Not feeling a white guy, old English story just now. (Loved the gayness though!)

An incredibly unique story with high aims, but it did loose steam and a purpose by the end (though maybe that’s on purpose as this was simply to be an epic and/or journey?) 

4.15 stars, rounded to 4

Immediate response? The book moved be so much and in so many different ways throughout that I was worried how it could end and feel complete. And it didn’t. I’m not sure if maybe I took too much of a break, but initial thought is not a fan of the ending but loved everything else. (Was turned off for a while after the retreat scene when I looked up the author and found out they were a man as the story was just so compelling. I remember generally some issues with the beginning, perhaps worrying it was just an exaggeration of the familiar. Commune section was very very long, and I wonder if it could have been shortened a bit to stick more to the point of whether freedom is freeing or confining)

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Having now read some other reviews that put my feelings into much better words than I can (punchy writing, entrancing decay, gendered nihilism) one thing is definitely the hopelessness (consumerism, no lasting resistance, etc) though I had been hoping for an answer to all of the problems. 

I’m curious on how I’d feel about this on re-read

Cute book, well written and well developed. I was more in the mood for an adult version rather than YA version but it was good all the same

I liked the idea of telling the usual epics in a different voice with a different perspective. 

I’m not sure if it was because I was getting annoyed with the narrator of the audiobook or what but the pacing felt a bit off. 

After reading other reviews, I think it might have been the narrator - he just failed to build tension where necessary, and made 12 year old boys sound like 30 year old men. 

Lovely quotes from this and I’m a sucker for a good queer story.

I also think the author did a great job and NOT shying away from the ugliness of war. 

Will definitely revisit this on my own. 

I’d actually give it a 3.85

Ugh I’m kind of confused on how I feel about this.

It took me a while to get through this, even as an audiobook. I think I restarted it 3 times and almost gave up at one point as I had no idea what was happening.

I enjoyed the twist, but like others was a bit annoyed it took the narrator so long to get it once it was so obvious.

Someone suggested that it would have been a good novella, and actually to that I would agree - it just didn’t need the lengthy descriptions of the halls when they ultimately had little intrinsic meaning.

I will give it a re-read some point soon as I feel that would give it a fair chance. 

Had its issues (political reductionism, female character development) but really enjoyed the read 

So I listened to about 3 hours of this 12 hour book, confused and annoyed as to why nothing made sense and felt very political. Realised it was book 2 in a series, so after having listened to the first one, I came back to this one in a mixed mood. 

I think, like others, I really enjoyed the scenes of Eric in Africa. (Apparently the author ended up being really pulled into the research and I think the passion shows) Perhaps that’s because that felt like a complete story, unlike everything else going on which was set up for book 3 (in a decent way). I felt like the discussions about technology were a little basic but are clearly set up so I’ll give the author the benefit of the doubt.

All in all, pretty decent and engaging enough for me to want to read the next book.

I’d give it a 3.9. Not an entirely new concept, the novella does ask interesting questions and proposes examples of how it works in this world. I didn’t have as much of an issue with the story jumping around as other did, though that may be because I was listening to the audiobook. I was a little confused as to why it was set in the 1920s rather than any other time as it didn’t really engage with the main characters being (I think it’s heavily implied) black during this time. I think it could do with a bit of finessing around the Harvey storyline but I got what it was trying to do and appreciate the depth in thought and meaning.