Reviews and Comments

Referenced in „Against Purity“

Well written, funny sometimes, like someone telling a story at a fireplace. Felt cozy to me.

Contains a few not-so-constructive patterns (like "I need to make my heart of stone to control emotions"), but for me it was Ok, definitely better than in "Consider Phlebas".

Some stories felt like the black mirror museum episode, some are a bit boring. (And Ijon can be annoying. He gets angry quickly.) I read it in German, maybe some chapters are funnier in Polish?

The smell of the book was one of the best parts of it (but also the last stories)

Exciting, feels realistic, war strategy, a lot of innuendo (and smugness? — everyone feels very clever). Passages of feeling powerful, passages of feeling completely powerless. I would recommend it with a content warning: "Cruel and depressing".

I guess I expected more… There’s one chapter (the eaters) that you can just skip completly imo. There’s been several times when I just wanted to stop reading (the eater-chapter and gendered stereotypes that continue to exist unchanged in the far future…), but I kept going for some reason and have not been rewarded.

Most of this book is exciting 18th/19th century sailing mechanics with wind strategy, and trying to capture the other ship without destroying it (I enjoyed it!). The cast is (almost) only men. And there are frequent commentaries on how badly organized the other navies/armies are, in comparison to the English ones.

The prose is not the best one I’ve ever read, but it’s easy to read and the chapters are independent episodes, which makes it a good snack.

I liked it! At times, I felt like Urras could have been less over-the-top and still sound eery. Annares feels very natural, and like a place I would like to live in. Feels very serious, I tried to read “brother” as “bruv” to loosen it up.

Hmm, what an uncomfortable read.

First of all: Be warned, this book contains mention of, and I think romanticizes, suicide.

The first two thirds of the book, the whole story was described by two men, who I think behaved fairly creepy and generally shitty. They both describe the protagonist, Yong-Hye, through their eyes mostly. There's violence, and there's sex, and it doesn't sound like it's consensual.

The third part is less violent, and is told by a woman, Yong-Hye's sister. It also revolves more about Yong-Hye, and at the end, I think her sister is the only person to emphasize with Yong-Hye, at least for a brief moment.

I dunno. I'm pretty bummed out by the whole suicide theme. It probably is a thought-provoking book, but I can't really think about its implications without stepping on these "romantic suicide"-track-of-thought mines.

By the way, I'm fairly certain this book doesn't pass the Bechdel test (two [named] women talking to each other about something other than a man). Which fits the war allegory (if you interpret Oran as the "front" of the war), but can still be annoying.

I think this book provides an optimistic utopian-kind of outlook on the future. I enjoyed reading it, it was a form of feel-good escapism.