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frasersimons 's review for:
The Burning God
by R.F. Kuang
4.5 rounded up.
Woof. Okay, so, the ending is *perfect*. I think the author does a great job at capturing the nuances of war and trauma and the nature of power, both god-like, non “realistic” magical/mystical power and institutional/social power, being a force that corrupts. Not simply in terms as you learn about it in fantasy tales and their roots: power corrupts and is bad, but let me show you exactly how, using real world examples. This dresses moral absolutism down to the damn quick. I loved that about it. This is a very grim tale that manages to constantly get darker. This serves the story very well and further underlines the real world correlations. It’s so unlike western cannon and normal fantasy, and that’s a major plus for me.
I absolutely loved what happened with the Revolution and how it affected all of the characters. It’s an interesting commentary on What If, historically, in regards to what happened in China. I don’t want to give to much away. But it’s very much a battle of ideas/ideologies. There’s a lot of interesting things happening with this series and I feel like what it’s trying to do is so different and ends up all the more compelling for it. It makes you feel uncomfortable and think about culture and (ultra) nationalism and racism/prejudice. Mind you, I don’t think it’s a perfect accounting of these hard subjects, but the author is obviously genuinely trying to have a nuanced discussion piece, and it succeeds at doing so. It’s effective in getting you to think about things that are normally very romanticized in western books, at the very, very least.
The only real criticism I have of this is just that it drags a lot more than the second book. A lot is pretty much always happening, however, the decent that is this book feels slow because it’s just thoroughly demoralizing to read. Theres no beat to let things breath and it is a grind sometimes. There is no winning. War is just desolation. It’s a lot sometimes. I also feel like this maybe could have been a really tight duology. There’s some retreading of themes that makes some parts feel overwritten. So, all in all just a slllllight little .5 tick down, but rounded up anyways.
Woof. Okay, so, the ending is *perfect*. I think the author does a great job at capturing the nuances of war and trauma and the nature of power, both god-like, non “realistic” magical/mystical power and institutional/social power, being a force that corrupts. Not simply in terms as you learn about it in fantasy tales and their roots: power corrupts and is bad, but let me show you exactly how, using real world examples. This dresses moral absolutism down to the damn quick. I loved that about it. This is a very grim tale that manages to constantly get darker. This serves the story very well and further underlines the real world correlations. It’s so unlike western cannon and normal fantasy, and that’s a major plus for me.
I absolutely loved what happened with the Revolution and how it affected all of the characters. It’s an interesting commentary on What If, historically, in regards to what happened in China. I don’t want to give to much away. But it’s very much a battle of ideas/ideologies. There’s a lot of interesting things happening with this series and I feel like what it’s trying to do is so different and ends up all the more compelling for it. It makes you feel uncomfortable and think about culture and (ultra) nationalism and racism/prejudice. Mind you, I don’t think it’s a perfect accounting of these hard subjects, but the author is obviously genuinely trying to have a nuanced discussion piece, and it succeeds at doing so. It’s effective in getting you to think about things that are normally very romanticized in western books, at the very, very least.
The only real criticism I have of this is just that it drags a lot more than the second book. A lot is pretty much always happening, however, the decent that is this book feels slow because it’s just thoroughly demoralizing to read. Theres no beat to let things breath and it is a grind sometimes. There is no winning. War is just desolation. It’s a lot sometimes. I also feel like this maybe could have been a really tight duology. There’s some retreading of themes that makes some parts feel overwritten. So, all in all just a slllllight little .5 tick down, but rounded up anyways.