reubenalbatross's Reviews (521)

Another fab instalment of this series, and listening to them on audio is so fun. 

 

In particular, the voice Varma used for Diamanda was PERFECTION. 

 

I LOVED Casanunda. Obviously the easiest comparison is to Casanova, but for me he was giving pure Don Quixote vibes – the lying/bragging, being absolutely delusional, comedic but pretty useless. I thought he was spot on honestly. 

 

Also really loved how varied the plot was, and seeing the wizards and witches come together. 

 

Esme provided my favourite quote of the book – “All she could do… was be herself here and now, as hard as she could.”. Magnificent.   

This is definitely a very weird book. I understand why some people may not vibe with the implausibility of most of it, but for me that wasn’t my biggest gripe. I can usually overlook implausibility for a good story. 

 

One of my issues with it is that a lot of it was so insanely predictable. Especially Alex and Wren’s previous sexual ‘trysts’ and the ending as a whole, which I knew I wouldn’t be impressed with at about 80% through the book. 

 

However, even though it was really predictable at points, I was shocked by some things, and the tension throughout the book was really strong. It also really hit a nerve with the abuses of power idolised people can get away with. When people are desperate for a piece of you, they will put up with so much more than they should, just to get a taste. 

 

The dream sex scene at the banister was also one of the best sex scenes I’ve ever read. 

 

And then in contrast, there were some things which infuriated me. One being how absurdly dramatic Alex was about her past with Wren. She blacks out and/or vomits when she thinks about her, but all that happened was a minor injury and the friendship ending? Completely pathetic and unrealistic. 

 

Another was the ‘this is the only copy of your manuscript’ blackmail. They wrote the manuscripts on their LAPTOPS, obviously they’ll be more than just the one physical print out of it? Such a weak plot point that carried a lot of the conflict at the end of the book. 

 

And WHY THE FUCK would you read the ending of your novel at it’s LAUNCH EVENT???? Absolute nonsense, but written as if it isn’t anything out of the ordinary?? 

 

Even with all of this, the worst thing about this book by far is the gross and seemingly normalised sexualisation and sexual abuse of children. The plot of Roza’s first book includes two 12-year-olds, who shag both each other and grown men. It’s never once commented in the book that CHILDERN shagging GROWN MEN is bad, and in fact it seems to be almost idolised? The book is even described as “an early queer classic”. It’s actually pretty horrifying, and gives V. C. Andrews vibes. Basically everyone in the book is obsessed with this novel, and how it’s one of the ‘greatest of all time’, but never mention how problematic it is??? This is then re-enforced at the end of the book, when Wren says the novel taught her “that girls didn’t have to be sweet little creatures, that they could in fact be angry and dark and sexual”. THE CHARACTERS IN THE BOOK ARE 12 YEARS OLD!!!!! Utter disgrace. 

 

Aside from the above, I did have a pretty good time reading this, and if it weren’t for the weird inserts of child sexualisation I would be rating it higher. Very strange book, and also concerning that none of the BookTubers I’ve seen talk about this book mention the weird paedo vibes at all… 

***SPOILER TAG ISN'T WORKING - LOTS OF SPOILERS IN ALL REVIEW***

This book was such a mixed bag, and is definitely my least favourite of the series so far. 

 

Until the battle at Gramm’s hold (a good 400 pages in), the book was basically all just filler. There wasn’t anything happening apart from travel, tactic discussion, and skirmishes. In other books I wouldn’t mind this as much, but because Gwynne’s strengths are definitely in action scenes and twists, the filler wasn’t that interesting. His character work isn’t strong enough to keep me enthralled for that long. 

  

The one exception to this was the incredible tension he managed to create before the non-battle at Uthanden. It felt so eerie reading it, and the tension truly was palpable. 

 

I also didn’t enjoy Gwynne’s obsession with romance… Every character is pairing off, and every single couple is straight. There’s also a pretty unnecessary love triangle that starts to develop that I’m not a fan of. This is made worse by the fact that he’s clearly pretty shite at writing romances. They come completely out of the blue, and not a single one feels authentic, which is especially jarring seeing as he writes family and friend dynamics so well. Gwynne just seems to be including romances to add more tension and tragedy around possible deaths, but it doesn’t work because I don’t care about any of the couples. 

