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Iron Widow - Xiran Jay Zhao | Book Review

7/17/2022

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                This novel was billed as "Pacific Rim" meets "Handmaid's Tale" in Ancient China and ooh, boy did it deliver! 
            All the best pieces of the Kaiju / Jaeger / Drift concepts have been elegantly reworked to suit a modified Ancient China setting. At first glance, a big piece of the setting's establishing circumstances seem chaotic and unexplained, and the impetus of the conflict isn't explained until literally the last chapter, but oh is it an exceptional shift of the working paradigm. The lack of clarity on the conflict is mildly irksome as your read, but it's pretty straightforwardly forgivable as the main character is repeatedly confronted by the ways in which her limited access has bred an oblivious ignorance that is so pervasive, her failure to connect the dots often shocks even her.
             The whole misogyny thing is a bit overly-in-your-face, honestly, but, again, with the context of that massive, last-few-chapters reveal that reframes why the whole conflict is happening it gets presented as a plausible and terrifying escalation of the current world's trending misogyny, rather than a depiction of abuses towards females that Society has purportedly grown beyond
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     Wu Zeitan is utterly ruthless and patently unconcerned by pretty much anything, including modesty, body-counts, collateral-damage (historically, par for the course, given her real-world namesake). It's all framed as a hyperbolic reaction to grief and the fury at having that grief ignored and dismissed. It's a great depiction of how the "edgy, angry" girl isn't just emo and cool, but is straightforwardly suicidal, but in a "if I'm gonna die, I'm taking the whole world with me" kinda way. She is deranged and delusional and while that often gives her the power to leverage herself into a position of relative power, it just as often goes badly for her. She's not simply depicted as the 'break the world to make it better' kind of revolutionary, she's given lines that indicate that she's self-deluding to make herself believe that she's going to be the savior or woman-kind, and make things better, but there are obvious arcs that show how she is truly after personal power. Not to mention that it's shown that simply reversing the system so men are subjugated through the very same pathways of inequality as women used to be is simply replacing misogyny with misandry and it fails to actually fix anything or save anyone. 
       She has moments of lightness, forgiveness, and acknowledgement of the desire to love/be-loved, and for the most part she finds herself disappointed by any and all avenues she has to explore that concept (and by those people who encourage it).
                This means, in a partly unfortunately exertion of balance, that the big selling point of the Poly-ship is actually a little downgraded in my opinion. It's fairly well constructed in terms of establishing both emotional attachment and physical attraction between the trio, but I still read it much more as a falling-together of desperate hearts rather than a true-love romance with 3 participants instead of the usual 2.
            That said, however, successful marriages, and what I consider to be genuine love, is not comprised of the fairytale, shippy, true-love magic that most YA romances peddle. The way healthy love works is that individuals proactively decide to love each other and continuously chose to make it work. Active discussions, healthy communication of wants and needs, self-reliance despite dyad (or triad, quad, etc) integration (which applies to non-romantic bonds, such and Family and Friend sets and is also known as "we thinking", ie, 'we're going to the beach this summer')... all of that is present in this novel and necessary to a truly viable healthy relationship. And yet, the whole 'we are literally the only people in the entire world who treat each other like humans' thing is NOT a healthy motivation nor is it a convincingly romantic motivation for a love match pairing...
              I'm curious to see how it all works out in the sequel, particularly as... well... Spoilers.
           Overall, this is a brutal, but gloriously well-depicted world with characters in varied states of mental collapse that reflect genuine psychology in both range and severity. The body-count is high, the brutality is significant, the presence of consent is glaringly absent in a number of circumstances, and the positive influences are non-existent, but there's not explicit sex, no drugs, alcohol abuse depicted as a disease, and the non-con elements are never excused or apologized for. It's not a book for every 13-year-old, but honestly I think it suits a vast majority of them.
           Parental discretion IS advised, but I strongly recommend that this novel be seriously considered as a viable  option for any teen reader!
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the Last Graduate - Naomi Novik | Book Review

