not gonna lie, i’m surprised by how much i liked this, considering dystopian scifi really isn’t my thing, like, At All. but an zhe is such a lovely protagonist <3 he’s very kind and clearly cares about people, while also being disconnected from their plight and just wanting to get his spore and leave thank u very much, and that contrast is balanced really well. he's just so dear to me, and he really makes the bleakness bearable.

i’m also surprised by how much i’m liking the dynamic between an zhe and lu feng so far, considering Head Of Fucked-Up Military Organization is an incredibly hard sell for a love interest, personally.

i did have a few issues though. firstly, there was too much infodumping for my tastes (i love minimal explicit focus on worldbuilding, and am also not a science girlie so all the talk about mutations and technology and whatnot is just so deeply uninteresting to me). that said, i do think it fits an zhe’s pov; he doesn’t want to question the deeply unsettling aspects of the human settlement because he needs to blend in and not get caught, and finding out what the humans know about xenogenics and how their technology works is important to him. it’s just kind of exhausting to read in the moment. also, there were some translation errors and typos that should’ve been caught in editing. they weren’t detrimental to my enjoyment but they bear mentioning. and lastly—not a flaw, really, just my own issues and problems impacting my reading experience—the amount of creepy bugs in this? i demand reparations….