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sophia_sol) wrote2015-06-16 09:34 pm
sophia_sol) wrote2015-06-16 09:34 pm
Black Blossom, by MCA Hogarth
Gosh, what an interesting book. And like, it's not actually a very plotty book but I'm pretty sure I have to put everything I have to say behind a spoiler cut.
It's... how to begin. It's a book about not-quite-first contact between humans and an alien species, told from the alien species' perspective. By which I mean that it is quite explicitly a story told by an Ai-Naideri to a human audience. Which means it's absolutely full of explanations about this alien culture and I love itttt.
It was a bit of a slog getting started. It's the sort of book that is absolutely stuffed full of made-up words, and when I started this book for the first time I just had no patience for that. But I got over it and when I tried again I found myself interested enough to keep going, and I'm so glad I did.
It's a slow, philosophical sort of book, but it's also a far more personal story than that makes it sound. Our viewpoint character, Ferren, is sent on an errand by the Emperor and the book is, more or less, about the (deep, close, and nonsexual!) relationship that forms between Ferren and the object of his errand, the priest of Shame. But also about Ferren's relationships with other people! It's a story about a person who has been too much alone being brought back into community - yesss good.
A recurring theme throughout the novel is the variations on the story of the broken pot. The story, only a few paragraphs long, is told over and over again, but each time with a different focus, a different point, a different conclusion to be drawn from it. I thought this was a really effective way of showing all the ways one can think about brokenness - and this is, of course, relevant to our main characters, who are each in their own way somewhat broken.
The one thing I'm not a fan of is Shame's rape backstory, and I'm not sure how I feel about the more violent Corrections in general. Idk. I mean, on the one hand, the Ai-Naider ARE very clearly quite different from humans, so although those Corrections from a human pov sound like a terrible idea that doesn't mean it's not okay for the Ai-Naider. But from the Doylist perspective, it is a book written by a human for humans and I don't like it.
At any rate, that's just one minor point in a book that overall was very much up my alley. I loved the characters and their relationships with each other, I loved this exploration of an alien culture, I loved their perspective on humans, and on how they thought humans probably would see them, I loved the philosophizing and the love and the caring. A great book.
It's... how to begin. It's a book about not-quite-first contact between humans and an alien species, told from the alien species' perspective. By which I mean that it is quite explicitly a story told by an Ai-Naideri to a human audience. Which means it's absolutely full of explanations about this alien culture and I love itttt.
It was a bit of a slog getting started. It's the sort of book that is absolutely stuffed full of made-up words, and when I started this book for the first time I just had no patience for that. But I got over it and when I tried again I found myself interested enough to keep going, and I'm so glad I did.
It's a slow, philosophical sort of book, but it's also a far more personal story than that makes it sound. Our viewpoint character, Ferren, is sent on an errand by the Emperor and the book is, more or less, about the (deep, close, and nonsexual!) relationship that forms between Ferren and the object of his errand, the priest of Shame. But also about Ferren's relationships with other people! It's a story about a person who has been too much alone being brought back into community - yesss good.
A recurring theme throughout the novel is the variations on the story of the broken pot. The story, only a few paragraphs long, is told over and over again, but each time with a different focus, a different point, a different conclusion to be drawn from it. I thought this was a really effective way of showing all the ways one can think about brokenness - and this is, of course, relevant to our main characters, who are each in their own way somewhat broken.
The one thing I'm not a fan of is Shame's rape backstory, and I'm not sure how I feel about the more violent Corrections in general. Idk. I mean, on the one hand, the Ai-Naider ARE very clearly quite different from humans, so although those Corrections from a human pov sound like a terrible idea that doesn't mean it's not okay for the Ai-Naider. But from the Doylist perspective, it is a book written by a human for humans and I don't like it.
At any rate, that's just one minor point in a book that overall was very much up my alley. I loved the characters and their relationships with each other, I loved this exploration of an alien culture, I loved their perspective on humans, and on how they thought humans probably would see them, I loved the philosophizing and the love and the caring. A great book.