3/4/2022

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          A deeply satisfying sequel to a Deadly Education and an absolute Master Class in how to utilize plot bits to effectively ratchet up intimate emotional tensions! I am absolutely delighted by this series, and the second installment is an excellent addition to the over-all enterprise of it!
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         Still exercising the glorious flex of how the first book absolutely eviscerated the foundational concepts of the modern education industry, Book 2 delves into the consequences of system correction efforts (and the potential for over-correction), and how such seemingly benign endeavors, at best, swap the disadvantages of one group with the privileges of another, and at worst, further entrench a brand new sort of inequality that can hardly be accurately identified, let alone emolliated. 
The inevitable conclusion is just so poignantly visceral that it almost belies the genuine reality of the allegory. The system isn't working. And it cannot simply be 'fixed'. It needs to be entirely torn down and created anew.
          This novel also delves into the concept of blame for the entrenchment of inequity. The founders of the system meant it to be far better than they built it to effectively accomplish. Yes, exploitation and inhumanity was present at the conception, but for all their faults they tried to do right by the next generation and it's not fair (let alone productive) to simply castigate them for their failings without both acknowledging their efforts and also doing something to fix what they got wrong. Both within Novik's magical world and within our external reality, the school-system is abysmally flawed and needs to be entirely reimagined if we are to make any more significant strides of advancement as a species. The clear cut allegory of Novik's delightfully satirical explication is GLORIOUS.
          More than that, the story itself is fun, engaging, and masterfully written. The characters are all unique, well-developed, and have arcs of growth that move elegantly through the plot. The story's set-up and pacing are exquisitely handled and managed in such a way so as to entirely prevent the sense that Book 2 is simply a bridge from 1 to 3. It is its own critical piece of the puzzle and a uniquely worthwhile read without reliance on its place within the trilogy.
           I absolutely LOVED this book and HIGHLY RECOMMEND it to anyone over about age 10, though the more frustrated with the education industry you are (ie, high-schoolers, college kids, and their immediately concerned parents), the more viscerally you will react to the commentary presented here. I do however want to smack someone upside the head for allowing that ending to exist prior to the release of Book 3. I anticipate stalking through life like a trapped tiger until September when such misery will be granted absolution.
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Rage & Ruin - Jennifer Armentrout | Book Review

7/23/2021

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             This is the sequel to Storm & Fury and it's a decidedly well-built follow-up. It didn't quite capture me, but it wasn't difficult reading either, so I managed to get through it nice and quick. There weren't any points that felt like a slog and the romance did get turned up to a nice sizzle. Over all, I was quite pleased.
Date Read: June 28th, 2021
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Final Score: 6 / 10 !

            Honestly, there was nothing about it that had any solid development in it for me, other than the Romance and then a small (but admittedly significant plot point). For the most part, this sequel feels like that it is: the middle bit bridging the way between Book 1's intro to the work and Book 3's theoretical conclusion of the story.
          I think (or at least I hope) that a lot of the lack in the world building aspect of this story comes from the fact that from the author's point of view, it's a spin-off series. I'm guessing (again, more hoping) that a lot of the world building was packed into the main-series and simply left out here because it was considered over-kill. I do no ascribe to that sort of school of thought where world-building is concerned, but I know many people (including editors) who do.
      All we learned new about the world in this installment was that some angels are more involved with the evolution of Fate than others. Plot wise, a couple of significant discoveries occurred, but nothing that really should have taken a whole book to cover. The real point of this novel was to increase the pressure on the romantic leads, to bring their developing relationship to a tipping point. It was an alright thing to focus on, but not enough to have caught my attention. 
             Actually, the constant poor-decision making and the abject refusal to sit-down and talk about things like half-way reasonable humans (which, I can admit, is something teenagers really can't be expected to be) got really annoying. I can understand a few badly-chosen comments and decisions to repress rather than examine (even introspectively, without confessing to the partner they're supposed to be valuing), but it got to be WAY to much after like Badly-Handled Conversation #6...
          The inexplicably fierce and fast-rising devotion to each other is explained away by the whole Soul Bond guardian thing, but it's still awkwardly unrealistic in a way I dislike having present in Teen Media. The way these two feel about each other is NOT an example of any sort of half-healthy relationship and that bothers me... But it's not problematic to a truly uncomfortable degree, it was just irksome that this book only focused on the unhealthy relationship without giving me much plot to fixate on while ignoring the over-done romance-y bits.
           All in all, it wasn't a great book, but I'm still likely going to pick up the next one in the series in the near-ish future. It's still definitely worth a quick weekend read.
          (And again, I do still LOVE the whole Gargoyle concept!)
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the Choices of One (a Star Wars Story) - Timothy Zahn | Book Review

