I got a bit bogged down in the middle with the schooling and everything, where it felt like I myself was going to Babel - but that's not a mark against the book I just realized I'm not super into academia-focused novels.

I will also say it's absolutely INSANE to me how two completely different series has, essentially, the same exact ending. I don't even mean that in a bad way, it just blew my mind to see the similarities between this novel and The Poppy War trilogy, especially with it having the exact same ending.

RF Kuang likes her themes of "this issue is culturally wide and run by powers bigger than you could imagine and can't be solved by one person, so they won't" and I appreciate that tbh. It's honestly a breath of fresh air compared to some fantasy novels that tackle Really Hard Issues with the entire society and then just, somehow, solve them with minimal effort.