OH HAY THAR INTERWEB! I READ A BOOK!
Kind of.
Actually I’ve read six books so far this year. Technically five and a half. But whatever. Because of last year’s Y I NO READ ANY MORE whine, I’ve challenged myself to read 24 books this year (stopped short of a one-a-week challenge because I know myself). I’m doing well so far. Now my book queue is only 87 books long! D:
Servant of the Underworld by Aliette de Bodard
My rating: 1 of 5 stars
DNF. Sorry.
Strike one:
“The hunger in his eyes was palpable”
Unless you usually gauge mood by poking people in the eye then no, it wasn’t. Also when I tweeted it I had several people assume I was reading crappy erotica. That is not a good sign.
Strike two:
“Oh,” giggled another poorly-developed female character, “politics! I’m so glad I’m a woman and don’t have to think about that.”
Strike three:
Actually, there was no specific strike three. I just realised that I didn’t care any more. I was 44% of the way through, the main character had just had an encounter with a powerful divinity, everything was going horribly wrong… and I was completely cold.
I found the main character entirely unsympathetic. He does not converse, he bickers. He is hung up on his Parents’ Disapproval Of His Life Choices which is fine, everyone needs a backstory, but after the fifth flashback it began to get a bit tiresome. His only flaw (apart from being really annoying) is being Too Noble, as he refuses all help to Stop Any More People Getting Hurt. People still get hurt. He gets hurt, but he Nobly Struggles On Through The Pain. Ugh.
I just didn’t like him. And the focus is so heavily on him and what he thinks and what he understands of the situation around him that I just couldn’t bear it any more. In this case, the first-person narrative was stifling; I wanted to get more of a feel for the landscape and culture in which the story is set, instead of being trapped inside the brain of a single man. I wanted to know more about the other characters, to know why I should care about them, why the mystery needed to be solved. Unfortunately, I was disappointed.
So, sorry. Did not finish. Interesting premise, but executed in a way that completely lost me.
This might be the most perfect use of a picture of a cat saying “No” that I have ever seen. Thanks for taking one for the team, hehe. I’m reading “Vanity Fair” right now…and while I’m sort of meh about it and despise most of the characters (I think you’re supposed to, right?), it keeps dragging me back in.
Well, I wasn’t going to say anything about that tweet, but since you bring it up…
It’s too bad that the book didn’t work out, both for the fact that you had to endure all that before deciding to cut your losses and because a (good) book set in Aztec Mexico would have been a interesting change from all the fantasies I read set in one variant or another of medieval Europe. I’ll just stick with good fantasies set in well-used locales for the time being, thank you!