives an isolate life in a citadel with her family controlling an infinite source of resources, created by the gods as well as sole control of muskets/firearms giving them military might over other classes of citizen.
Reading and writing are forbidden acts in this world. "You shall not suffer a librarian to live"; but, one day a librarian shows up at the citadel and Lilith discovers her families secret which changes her perception of her family and the world forever.
Review
Cover
The cover is beautiful and represents the plot well with the frequently chanted slogan "You shall not suffer a librarian to live" emblazoned on the front.
Initial Draw
The initial draw for me was the premise of a fantasy retelling of the true history of book burning and the suppression of knowledge transfer between classes keeping a status quo that keeps the powerful in charge and the poor under their foot.
Characters
The characters were simply... not interesting and not well described. I could not explain to you what anybody looks like or any of their characteristics except the guardians dress in green and the ruling class carry muskets around.
I ultimately didn't care about any of the characters and most of all found Lilith, the focus of the narrative, extremely dull. She had no growth across the entire book and instead just served to pull the plot along.
The twist of Lillith wanting to persue being a librarian at the end was really not a twist at all. You could tell from the very start that she was going to sympathise with the librarian and ultimately replace him or become his disciple or something of that type.
The alliance with Kira at the 70% mark and the ultimate betrayal at 99% was also not at all surprising.
Plot and Pacing
Firstly be warned it takes until almost exactly the 50% mark for anything to truly progress the plot.
You spend the first half of the book being introduced to Lillith, her teacher/guard captain Kira, and the Librarian. As mentioned in the character section though I don't think the book is any better off character development wise for such a long on ramp. At 50% Lillith finally reveals the big secret to Kira and that is where the plot finally leaves what is already covered in the official synopsis and jumps into new content.
The content from the 50% mark takes a fairly meandering path.
The rest of the book basically being a slow foot chase away from the archangel and it really dragged on and his "death" really didn't answer anything for me about the lore of the world.
Last Page Feeling
Ultimately it was a quick and enjoyable enough read - I just felt unfulfilled at the end. I assume this is lining up for a sequel as by the end I still didn't know the real answer behind the big questions like why literature/writing/reading is banned what the archangel was really about, what happens with the newfound knowledge that Lillith returns to Alexandra with etc.. I assumed towards the start there was going to be some kind of lore about this being a dystopian future of our reality or something but nothing of that kind or any in depth lore was ever discussed.
Cover: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Initial Draw: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Characters: ⭐
Plot and Pacing: ⭐⭐⭐
Last Page Feeling: ⭐⭐⭐
Note: For transparency - I received this book as an eARC from NetGalley. This will not impact my review.
Synopsis
A young royal "musketress", Lilith, lives an isolate life in a citadel with her family controlling an infinite source of resources, created by the gods as well as sole control of muskets/firearms giving them military might over other classes of citizen.
Reading and writing are forbidden acts in this world. "You shall not suffer a librarian to live"; but, one day a librarian shows up at the citadel and Lilith discovers her families secret which changes her perception of her family and the world forever.
Review
Cover
The cover is beautiful and represents the plot well with the frequently chanted slogan "You shall not suffer a librarian to live" emblazoned on the front.
Initial Draw
The initial draw for me was the premise of a fantasy retelling of the true history of book burning and the suppression of knowledge transfer between classes keeping a status quo that keeps the powerful in charge and the poor under their foot.
Characters
The characters were simply... not interesting and not well described. I could not explain to you what anybody looks like or any of their characteristics except the guardians dress in green and the ruling class carry muskets around.
I ultimately didn't care about any of the characters and most of all found Lilith, the focus of the narrative, extremely dull. She had no growth across the entire book and instead just served to pull the plot along.
The twist of Lillith wanting to persue being a librarian at the end was really not a twist at all. You could tell from the very start that she was going to sympathise with the librarian and ultimately replace him or become his disciple or something of that type.
The alliance with Kira at the 70% mark and the ultimate betrayal at 99% was also not at all surprising.
Plot and Pacing
Firstly be warned it takes until almost exactly the 50% mark for anything to truly progress the plot.
You spend the first half of the book being introduced to Lillith, her teacher/guard captain Kira, and the Librarian. As mentioned in the character section though I don't think the book is any better off character development wise for such a long on ramp. At 50% Lillith finally reveals the big secret to Kira and that is where the plot finally leaves what is already covered in the official synopsis and jumps into new content.
The content from the 50% mark takes a fairly meandering path.
