spacerkip's reviews
261 reviews

A powerful story about a part of US history it's tried so hard to ignore. The detached and impersonal writing style wasn't quite to my taste, so it didn't have as hard of an impact on me. I can definitely see it appealing to fans of more literary fiction. Emotions don't come across through the words on the page, but more through the things that aren't said/described. That being said, I think it will linger with me for quite a while. 

 This premise is like my own personal catnip 

It was an excitable enough story - albeit plainly-written - but then the timeskip made it dive into "insufferably boring" territory about two thirds of the way though.

The writing style felt very juvenile and clashed too much with the gravity of the subject matter. I didn't find that the historical Chinese influence melded well with the sci-fi setting. It could have! But it needed more work for the two to actually feel cohesive. Most glaringly, this supposed to be a feminist work, but the actual feminism that's presented lacks any kind of nuance. It reads like the Spooky Scary Bad Feminism my conservative household talked about growing up, rather than anything thoughtful or conversation-starting. Made it just shy of halfway before realizing I wasn't enjoying myself.

MAN this was such a good one. Starting a Lancer game this past spring has encouraged me to dip my toes back into science fiction, and this was a wonderful reintroduction to the genre. I love violent, unflinchingly angry girl protagonists. I love romantic side plots that focus more on the universal human need to protect and care for each other. I have discovered that I love giant robots.

This was a very character-focused novel, with flashbacks and tales of Chinese mythology interspersed throughout the main plot. As a result, the story is slow-building, and it takes a while for the conflict with the emperor's pirate hunter, Pak Ling, to manifest. Even still, the bulk of the novel deals with the politics of commanding a fleet and navigating alliances with other pirate leaders, rather than daring adventures or fearless yarns.

The story's introspection serves well to explore the many themes it introduces. Ambition vs love (romantic, platonic, or maternal). Pragmatism vs cruelty. What it means to take power and control for yourself when the only way is to steal it from those around you.

I'm not entirely sure why it didn't click with me, but there were quite a few things I liked. The setting at sea, for one. My experience with age of sail novels lies almost exclusively with stories about the British navy, so this was a refreshing change of pace, and I eagerly took in all the details about sailing in this part of the world. The historical backdrop was very interesting to me as well. Not only in the events taking place, but in the descriptions of each port Shek Yeung and the other characters visited, from the construction of buildings to the clothing worn to the different religious practices. I also enjoyed the firmly grey morality of the main character, Shek Yeung. She was not shown to be right or wrong or always justified, simply a person who lived (and learned to thrive) in very difficult situations.

If you are interested at all in Chinese piracy, I encourage you to give this a try!