Reviews and Comments

Jason

jasonb@bookwyrm.social

Joined 1 month ago

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Shelley Parker-Chan: She Who Became the Sun (2021)

She Who Became the Sun reimagines the rise to power of the Ming Dynasty’s founding …

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Wow. This was a book that was kind of picked by Tor Publishing via a quiz. I will say this, I was not expecting this book to be so incredible!

The three main characters for me were Ouiyang, Zhu, and Xu Da. They all were fascinating and the story is more sweeping than I imagined. It takes place in 14th century China/Mongolia, and in the middle of all this. A monastery where our main character comes into her own. Zhu goes from scared, dying of starvation, little girl - to a monk novice in about a third of the book. She's thoroughly developed but when she disappears and returns - she is not the same little girl. She's grown into a crazy monk in which Heaven itself listens too!

Maybe fact, maybe a bit of fiction but one thing I was promised was a book that had armies, and battles, …

Nnedi Okorafor: Who Fears Death (2011, DAW)

Who Fears Death is a science fantasy novel by Nigerian-American writer Nnedi Okorafor, published in …

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This book was a welcome surprise. I will say that if the reader is triggered by rape this may not necessarily be the book for them. But this is such a tremendous story and it's not just about that. There is a rawness and truthfulness about these characters.

The magic is something so wholely different from the Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings books and yet it feels so rooted in nature that it feels real and part of our universe.

Is this a fantasy book? A science fiction book? Yes and no to both of those questions. This is speculative fiction at its best because it's new and different. Western readers beware this book is African and its characters will not look or sound like you. They are scary, funny, charming, and mysterious.

This is a dangerous book and that is what makes it such a great read.