7/16/2021

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           So, I've got another Star Wars Expanded Universe novel under my belt! I'm trying to keep a good balance going of Legends media to Canon media, so here's another story from the Legends array! I really, deeply enjoyed this one, definitely enough to recommend it with substantial enthusiasm!
Date Read: June 24th, 2021
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Final Score: 8 / 10 !
          This novel continues (and purportedly ends) the Hand of Judgement duology, the first one being Allegiance, as reviewed a few weeks ago.

          I enjoyed this one MUCH more than the first on in the sub-series. I felt like the inclusion of Chewie, Han, Luke, & Leia made a lot more legitimate sense in this novel than it did the other one (where they were essentially just bandied about as prop pieces). Here, they actually have ROLES in the story's plot progression, and more than that they have genuine personalities. I DEEPLY enjoy the way in which Luke is basically universally disparaged by everyone on all sides of the conflict as well-meaning, but absolutely useless at 99% of the Things that Need Doing... It's adorable (and as rendered here, it's actually endearing). And as we're still in a setting that's only about 8 months out from the destruction of the Death Star at the Battle of Yavin IV in Episode IV, it makes perfect sense to include the mainline protagonists.

​       But, as with the first one, the real bit of excellence in this story is the Storm Trooper dynamics with all their complicated loyalties and dedications. The crew we've gotten to know in this sub-series is excellent and they show off their training and inter-personal coordination extremely well here. It's AWESOME. Even their interactions with Mara Jade, Luke Skywalker, and the crew's new Troukree associates are all delightfully character-exposing, for everyone involved!
            The part I was most surprised about in this story was Thrawn's involvement. I think it was well rendered, even if there was a bit of a bait-and-switch about it where the reader really had no chance at figuring out the truth of the matter until Zahn only exposed it.
           Though I have to admit I am SUPER confused at the repercussions of Thrawn's declared stance at the end of this one... Honestly, without the little bit right at the very end, like seriously the last 5 pages at most, I think it could be considered fully canon still. While I'm not exactly yet a model of Canon expertise, nothing about this story (at least while reading it without that last little assertion of Thrawn's place as a particularly significant figure in the Outer Rim) contradicts anything I've read/seen that's still considered Canon.
           I'm not really sure where Zahn was going to go with all that, but since it's now Legends it doesn't exactly matter any more, so I'm not counting that confusing-bit as a negative.

