simonator's reviews
159 reviews

What a dignified yet exposing, mystifying yet sober, simple yet sophisticated, terrifying yet beautiful, disillusioning yet romantic portrayal of a people's custom in the eyes of it's participants and onlookers alike.

Another fantastic read in the catalogue of Engel's wise application of historical materialism. The reader will be surprised of the obvious class nature of the peasant wars. 
Chapters v and vi are quite tough to read as an endless listing of facts and troop movements, but this is what makes this both a political polemic and a genuine historical reference text.

Wwe lost a witty travel writer to the revolution. 

The diaries are some serious mythmaking by a young and charming Che, who describes his own bravado in a hilarious and self-deprecating style. Both his descriptions of delicious natural sceneries and the squalor of the poor he encounters on the travels are highly valuable.

Interesting facts, but reads more like a series of journalistic reporta tied together a la "look at the outrageous sh*t Israel is doing". But there's no deeper connecting, conceptualizing argument or systemification. I'd rather watch a documentary then. 

Becky Chambers' books are always a cozy, lighthearted read - this one even more than her others. Scene after scene, we get to know the domesticity and lived reality of the inhabitants of an enormous human fleet drifting in space and poverty, but under some form of space communism. In lengthy, lengthy dialogues, the characters discuss their lives and how they feel about it. Frankly, that gets hella boring at some point - which is, too, a theme for the Wayfarer series. The communist nature of the fleet society is interesting for a second of fans of organised space life, but it lacks a serious, deeper foundation based on a critique of capitalism or even understanding of planned economies/societies (especially regarding the incessantly brought-up topic of money and trade). Everybody's just an emotionally mature hippie who doesn't like money and who's fluent in therapy-speak - that's communism, apparently. 
If you're waiting for a plot in the first third, don't get your hopes up too much. The author prefers much mroe to revel in the little moments and little lives of her creations, letting them yap for pages on end, with not much of a plot, or even problems, to spur them on. Then, halfway in, a genuinely intriguing plot takes shape of an immigrant who falls through the fleet society's cracks, hangs out with the wrong people, and tries to make a living in the wake of a major industrial disaster. And THEN, two chapters later, that plot just ... fizzles out off-page. The rest of the book's THIRD is about the remaining cast DISCUSSING what just happened - even though most of them didn't even have anything to do with the events! I wanted to scream at this waste of a great story idea. 
I still finished this book fairly quickly, though, as the writing is charming at times, and the world-building undeniably creative, combining hard sci-fi geekdom with fantastically alien aliens. But I think this'll be the last book of the author for me. 

Highly informative and great proof of the power of Marxist approaches to analysing contemporary politics. Theory side could've taken more space.  

Quite boring unfortunately. There are two plots, running in parallel, one in the past of one protagonist, and they're only connected in theme. That theme is coming to terms with being embodied in existence, with all the choice and lack thereof that comes with it. Principally not uninteresting, but the plot does not explore it in a very engaging way. Every story point can be expected a mile away.
Also not as evocative and rich in world building as the series' first instalment. 

Absolutely visceral. A great piece of modern worker's literature.

Sometimes, a paragraph ends with a tacky explanation of the analogy and symbology just employed, as if the reader was not to be trusted in uncovering the deeper meaning themselves. Other than that, the setting an conception of this sleek and comprehensive novella is as enchantingly gruesome as it is hauntingly beautiful; the factory steeped in blood, the river killed, the fish stinking, the distinction between man and cattle blurring. 

Begs to be made into a movie.

Gut-wrenchingly sad and beautiful. 
Avoids tragedy-porn while still looking at the abyss of human souls living through displacement. Somehow manages not to romanticise the Struggle and yet explore it deeply. At one point, a character erupts at the family's limited upper-middle class background of relative privilege, and lack of regard for the fate of the poorer living through similar experiences. The book does not manage or seek to absolve that, it's left to the reader of how much issue to take with that. There is a stange theme of women's perception of their own and each other's bodies. I can't decide on whether it's done in a way that's profound or cringe. In general, this work doe  not need to be ashamed taking its place alongside the list of important historical fiction written on Palestine.