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lanster's reviews
123 reviews
Territory of Light by Yūko Tsushima
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
This is an intimate reflection of the life a newly-single mother. Covering the one year span of the her life after separating from her husband. Exploring the challenges of managing the internal and external pressures of life, whilst figuring out her relationship with her three year old daughter and how to be a good mother. The prose is great, almost poetic, with each chapter having a clear motif. With how short this book there's no reason not to read it.
The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
The Stars My Destination by Alfred Bester
adventurous
dark
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
A solid book that explores the central theme through different lenses and characters each chapter.
The opening chapter has a great tone and sets up a great mystery, it's a shame that the whole body of the book then departs from that and seems a bit too loosely connected for my liking. Potentially less would have been more in this scenario.
However I think if this book resonates with you emotionally you will really appreciate it.
The opening chapter has a great tone and sets up a great mystery, it's a shame that the whole body of the book then departs from that and seems a bit too loosely connected for my liking. Potentially less would have been more in this scenario.
However I think if this book resonates with you emotionally you will really appreciate it.
Children of Time by Adrian Tchaikovsky
2.5
I just couldn't buy into a sentient spider society, it made no sense the more you thought about it
A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Ended up being pretty average, which is a shame because it had potential.
On paper the stakes in this book are very high, but not a lot happens in 500 odd pages, which is not a problem in itself, but requires the characters and their development to be very compelling instead.
However, I would not call Mahit a compelling main character, and this makes some parts of the book feel lacklustre as a lot of it is her explaining her thoughts and feelings. I think after she seemed completely unaffected bya near-death experience in a terrorist attack a few days after starting her job on a new planet far from home it's hard to care every time she moans about being stressed or lonely or any other emotional plight.
Similarly, most of the characters around Mahit seemed to exist only to support her on her journey of self-discovery instead of having their own their own agendas, which for a political intrigue thriller seems to be a flaw. The most complex and interesting character by far was Nineteen Adze.
The world-building is cool and it's definitely novel, but there were a lot of questions and ideas that weren't fully explored in this book (even though it had 500 pages to do so!), e.g.what are the sunlit? How does the AI work? Who are the killer aliens? What's the empire and its citizens like anywhere other than the palace? .
The quality of the writing was fine but could have been a bit tighter, it felt like a lot of the imagery devolved into pretty generic sci-fi stuff for the sake of it.
I'm not going to read book two.
On paper the stakes in this book are very high, but not a lot happens in 500 odd pages, which is not a problem in itself, but requires the characters and their development to be very compelling instead.
However, I would not call Mahit a compelling main character, and this makes some parts of the book feel lacklustre as a lot of it is her explaining her thoughts and feelings. I think after she seemed completely unaffected by
Similarly, most of the characters around Mahit seemed to exist only to support her on her journey of self-discovery instead of having their own their own agendas, which for a political intrigue thriller seems to be a flaw. The most complex and interesting character by far was Nineteen Adze.
The world-building is cool and it's definitely novel, but there were a lot of questions and ideas that weren't fully explored in this book (even though it had 500 pages to do so!), e.g.
The quality of the writing was fine but could have been a bit tighter, it felt like a lot of the imagery devolved into pretty generic sci-fi stuff for the sake of it.
I'm not going to read book two.
Desolation Road by Ian McDonald
adventurous
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Quite an imaginative and surprising book that tells the story of a town, by it's defining events and defining people over the years.
It's a bit rough around the edges, but there's so many different ideas, settings and topics explored over the course of the book that it pulls it off in the end.
It's a bit rough around the edges, but there's so many different ideas, settings and topics explored over the course of the book that it pulls it off in the end.
Hummingbird Salamander by Jeff VanderMeer
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
It was a thriller that wasn't very thrilling, with a central mystery I had no interest in. The protagonist isn't very likeable, not that that's normally a problem for me, but when it feels like the 'weight' of the novel is meant to come from the slow unravelling of their boring life coupled with occasional revelations about their somewhat traumatic past, it made it hard to care.