         What I didn't like about this story was only that it felt like a little exposition and then a GINORMOUS battle sequence. While the battle was epic and interesting, I would have liked just a little more post-battle follow-up. Mara Jade totes deserves to know her Troopers are alive. How exactly Han and Chewie got out of the Golan Battle Station and away without anyone in the rest of the battle even commenting on their presence beyond a brief 'oh, right, they're still up there and stuff', is something I would've liked to see more detail on... Along with exactly what supplies and new toys were successfully acquired by the Rebels in the aftermath. And then most importantly: the whole Nuso Esva schtick needs a bit more explanation (or really, a LOT more explanation)...
           This is why I mentioned earlier that this novel purportedly ends the Hand of Judgement duology... It doesn't END shit... Nuso Esva comes out of no where, proceeds to be awesomely interesting as he challenges Thrawn to a bout of War Games, and then vanishes into the Black as a problem to be Dealt With Later... Google says he dies 8 years after the Battle of Yavin IV, but then says not much else about him at all. I'm sure there's other media with him somewhere, but it really seems like a waste of a potentially interesting character (and potentially interesting character interactions) to just end.
            I love Thrawn and I think having some weird, hyper-competent Unknown Regions warlord regularly challenge him would be cool, so I at least HOPE there's more media with the pair of them competing against each other in it. And honestly, having the Hand of Judgement Trooper Crew working sporadically with Thrawn and Mara Jade to train Outer Rim Aliens to fight Nuso Esva? THAT sounds like bestseller material to me...
             Anywhoo~, the only other thing I disliked was the way Zahn did his chapters / PoV jumps, but as I think that's just a conversion error with the eBook version, I'm not holding that against him.

        I liked it better than
Allegiance and I think it can be read well enough without the first one, so it's definitely becoming a staple-recommendation of mine for the Star Wars EU!
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Warcross - Marie Lu |  Book Review

7/9/2021

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Date Read: June 1st, 2021
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Final Score: 7 / 10 !
         This is EXACTLY the type of thing I like to see from Marie Lu, it's one of the reasons I like her as an author and one of the biggest causes of my disappointment in her Batman story (I still cannot believe that DC approved that bit of nonsense).
         Warcross is the perfect mix of angst and action, with just the right amount of heart thrown in to complicate matters!
        The world-building was excellent. It dug deeply enough into the complex world of tech & game design, along with the high-stakes universe of eSports, without over-doing the nitty-gritty details. Lu gives weight to the realities of the world, dropping in details of police-work and every-day lives outside the plot-- a critical thing in Sci-Fi world-building that often goes overlooked in YA but happens effortlessly in realistic fiction.
            The cast was on the smaller side, but it was well-crafted and the characters evolved naturally. Their strengths became their weaknesses and vice versa in very elegant arcs as they were confronted with new challenges, particularly regarding new questions about each other's intentions and loyalties.
            The plot was neat and engaging. There were parts of it that felt a bit overly straightforward (like Zero's true identity, and the particulars of the terrorist plot), but over all it was a well-paced adventure and none of the obvious answers hung over an unknowing-character's head for so long it got annoying.

          I will definitely be picking up the second book in the duology ASAP!
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Gideon the Ninth - Tamsyn Muir (Book Review)

7/7/2021

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Date Read: ​May 28th, 2021
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Final Score: 8 / 10 !
         Wow. Like seriously WOW. This was an AWESOME treat to read!
 
      It was a really intricate world and had absolutely EPIC characters! When combined with a plot that was halfway between an Agatha Christie novel (a la 'And Then There Were None') and a Space Opera remix of Max Max, this was AWESOME.
        Action packed, full of personal politicking social intrigue, intricate discussions of anatomy and theoretical science... It was an encompassing swirl of deeply engaging storytelling and 'couldn't put it down' drama!
It's also a great representation of LBGTQ+ Lit in adult SciFi where there romance is secondary and Not-A-Big-Deal-TM, while still keeping the notion of gender/sexuality being a spectrum at the fore. It's a great example of how to run a universe with LGBTQ rep, entirely because it doesn't stop to Examine-Things every time a non-binary blip pops up on the reader's radar.
          Everything about this was epic. And it was one of the very best versions of 'how to make a character a badass super-fighter' without just making them ridiculous or overpowered. Gideon is Epic. And she's an insecure disaster of a human. And she loses a lot. But she's shown very elegantly as being an incredible swordswoman.
          All in all, it's very well done.
          I only have 2 complaints, and one is really only half a complaint:
       Mainly, there was like zero comprehensive world building. This is the half-complaint because it was part of Gideon's character building. Gideon doesn't frickin care how the world functions. So she didn't really discuss it in her mental monologue. It was great, even as it got a bit annoying/confusing towards the very end.
        The only other piece of complaint I've got is that the final fight scene was excessive. It was just too long and too over the top to really play well with the pacing of the rest of it. I do understand why the choice to make it that way was made, but I disagree and I dislike the outcome of the final rendering. I would've shortened it by a few pages. Nothing too drastic, but it just got long ...
         Otherwise, this is probably the best book I've read thus far this year!

