Das Ende hatte mich ein bisschen shook, um ehrlich zu sein. Muss dann auch Kudos an die Autorin geben, dass ich das trotz der Offensichtlichkeit nicht habe kommen sehen. Auch wenn die Hauptcharakterin am Ende Kugelstoßenchampion ex machina war... und ich nicht weiß, wie gut mir das letztendlich gefällt.
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2024 Reading Goal
40% complete! isabel has read 2 of 5 books.
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isabel finished reading Gesang der Fledermäuse by Olga Tokarczuk
isabel wants to read A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers (Monk & Robot, #1)
A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers (Monk & Robot, #1)
It's been centuries since the robots of Panga gained self-awareness and laid down their tools; centuries since they wandered, en …
isabel quoted Gesang der Fledermäuse by Olga Tokarczuk
In irgendeinem Sinn sind Personen wie sie, die schreiben können, gefährlich. Sofort drängt sich einem der Verdacht auf, dass sie nicht echt sind, dass so eine Person nicht sie selbst ist, sondern nur das Auge, das in einem fort schaut und das Geschehene in Sätze verwandelt. Auf diese Art raubt sie der Realität das Allerwichtigste, das Unaussprechliche.
— Gesang der Fledermäuse by Olga Tokarczuk (Page 47)
isabel started reading Gesang der Fledermäuse by Olga Tokarczuk
isabel rated Iron Widow: 3 stars
Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao (Iron Widow #1)
Science fiction and East Asian myth combine in this dazzling retelling of the rise of Wu Zetian, the only female …
isabel reviewed Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao (Iron Widow #1)
Everything All At Once
3 stars
I like Xiran Jay Zhao. They're a great content creator and their Twitter is something to behold. So it was only a matter of time until I got to Iron Widow. That time was this week when I had a 5 hour bus journey in front of me and needed something to entertain me.
It was certainly a quick read for my standards. But then, I always seem to eat through YA literature as opposed to everything else I read, even if I go out of it with a sense of dissatisfaction. Which is not really something I felt here, even though the book has left me wanting in the worst possible way. The characters are... fine. Wu Zetian is the main character and thus the most fleshed out. The two love interests (it's an actual love triangle!) are somewhat shallow and everyone else is either window dressing or someone …
I like Xiran Jay Zhao. They're a great content creator and their Twitter is something to behold. So it was only a matter of time until I got to Iron Widow. That time was this week when I had a 5 hour bus journey in front of me and needed something to entertain me.
It was certainly a quick read for my standards. But then, I always seem to eat through YA literature as opposed to everything else I read, even if I go out of it with a sense of dissatisfaction. Which is not really something I felt here, even though the book has left me wanting in the worst possible way. The characters are... fine. Wu Zetian is the main character and thus the most fleshed out. The two love interests (it's an actual love triangle!) are somewhat shallow and everyone else is either window dressing or someone that violence is enacted upon in some way. Seriously, if you like violence and revenge fantasies, this will be right up your alley. Zetian leaves a trail of destruction in her wake that is bar anything I've read in recent times.
That comes at the cost of narrative depth though. There's so many elements to this scifi-fantasy version of medieval-modern China that are essential to the story - most importantly the concept of qi, which the pilots of the giant animechs people use to fight - that obviously have a lot of thought behind them but are explained so badly that, even after reading the book, I still have no idea what any of them are supposed to do. There's so many instances of "so I combined my Metal qi with his Wood qi" or whatever and I just kind of glossed over it as technobabble. Which is really disappointing because, again, there seems to be an actual system to this whole thing?
But none of that is explained in a satisfactory way because we need to get to the next fight, battle, torture, or romance scene as quick as possible lest the book lose the interest of its readers. It seems to have worked, as evidenced by the speed I read the book with. But it really didn't give me any opportunity to just let the whole thing sink in. There is no space to breathe between the pages which would've been necessary considering the onslaught of stuff that is happening. It also doesn't provide enough space to explore any of the character's motivations. Zetian is driven by revenge against a patriarchal society, that much is established. But she goes from "I hate my family" to "The. World. Must. Burn." so quick, it gave me whiplash.
