simonator's Reviews (183)

Quite boring unfortunately. There are two plots, running in parallel, one in the past of one protagonist, and they're only connected in theme. That theme is coming to terms with being embodied in existence, with all the choice and lack thereof that comes with it. Principally not uninteresting, but the plot does not explore it in a very engaging way. Every story point can be expected a mile away.
Also not as evocative and rich in world building as the series' first instalment. 

Absolutely visceral. A great piece of modern worker's literature.

Sometimes, a paragraph ends with a tacky explanation of the analogy and symbology just employed, as if the reader was not to be trusted in uncovering the deeper meaning themselves. Other than that, the setting an conception of this sleek and comprehensive novella is as enchantingly gruesome as it is hauntingly beautiful; the factory steeped in blood, the river killed, the fish stinking, the distinction between man and cattle blurring. 

Begs to be made into a movie.

Gut-wrenchingly sad and beautiful. 
Avoids tragedy-porn while still looking at the abyss of human souls living through displacement. Somehow manages not to romanticise the Struggle and yet explore it deeply. At one point, a character erupts at the family's limited upper-middle class background of relative privilege, and lack of regard for the fate of the poorer living through similar experiences. The book does not manage or seek to absolve that, it's left to the reader of how much issue to take with that. There is a stange theme of women's perception of their own and each other's bodies. I can't decide on whether it's done in a way that's profound or cringe. In general, this work doe  not need to be ashamed taking its place alongside the list of important historical fiction written on Palestine.

B. Chambers'  hopeful brand of sci-fi is still coming into its own here. This story, like most others of the author, centres around the interpersonal relationships of its space-diverse cast who maneuvers not only space politics but also each other's needs and wants. In this world, people have by and large all the emotional tools at hand they need to deal with the intricate mental and social challenges they encounter cooped up in their ship, and generally approach things like well-adjusted loveable adults with no bad bone in their body. With the exception of the Corbin character, everybody seems to have undergone a intense education of therapy and has their impulses under control. That's sometimes sweet to read but also just very easy - how did they obtain these competencies? Are they just more evolved socially? The same goes for the plot; obstacles are encounters, dealt with, and solved, lickity-split. Things just work out. 

However, this story is very much intended to be just that, a wholesome, cute, cozy space opera. That's not everybody's taste, but as long as its executed well, nothing wrong with it. 

What does detract from the quality is that because all characters seem to be fluent in therapy-speak, their voices sometimes become blurred. even characters conceptualised to be as distinctive as Kizzy or Lovey or Pei remain somewhat interchangeable with the rest. Equally, the priorities of the world building are  a bitt off to me; the Author's main interest seems to be the social interaction of species, how they view and tolerate each other on a personal level. Hence, the plot also mainly follows episodically each crew member's respective background. But that realm of social interaction should be structured and co-determined by economic contexts, political constellations, or sociological trends. Those latter dimensions I found a bit lackluster. ((Also, in yet another installment in the literary genre of The Author's Barely Disguised Kink, there's just a weird amount of pages dedicated to alien sex. But hey, no judging here)).
Finally, the writing style is nothing to write home about, the wonder of space travel, the loss of a crew member, and encountering alien markets and home worlds does not really penetrate the pages - even though the ideas behind each stage are sometimes interesting (the Cricket moon? Awesome). This should not worry the reader, as B. Chambers evolves to become an excellent writer of prose in later works. 

Sometimes a modern reader must smile at the elemental sci Fi building blocks of this work, but it's both an exceedingly engaging read and window into its own time.
Written in 1908, it discussed with remarkable prescience themes of industrial development, overpopulation, class struggle, and climate change. Bogdanov's perspective as an early bolshevist rival to Lenin gives him a macro insight into the class-based, economic and social dimensions of human/Martian development where modern writers too often over-focus on individuals or pieces of technology (though Bogdanov exhibits a pronounced biased fondness for the roles of engineers and doctors and scientists and the like rather than of the proletarians, as the excelllent introduction of this edition previews). A worthwhile read for fans of history, sci Fi, and communism.

It's remarkable how enjoyable of a read this was, given that it is a long, repetitive court intrigue drama which essentially just consists of a long series of the protagonist emperor granting audiences to various people. The author asks the reader to remember a lot of made-up words for people, places, titles, and concepts. Unfortunately, the immersive pay-off is somewhat small, since Elven culture remains somewhat intangible given the limitation of the setting to the imperial court. One simply cannot put this book down for a while and pick it back up later, because one would loose the rough overview over the fantasy language gained through the tedious study of the glossary.
The realm's political issues that come up are enticing and hint at great world-building, but often are dealt with only superficially (e.g. the East-West conflict or the barbarians). Generally, it always feels like much more exciting things are happening to the people that the emperor grants audiences to, rather than to himself. Similarly, the protagonist's conquest of the court is a bit of breeze, really - the few stumbling blocks are deftly dealt with and everybody seems really well-intentioned. Weirdly, this makes for a unusually fun reading experience, although sometimes some more difficulties would've helped hooking the reader in more. The ending was abrupt and some relationships, like with Csevet,  were left hanging a bit. The dialogue feels snappy though and is very economic in its use. Star of the book is the well-done tale of character drama and personal growth. 

Sowohl Zusammenfassung als auch Lukàcs eigene Reflexion der Dialektik. Nicht bekannt genug und sehr zu empfehlen.

A thought-provoking window into a specific, under-ddiscussed country context that holds many lessons for Marxists and fans of neoliberalism alike. At times, its ponderings fall prey to a mild and understandable both-sides-ism, and I wish Ypi had been more generous with her adult self's reflections on left-right politics, instead of relegating this to her academic work. Often, I could not help but feel that her childhood memories had been idealised and polished, "literature-rised", perhaps. Nonetheless, every European reader, especially leftists, should feel rightfully challenged and inspired by this educational read.