​And it's a GREAT transition for readers in Upper YA who are thinking about jumping into the mixed-bag of adult-SciFi!
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Rule of Wolves - Leigh Bardugo | Book Review

6/18/2021

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Date Read: June 6th, 2021
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​Final Score: 9.5 / 10 !
          This is one that I absolutely knew I was going to tremendously enjoy and, having now finished reading it, I have been 100% proven correct. It's definitely a delight to read and an extremely worthwhile addition to the Grisha Verse!
           The first and most important thing to mention about this book is that it is another example in YA of how to write a war that actually functions like war in real life. It's tragic that so few YA writers seem to do any research at all into that subject matter, especially considering how many YA novels are focused on it, but it's the way things are and I'd like to change it. Which starts with lavishing praise onto writers who take the time to really do the work.
            This is an exceptional look at how the process of war, and the threat of it, actually functions as an influence across all levels of society and how it is never, in any circumstances, confined to the powers actually involved in active conflict. You don't need a massive universe with 40 counties all vying for world domination, but you do need to ensure that all the countries that exist in a given reality do something to address the impending turmoil of open warfare. It was even a very accurate look at how certain players, kings and commanders and such, get pulled off the field because to lose them would be to create upheaval that a given force could not adequately recover from (it has nothing to do with them being less useful in battle, or too good a leader to risk losing, it's the simple fact of transitional turmoil that makes them too important to be unstable) and it goes effectively into the personal frustrations that such a thing causes for both good leaders and bad ones.
               This story also goes into spycraft with excellent accuracy in regards to how it affects the psychologies of everyone involved, as well as looking at how effective / ineffective it can be (and how a lot of how things pan out, whether for better or worse, is usually less to do with intentional action and more to do with relentless effort to keep the story spinning). It really got into the nitty gritty of it with exceptional clarity being given to the moral quandaries that come hand in hand with doing bad things for a good cause.
                The one thing that DID bother me a little is almost negligible: it was simply how they kept referring to Nikolai as 'Highness'. It's a thing I had noticed in King of Scars, but he was such a new king I felt it was ignorable, but by this point he should be solidly established as a 'Majesty'... Though I have seen it translated as such in some Russian lit, so maybe it's a Russian thing I'm not familiar with (I has simply assumed that the address translated strangely). Idk.
                 Anyway, plot-wise, the story developed with some EXCELLENT twists and turns that I was not expecting and yet fit within the narrative as part of a perfectly natural evolution. This one improved upon King of Scars by validating some of the boring bits in that novel without laboriously lingering over the rationales, it simply employed the results of what happened then into a present moment (with just enough recap to keep a reader up to speed, but not so much that the time it took to read the pervious installment felt wasted).
               The character development was also top notch. The admissions that anger comes from fear, that guilt is just a need for control, and that love and friendship are not things that can be affected by rationality or attempted decision-making are all wonderful and expose themselves within each and every character individually. Every character has a distinct arc of development that carries them through the motions of the main plot as a slap-dash combination of their individual stories. Zoya's development, in particular, was fantastic. I never really liked her until this one. I stopped disliking her in King of Scars but WOW did she blossom into someone awesome here (I think she's now in my top 3 of character faves for the whole series).
               Honestly, Zoya's development in this is just so far beyond exceptional that it truly makes this book a marvel. I know that it's a bit unfair to judge books on a comparative basis, but I just have to point out that Zoya's handling in this book is about 50 billion times more elegant and well-crafted than Nesta's handling in A Court of Silver Flames (which is a review I'll have up in full next week). Zoya and Nesta are both extremely angry characters with razor sharp edges and anger issues that bubble up to cover feelings of inadequacy and a soul-deep fear of pain and loss. They're both grieving lives they used to know, and suffering through a crude and unpleasant adjustment to living with trauma. From their similiar circumstances, they require similar methods to help them heal. Nesta's story follows a perfect guideline of How NOT to Handle a Person with PTSD, and is frankly 700 pages of dangerously irresponsible drivel (that doesn't work) and it wraps up in a last 200 pages with a shorthand version of what happened to help Zoya start to heal scrunched up awkwardly at the end like Maas got yelled at by a psychologist. Meanwhile Zoya's journey takes place at an even-keeled pace across the entire (much more succinct novel) and it starts right from the beginning with addressing what is healthy vs unhealthy in terms of coping mechanisms -- all while dealing with protagonists who are younger (and therefore more entitled to handle things poorly). Bargudo does an EXCELLENT job and that fact has certainly catapulted this book into my top 25 of all time!
              Over all, it was extremely well done. I will say that it was not quite life-changing, which several of Bardugo's books have been, but it was definitely one for the top 25 I've read ever, and top 10 for having read in the last decade (or rather it's the one to kick off the new list for this new decade). I am VERY excited about where this is going to lead the Grisha Verse as the series continues to develop!
(One other thing I understand but disagree with: the next one is currently termed Six of Crows #3, and it makes sense why with how exactly Kaz and his crew become embroiled in what must happen for the next stage to unfold, but it's NOT a Book 3... you can't read them in 1, 2, 3 order.... It should be a separate duology or trilogy or something, making title reference to Six of Crows, but not being part of it. Like maybe 'Five of Crows', since Matthias is dead, or perhaps 'Seven of Crows' to make note of Wylan and Hanne's now being tightly involved... honestly, idk, but it's not just Book 3...).
                  ​Still, I do absolutely LOVE this one and highly recommend it to all audiences!
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That Inevitable Victorian Thing - E.K. Johnston