 

This made Fidele/Maquin’s sections particularly annoying to read. Maquin was one of my favourite characters in the first two books, but in this one he’s just been made into an idiot fawning over Fidele, going as far as to destroy a possible powerful alliance over her. And Fidele’s ‘trial’ for adultery was just weird. Their whole storyline just seemed to be a massive convenience for setting up plot points, and didn’t add anything to the reading experience, actually detracting from it at points.  

 

There are also some things that were mentioned briefly, apparently never to be touched on again. I know they’re probably leading to bigger things in the final book of the series, but I haven’t been left excited for answers, just annoyed by the lack of information. For example, Trigg’s bizarre behaviour – both saving and betraying people on the same side. We’re supposed to believe she’s been hurt by Gramm’s men enough to want them dead, but we’re never actually told why? It all seemed really weird and like Gwynne just fucked up her character arc, and made the weird escape/her misleading Ulfilas during the battle a confusing mess. There was also a point, either in this book or the last, where we’re told Corban’s dad wasn’t his biological dad, but it’s like this piece of information has been completely abandoned?? Corban didn’t ONCE have a thought about who his ‘actual’ dad is? The omission really started to get on my nerves. This could have been me misremembering something about that revelation, but obviously I don’t want to look it up in case I get spoilers… 

 

Another omission that annoyed me was that with all of Corban’s war planning/preparation, not one single person mentioned Veradis’ shield wall so they could figure out a way to combat it?? Towards the end of the book Coralen literally tells us that she remembered seeing his troops doing the shield wall in the past, but she never once brought this up to Corban??? Let alone any others from the rag-tag army who must have seen it. Absolutely wild. 
 
 

And while some of the betrayals were fun and made sense, Roisin’s really came out of the blue for me, along with Halion saying she’d tried to kill him in the past. But again, this could have been from me misremembering/forgetting something that was mentioned earlier in the story… 

 

Coming to the ending of the novel - the last chapter with Storm was obviously sad, but was also pretty gratuitous and unoriginal. It was obviously going to happen at some point, and ending the book with it felt almost cheap. 

 

I can also see from a mile off that the Ben Elim are essentially trying to take over the world in the same way the Kadoshim are, so I hope that isn’t meant to be a huge, dramatic reveal in the last book. And the seven treasures thing is starting to feel pretty gimmicky and kid’s treasure hunt-like, and I don’t understand why none of the ‘good guys’ who were escaping Drassil literally right next to the spear didn’t take it with them?? 

 

However, having said all this, I did enjoy my time reading the book overall. There were still really strong plot points, battles, reveals, and character work. 

 

One of the highlights for me was Ulfilas – he was a ridiculously chilling evil character. The way he thought was so creepy, and the part with the intestines at Gramm’s Hold was so fucking disturbing. He’s so rational, unemotional, and self-aware. He didn’t let anything distract him from the task at hand, unlike the majority of the ‘baddies’ in here who are irrational and stupid, always acting on emotions. RIP. 

 

I also really enjoyed seeing Veradis’ realisations throughout this book, and the mass breakout from Brikan was pretty cool. 

 

So overall, a good read, but by no means amazing. Hopefully all the groundwork I’ve waded through in this book will pay off in the last, which I am still very much looking forward to reading. 

Watson really is such a talented short story writer. The way he can purvey everything needed for so many stories with complex moral and scientific ideas in so few pages is outstanding. And they were all so varied, with distinct characters and writing styles. 

It is also a very racially diverse book, way more so than I’m used to reading in older sci-fi. Though some of the treatment of race definitely speaks to the time it was written. 

I was also pretty disappointed by his treatment of female characters throughout this collection, and the development of this can be seen from my breakdown of each story below. 

The star rating I’ve given this collection is a rounded down average of each stories’ star rating. I don’t think it deserves a full 4-stars with the problems it has, but I really did love the majority of Watson’s writing and ideas.  

 

The Very Slow Time Machine 

5 stars 

Fuck me that was good! A perfect mix of light humour and heavy existentialism, with a good smattering of barely intelligible jargon. 

 

Thy Blood Like Milk 

4.75 stars 

Oof, the deranged ravings of a lunatic, that then come to fruition? Love. 