I'd still say it's a decent read. And I'll probably read the second installment, as this seems to aim to be a series. But it neither left me hungry for more, really. Nor did it satisfy in a narrative sense.
isabel finished reading Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao (Iron Widow #1)
isabel wants to read Lote by Shola von Reinhold
Lote by Shola von Reinhold
Lush and frothy, incisive and witty, Shola von Reinhold’s decadent queer literary debut immerses readers in the pursuit of aesthetics …
isabel started reading Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao (Iron Widow #1)
Started reading this when I had a 5 hour bus journey to get through. Am now about ⅔ of the way through and have many thoughts. Some of them good, some of them probably more telling about me than the book.
isabel quoted Falsche Propheten by Leo Löwenthal
Es ist wahr, die Juden klagen und lamentieren: Aber sie sind immer noch da! Tatsächlich, so lässt der Agitator durchblicken, ist die Vermutung naheliegend, daß diese Klagen eher einfach ein Schachzug sind, um ihre Feindseligkeit gegen die Christen zu tarnen[.] […]
So wird, was anderen als Angriff auf eine ungeschützte Menschengruppe erscheint, zu einem Kampf zwischen den Hütern der Ordnung und einem Ränke spinnenden Feind, dessen Verlangen nach Gerechtigkeit vielmehr ein Vorwand ist, um sich unrechtmäßige Vorteile zu sichern. Nur Dumme können Juden bemitleiden – und sie werden durch ihr Mitgefühl zu den Opfern. […] [A]lso wird man sich wohl auch an der Jagd auf Juden beteiligen dürfen, ohne Strafe fürchten zu müssen und ohne daß das dem guten Ruf schadet. Denn, so sagt der Agitator, in Wirklichkeit sind ja die Verfolgten die Verfolger.
— Falsche Propheten by Leo Löwenthal (Page 112)
isabel quoted Falsche Propheten by Leo Löwenthal
Wenn der Agitator die Regierung kritisiert, dann gibt er sich gern den Anschein, ein Redner zu sein wie irgendeiner, der eine Oppositionspartei vertritt. Aber er unterscheidetr sich von dene rnsthaften Reformern durch die Heftigkeit seiner Angriffe und von den Revolutionären vor allem dadurch, dass er sich darauf beschränkt, das Regierungspersonal anzugreifen und ja nicht die Grundstruktur der staatlichen Ordnung.
— Falsche Propheten by Leo Löwenthal (Page 81)
Ich schreibe relativ wenig zu dem Buch hier, auch wenn ich sehr aufmerksam lese. Viele der Strategien, die Löwenthal bei den faschistischen Agitatoren der 1920er-Jahre identifiziert, finden sich auch im modernen Diskurs wieder. Am Beispiel des obigen Zitates wäre das die deutsche AfD, die sich nominell wie eine "normale" Oppositionspartei geben und für die Bedürfnisse des "kleinen Mannes" einstehen möchte, dabei aber rhetorisch funktioniert wie eine faschistische Agitprop-Maschine. Es ist einsichtsreich und gleichzeitig schockierend zu sehen, wie wenig sich in den letzten 100 Jahren diesbezüglich verändert hat. Und auch das spezifische Ausformulieren der rhetorischen Mittel und Ziele von Agitatoren hilft bei der Kategorisierung und mit dem Umgang mit dem ein oder anderen Online-Kommentar oder auch von ganzen konservativen Strömungen; wenn man weiß, wie wenig Interesse hier tatsächlich an tatsächlicher Problembehandlung besteht, weiß man auch, wie wenig Sinn es macht, darauf mit Argumenten eingehen zu wollen.
isabel commented on Peri's Bliss by Rikki de la Vega (Free Spirit, #1)
I got this book expecting to find polyamorous smut literature. That's also kind of what I'm getting, but it's also... more than that? The sex scenes are relatively short compared to the detail the author goes into concerning the Free Spirit religion. And what a treat that is! It's basically a support structure for all its members, showcasing art, lifting each other up and, well, also practicing free love. Also, small detail, but I love that the author went out of her way to include the detail that the Free Spirit church has gender-neutral, wheelchair-accessible bathrooms. That's the kind of detail I don't expect from smut literature but I'll welcome it nonetheless.
isabel wants to read You Feel It Just Below the Ribs by Jeffrey Cranor
You Feel It Just Below the Ribs by Jeffrey Cranor, Janina Matthewson
A haunting, provocative novel, You Feel It Just Below the Ribs is a fictional autobiography in an alternate twentieth century …
isabel finished reading Mr Loverman by Bernadine Evaristo
Mr Loverman by Bernadine Evaristo
Barrington Jedidiah Walker is seventy-four and leads a double life. Born and bred in Antigua, he's lived in Hackney since …