6/16/2021

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Date Read: May 7th, 2021
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Final Score: 5 / 10 !

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           Well, this was an odd one. The premise was super intriguing, namely how the world would look if the British Empire never collapsed (and within that, the idea of how different things might've been if the Brits weren't racial purists in the way that they were... and if they were a helluva lot less in-bred and sickly as they've made themselves)... It was definitely an intriguing experiment in thought-exercises.

​            Unfortunately, 'intriguing thought-experiment' is really as far as this one went in terms of interest-value. There was a mildly cute love story, and some discussion of the complexities of commerce and the politics of dealing with pirates, but the fixation of genetic compatibility and the overly intense commentary on 'race' as a non-entity just got a little too solid to enjoy much else. It was a valid point, but it definitely got in the way of anything really happening. The story covers about 2 months of time, with far too many days skipped in sweeping, 'things went on like that for x hours / rest of the afternoon /  duration of the week' or such... And the angsts of the characters were laughable.


              Only August had any actual problems to deal with but the bulk of the narrative was focused on the two girls who had no real problems whatsoever. And the ending resolved with August's dad swooping into to fix things for him, and his joining the girls in realizing that none of them had any real problems to begin with... The inevitable thing was simply the obvious arrangement that ensured that none of them ever had to deal with any repercussions of a problem that was never really significant anyway.

             As a thought experiment, it was kind of neat.

            As a story? It was pretty lame.

​            I'd only ever recommend it as a low-stakes beach-read / distraction type endeavor with which to while away an afternoon.
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the Other Side of the Sky - Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner

6/2/2021

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Date Read: May 20th, 2021
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Final Score: 8 / 10 !