I didn't love that the nurse was happy to get naked and present herself for sex the second the male character asked (hence the -.25), but it did somehow make sense in the setting. If this is the only time something like it happens in this collection I can excuse it. 

 

Sitting on a Starwood Stool 

5 stars 

Ew. Nice bit of sci-fi horror. 

Agoraphobia, A.D.2000 

2 stars 

What even was that? It didn’t make any sense, and not in a good way. 

 

Programmed Love Story 

4 stars 

Yeah, freaky. But also, the second time a woman has been mentioned in the collection, and this time she’s a soft, pliable woman who 'submits' herself to mind alteration and prostitution... Please give me one woman who isn't there just for sex. 

 

The Girl Who Was Art 

2.5 stars 

Not the very next story being about a woman who stands around naked for a job and has no autonomy, but OF COURSE really loves the job... If there were other stories about women in here who weren’t sexual objects it would be fine, and it was a pretty good story, but so far 3/3 woman have purely been sex objects for men. And the 4th woman of the collection is a wife who’s only there to serve male guests. 

 

Our Loves So Truly Meridional 

3.5 stars 

This was a really interesting premise - a take on a barrier appearing and cutting people off that I haven’t seen before. The end was pretty abrupt though, and didn’t make much sense. 

The misogyny isn't as bad in this one (no nakedness), but still the only female character is travelling a dangerous journey to be reunited with her male 'soul mate'. Women can be people by themselves, they aren’t only relevant when men are involved... The bloke in the story is making the journey just for the fun of it/out of pure intrigue, she is going because of love. Again, as an individual story this would be fine, but having seen the pattern form amongst the other stories, I can't only take it at face value. 

 

Immune Dreams 

4.75 stars 

This story had such an amazing dreamlike quality - muddled and insubstantial. AND, three whole woman who weren’t sexual objects, had their own careers, and weren’t only defined by the men in their life! Watson has somewhat redeemed himself with this one. 

 

My Soul Swims in a Goldfish Bowl 

4.75 stars 

Again, the atmosphere of this one aligned so well to the story being told. It felt detached and passionless. I didn’t even know what to make of the story, but it definitely made me a tad existential. And no problematic woman characters! Yay! 

 

The Roentgen Refugees 

4.25 stars 

This one hits very close to home, even 45 years after it was published. It almost had me believing in God for a sec, I really got pulled into it. BUT, the only woman in it, even though a scientist, was only categorised by her sexual attachment to her lover/partner... 

 

A Time-Span to Conjure With 

5 stars 

Ooof, freaky. It boggled the brain just the right amount. And there were women involved, but none problematically. 

 

On Cooking the First Hero in Spring 

4 stars 

Interesting, but I didn’t completely get it or vibe with it. 

 The Event Horizon 

1.5 stars 

If I ignored the glaringly problematic decision Watson made in this story, this would have been a great one to end the collection on. However, what was the FUCKING NEED for the main female character in a story all about being a sex slave to be barely 16??? So completely unnecessary. If she’d been 20, I’d have loved the story. Barely 16 is just gross behaviour from Watson. Yes, the excuse Watson gave was that they were desperate for conscripts, but he could have shown that in so many other ways that didn’t involve a child. 

And as the cherry on top, it also included a healthy dose of fatphobia, with one character’s only personality trait being ‘fat’. 

All this, couple with Watson’s dodgy takes on grown women throughout the collection, meant I finished the collection on a sour and disappointing note. 

First of all, the audiobook narrator for this had some SHOCKING accents, especially the one that was meant to be scouse… It really made it hard for me to get immersed in the story. 

There was a LOT of over explaining pretty obvious things in the book, which definitely held the writing back from being great. I noticed this especially when the ‘villains’ monologued, and it really took the impact out of what they were saying. If they’d left some things implied instead of being said outright, the scene would be way more effective. 

This book was also yet another instance of author’s not having any idea of basic outdoor safety, which really grinds my gears. They mention not being able to call 999 at one point because they didn’t have signal, which is WILDLY inaccurate. As long as there is reception for one provider (which there definitely would have been with how close to civilisation they were), you can call 999, even if you don’t have normal signal. In this instance, they look down at their phone to check if there’s signal, then don’t even bother to try ringing! And they’re the cops!!! 