Last Page Feeling
Ultimately it was a quick and enjoyable enough read - I just felt unfulfilled at the end. I assume this is lining up for a sequel as by the end I still didn't know the real answer behind the big questions like why literature/writing/reading is banned
The Unnatural Selection of Our Species: At the Frontier of Gene Editing by Torill Kornfeldt
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.25
Note: I received this copy from Netgalley as an ARC. This has not impacted my review.
I really loved this book - breaking down gene editing into terms and concepts that could be read by laypersons. It's a thoroughly engaging topic that is yet to be truly explored in any books I have encountered previously.
I know know infinitely more about CRISPR and the repercussions of gene editing on a society - including the premise of increasing our IQ and life expectancy in the near future and essentially "beating evolution".
I thoroughly recommend this title to anyone who is interested in gene editing but has always been too afraid to dive in due to its perceived complexity.
I really loved this book - breaking down gene editing into terms and concepts that could be read by laypersons. It's a thoroughly engaging topic that is yet to be truly explored in any books I have encountered previously.
I know know infinitely more about CRISPR and the repercussions of gene editing on a society - including the premise of increasing our IQ and life expectancy in the near future and essentially "beating evolution".
I thoroughly recommend this title to anyone who is interested in gene editing but has always been too afraid to dive in due to its perceived complexity.
The Petting Zoos by K.S. Covert
Did not finish book. Stopped at 30%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 30%.
Note: I received this as an ARC from NetGalley. This has not impacted my review.
Reading this book in the midst of a pandemic was a weird and welcome experience. I know for some people it was very confronting but I found the concept of a pandemic book satisfying to escape our lived pandemic into a speculative one. I really liked the concept of a society that was so deprived of touch that it lead to weird social norms and customs but I really did not feel the pacing or characters in this book. Ultimately I did not finish this during the pre-release window - I always intended to come back to it to finish and provide a complete and honest review but with so many great books on my TBR I just couldn't justify returning to a book I wasn't feeling.
Reading this book in the midst of a pandemic was a weird and welcome experience. I know for some people it was very confronting but I found the concept of a pandemic book satisfying to escape our lived pandemic into a speculative one. I really liked the concept of a society that was so deprived of touch that it lead to weird social norms and customs but I really did not feel the pacing or characters in this book. Ultimately I did not finish this during the pre-release window - I always intended to come back to it to finish and provide a complete and honest review but with so many great books on my TBR I just couldn't justify returning to a book I wasn't feeling.
The Way of Kings, Part Two by Brandon Sanderson
adventurous
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
The Way of Kings, Part One by Brandon Sanderson
adventurous
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Infinity Gate by M.R. Carey
adventurous
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Overall a pretty enjoyable book but it just didn't have the plot or character development to make it completely satisfying. Not helped by the fact the book finishes on a cliffhanger with most arcs unfinished in preparation for a sequel.
The concept of the pandomonium planet collective and "The Registry" (Think Thunderhead from Sythe) really intrigued; but, they got barely more than a mention as to their existence. Hopefully book 2 actually explores these concepts more and brings the much needed depth to the world.
The concept of the pandomonium planet collective and "The Registry" (Think Thunderhead from Sythe) really intrigued; but, they got barely more than a mention as to their existence. Hopefully book 2 actually explores these concepts more and brings the much needed depth to the world.
Gallant by V.E. Schwab
Did not finish book. Stopped at 12%.
Did not finish book. Stopped at 12%.
Boring as. I know this first hour was just set up and the real story is coming but I just don't understand why it took an hour to get anywhere.
At the end of the day this was a library loan and I have better things to be reading.
At the end of the day this was a library loan and I have better things to be reading.
Babel: An Arcane History by R.F. Kuang
adventurous
challenging
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Amazing portrayal of white colonial attitudes in a well researched historical fantasy setting.
Deep Wheel Orcadia by Harry Josephine Giles
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
Foodmeat.
I don't really get it. The native dialect poetry was lovely to read and I appreciate the effort to try something new; but, the narrative and characters were uneventful and forgettable.
What really lost it for me though was the extremely odd choice to concatenate a string of synonyms together in the translation even if clearly some of them made no sense in context. I can understand there may not be a perfect 1:1 translation for some things; but, at points it became a little obsurd.
I don't really get it. The native dialect poetry was lovely to read and I appreciate the effort to try something new; but, the narrative and characters were uneventful and forgettable.
What really lost it for me though was the extremely odd choice to concatenate a string of synonyms together in the translation even if clearly some of them made no sense in context. I can understand there may not be a perfect 1:1 translation for some things; but, at points it became a little obsurd.
Before They Are Hanged by Joe Abercrombie
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0