​           I have come to realize that I simply adore Amie Kaufman. I still think it's a little weird that she writes almost nothing on her own. but she seems to pick her co-authors very well and I absolutely love everything I've read with her name on it.
           This one is no exception, in fact I might like it best of all I've read thus far! 
           First of all, it's a gorgeous world, richly imagined and deeply developed with intricate nuance and a vibrant liveliness that makes both cultures feel very real.
           I did wonder about the rest of the world, because surely 2 tribes of humans cannot be the only cultures left on the planet, but at the same time, the limited tech of the one and the utter indifference of the other does very well to explain away the seeming smallness of the world.
           ​I deeply enjoyed the conflation of magic vs technology and religion vs science here, it was laid out very well how similar the two sets of concepts are and why preaching science at someone is just a aggressive an impolite overstep as preaching religion at someone. While respect for science and for academia in general needs to be cultivated in the modern world we live in, accepting the working of science does not make you a better person on any account than someone who does not (and you telling them that they are ridiculous, backwards, and idiotic doesn't help the problem). 
            It's also only a respect for science in the barest terms if you cannot articulate WHY science ought to be accepted and followed in a manner that DOES delineate it from religion. (After all, if you can't explain how an airplane stays in the sky, how is believing that it will any different from someone believing in magic carpets or dragons?)Because the problem with religious dogma and psuedo-religious science is not that one is right and one is wrong, it's that one can demonstrably prove its concepts and can be wholly and fully understood by anyone given the time and genuine effort to do so. The reason people doubt science is largely because the people who accept it cannot explain it any better than a preist or imam or rabbi can explain the Divine. It's not only a problem of ignorance on the side of those who don't accept science, it's also a problem on the side of those who only accept science as a replacement for religion and understand it no better.
               The PROBLEM, therefore, is an over all lack in nuanced education.

            I LOVE when topically simply love stories get at concepts like that. And this one looks at it explicitly and discusses it repeatedly.
            Sadly, it doesn't go into the fact that the solution is a total rehaul on the entire world's educational system, but still, even making the first statement is unexpectedly deep for a YA romance story. ^_~
            And the romance is fun, too! It's well crafted, adorable, and believable in every way... Even if the insta-attraction is still a little over the top and the connection the characters forge comes a little overly quick, there are environmental pressures and cultural reasonings that make such romantic alacrity reasonable.
            I saw the big betrayal coming from a mile off, and while I think it could've been handled slightly differently to make it hit a little harder, I really enjoyed the way that every character fully believed that the all things they did, even the very worst of them, were done for the right reasons.
            I am eager for the the next book in the series, particularly as the last chapter ended with an unreliable narrator dropping a hint that may or may not be a game-changing truth and I am CONCERNED. ^_~
But, I have to wait until January... *sigh*.
            Still, GREAT book, I highly recommend it!

            Fully appropriate for the younger YA crowd and as a transitional for the particularly eager Middle Grade kiddo!
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Winner's Curse - Marie Rutkoski (Book Review)

5/20/2021

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​Date Read: 
November 9, 2015
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Final Score:  9 / 10!

Heart-breakingly wonderful!

           This is easily the best book I've read in YEARS, and it took me completely by surprise. It took me a bit to get caught up in it, but I'd reached the end of the book well before I'd realized I was addicted. I went out and bought the sequel right away and read that one in a single sitting. It's absolutely enthralling.
            The setting is a wonderful rendering of the traditional High-Fantasy vaguely medieval world with a fresh twist mixed in that's reminiscent of the Roman Empire (one of the best depictions of Ancient Rome I've ever read, honestly). There's not much in it that's truly Magical or Fantastical, so I wouldn't classify it as 'Fantasy' per-se, but the world is developed with every bit of the detail expected of a fantasy creation. The political atmosphere of the reality the characters in habit is intricate and believable, utterly gut-wrenching for its impact on the main characters. Both sides of the story are well developed and relatable and you find yourself torn between sides.
           What really got me is the relationship between the two main characters. It's a romance novel in many ways, and it has the best relationship development I've ever seen, especially in YA Fiction. The narrative is in 3rd person and switches POVs between Kestrel and Arin to give a delightfully nuanced understanding of the situation; both of the developing relationship and of the obstacles keeping the lovers apart.

             It's an absolutely FANTASTIC read.
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