Also, every time I heard the name Gabbie Henry, my brain immediately went to Gabbie Hanna. Not the book’s fault, but truly took me out of the truly every time it was said. 

I can’t really comment on the Downs Syndrome rep, as I don’t have experience of it, but it seemed ok to me? They did say a 41-year-old had the mind of a child, but I think that can actually be true in some cases? They did keep calling one of the characters with Down Syndrome physically ‘unfit’, which I didn’t love, as it seemed somewhat pointed. However, they definitely gave all three Downs characters their own personalities and independence/confidence levels, so were clearly not tarring them all with the same brush.  

All in all, this book was good to waste time with, but not much else. The plot wasn’t very interesting, the reveals didn't shock me, the writing was mediocre, and the god-damned narrator really needs to brush up his scouse accent. 

When I started reading this, I was ready to have a good time. The premise was interesting, and the first 80 or so pages were really intriguing. However, after the story settled, and I got past those first 80 pages, everything started to feel really flat. 

Apart from the main character, the characters were never fleshed out enough to feel real, so I couldn’t connect to them. This also made it doubly bad when we were introduced to a different version of the characters, as I was never quite sure where the differences lay apart from ‘good’ or ‘evil’. 

There are so many characters we’re meant to be terrified of, but as the reader we never see them do anything. We’re just told what they do second hand, so I never felt an impact when the mc was going through apparent emotional torture from their past actions. 

There’s also a huge amount of world building we are never given. In some books this would be fine, but as this one focusses so much on the mechanics of jumping, when essential information isn’t given to us it is so much more obvious. Like how could a full-on emergency bunker be made by the World Zero people on another Earth without anyone ever noticing?? Instead of being given the info we need, there's just pages and pages of detail about completely unnecessary things that don’t impact the story at all. 

The writing style is also very much all about telling, rather than showing. And the writing feels really disjointed in a lot of places – paragraphs, sentences, and sometimes even whole scenes don’t run on from each other, and it reads like chunks of the book were removed. I don’t believe this was the author’s intention, I think it’s just a badly edited book. 

Also, as I read on, the mc became more and more annoying. She makes almost exclusively awful decisions, and I couldn’t find any motivation to root for her. 

All in all, I don’t care enough to continue reading, and especially not enough to have to read my deadname every other page. 

Great premise, mediocre execution. 

The writing is too poor for me to continue this book. Walker is predominantly a romance author, and this reads like romance writing. I don't mind this kind of clunky/awkward writing in romances, but in fantasy where worldbuilding, description etc. is so important, it doesn't work. 

At first I thought that I was just being dumb when I kept having to read the same sentence over and over. Nope. It's the writing.

Also, I don't love that the author is a woman who seems to write exclusively gay male romances...

I enjoyed this creepy little story until the ending. I understood why Atwood wrote it that way, but I didn't like the idea or how it was done. 

First of all, the audio narration for this was fab! Completely lost myself in it, and for a single narrator Rawson did brilliantly at distinguishing the characters. 

This was a really good Nicci French, I found it very well-rounded. There was an interesting mystery, with some gruesome and nervy scenes, plus a really nice slice of life story. 

I was on edge so much of the time reading it – like when a chapter ended with Kit going to sleep at Will’s house, and I thought she was going to wake up locked in a basement or something. 

The reveals were also really satisfying. I got some bits before Kit did, but others were a complete surprise (though they still made sense in the context of the novel and felt realistic). 

I also really liked Julie and Kit’s friendship. They complemented each other in lovely ways, and pushed each other’s boundaries in a healthy way (for the most part). 

One note to end my review on – if you’re trying to quite smoking, don’t read this book. 

There is something about Broadbent’s writing that is just so much better than almost all romantasy I’ve read. She doesn’t fall into bog-standard tropes, and in most cases subverts them in an original or interesting way. If all romantasy was this good I’d be reading it all the time. 

I really liked that Lilith was a 30-year-old woman with her own life (science), not just a little naïve girl who needed saving by a big, strong man. I also really liked that she was sexually experienced before meeting Vale. Their first time wasn’t her first time - it was just two experienced, sex positive adults enjoying one another. 

Had some pretty nice autism rep too.