yumdirt's Reviews (310)

Masterfully directed single perspective, and with seriously impressive prose to keep you floating along through a man's entire life. We're privy to all his regrettable errors, but never to the ones he himself doesn't realize (in time). Serong works real magic here. We're drowning in substances and past menmories and truly blinded by the nostalgic myopia an addict swaddles himself with. Gorgeous, really devastating work. It has this horrific yet subdued intensity that had me pausing at times to silently plead for an outcome realized, too late, wasn't coming. Fuck, this is good.

Very fun. Best so far, but it's not like it's a reward for "suffering" through the first two instalments! It's a slower but constant winding up in complexity and payoffs. Imagine a webbed network of plot and various elements at play, but shaped in a conical, tornado shape. If book 1 is at the bottom, this book 3 is right in the middle of the storm. We're in the suck-zone, no turning back. This does a wonderful job at peeling back layers and layers of mystery as time goes by and huge cataclysmic scenes unfold. This series' worldbuilding is excellent. Writing is decent, not great, to me. 

A hot dog is a perfect meal. Apart from the two leads being the most wonderful foils and magnetic forces of growth for each other, there is absolutely nutty attention to detail from Sullivan when it comes to tying all 3 of this world's series together. One cheeky and unnamed character tie-in here left me giddy and feeling genuinely rewarded for paying attention. There are empty spaces left between the Age series, this series (Riyria Chronicles), and the "core" Riryia Revelations and Sullivan treats those spaces as garden plots. All this worldbuilding, and it never feels crowded, muddled, or overbearing. These books always feel good to read, like a familiar hug, like seeing the last jigsaw puzzle piece snap into place. These books do frequently approach feeling like pastiche, "recycled" comfort fantasy media, but there is such a firm control and immense love on display here that's undeniable and unique. I think about Royce Melborn and Hadrian Blackwater more than some of my real friends.

The answer to the question of Theseus's ship would be a wasted breath if we didn't need to sail somewhere in the first place. A solid piece of evolving, fatalist sci-fantasy. It has impeccable "world"-building; it's as vast and lived-in as any Dune or Hyperion, but has the eminently readable, deeply personal gray areas of those Red Rising entries. Ruocchio has improved since the first book, but l'm not the first or last to say this. I think it's because Hadrian is no longer a naive shitstain disowned by his corrupt father, but now slowly becoming this mythical fiend of fate and blind luck. I NEED MORE OF THIS STORY. This has the coolest antihero/ villain-of-the-week I've read in a while. I enjoy all the stuffy politicking and the the cornucopia of good ol' Horrors pitted against humankind. Our protagonist acknowledges that he knows more human monsters rather than xeno, but he stands with his own people. It's a choice, and it's leading us on a wild ride.

Well done! A little bit of every sci-fi you've ever read, but it's uniquely greater than the sum of all those little recognizable tropes. If anything, this is structurally like a feudal low fantasy drama, with a starry-eyed, prodigal son waking up on a world in which he finds himself fighting to survive in, and subsequently climbing the ranks of its hierarchy with his rock-bottom learned empathy, his blueblood arrogance, and genius silver tongue. It has some interesting things to say about imperialism, class, linguistics, and I am a sucker for a flawed young protagonist. Hadrian is a simpering wet dog one moment and high opera aristocratic manipulator the next. My biggest gripe is the prose, ironically; Ruocchio writes with a gilded flourish - exactly as our messy space-dandy antihero would if he was telling us his life's story -  and I like the adherence to the voice. It's very characterized and feels right. But I felt certain simple rhetorical tricks being reused more than I'd like and the gestural details were really rinse and repeat with sighs, wide eyes, etc. Oh and the length is ROUGH. Pacing is slow, but the vast and patient setup and non-cliffhanger ending are refreshing tbh.
3.75/5, I will be continuing this series! 

I don't have much to say about this, but it's good. I'm aware this found a resurgence in popularity either because of or in tandem with a reprint. You'll enjoy this short read if you like a morose, calm, naive, and avoidant narrator who is observing various household pleasures and the post- (ambiguous)fallout of bunker societies and the decay of her female peers and within herself.