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sophia_sol) wrote2022-02-25 08:43 pm
sophia_sol) wrote2022-02-25 08:43 pm
The Kingdoms, by Natasha Pulley
Oh boy. Really not sure what to think about this one. There are many things about it that are brilliantly done, and up to halfway through the book I was absolutely in love with the book and the things it was doing. It's a historical fiction involving alternate history and time travel, and the way Pulley introduces this alternate world to the reader is beautifully done, and then the narrative kept on going to wilder and weirder places than I was expecting and I was loving every minute of it, and loving everything about these sad broken people who had been traumatized by war and by slavery. (and it does SUCH a good job of making it clear how horrible naval battles really were, instead of glorifying them the way historical fiction often seems to!) I especially loved the horrible painful sibling bond between Agatha and Kite, the way they've immeasurably hurt each other even though they love each other, or even because they love each other.
However. The emotional weight given to various aspects of the narrative seemed off to me, in places, and it meant that the second half of the book just started feeling more and more wrong to me. The death of Fred, and what it means about Kite as a person: the book makes a big deal about how dangerous and unstable Kite really is, but then....it's fine, he and Joe can have a happy ending and it's fine. Kite's fine! Or how long Joe spends not really thinking much about his daughter at all, and then all of a sudden she's his primary motivation and always has been? Without it being framed like Joe's been trying not to think about her because it's too distressing; it felt like the author just forgot to add in more references to Lily earlier. And compare that with Jem, who seems like he must not care at all about the wife and son he left behind, from how he behaved after he travelled to a different time. The abandoned and disappeared son is just completely unimportant to him or to the narrative as a whole! Plus Joe himself seems not very believably like an alternate world version of Jem, to me, from what we see of both of them.
Also, this is just a personal bugbear, but the fact that there's never any explanation given for the pillars and the time travel between them is irritating to me!
So it's a very compelling book with a fascinating world and characters, and I was totally drawn in through my whole read of this very long book, but also....I feel so dissatisfied having finished it, instead of feeling like "YEAH" about it, you know? It's really disappointing, especially since it had such promise!
I do adore what the title of the book is doing though. It seems at first blush to be referring to the different kingdoms/versions of reality that exist, but it turns out to ALSO be referring to the crew from the ship the Kingdom, who are pivotal to the narrative. Love this.
However. The emotional weight given to various aspects of the narrative seemed off to me, in places, and it meant that the second half of the book just started feeling more and more wrong to me. The death of Fred, and what it means about Kite as a person: the book makes a big deal about how dangerous and unstable Kite really is, but then....it's fine, he and Joe can have a happy ending and it's fine. Kite's fine! Or how long Joe spends not really thinking much about his daughter at all, and then all of a sudden she's his primary motivation and always has been? Without it being framed like Joe's been trying not to think about her because it's too distressing; it felt like the author just forgot to add in more references to Lily earlier. And compare that with Jem, who seems like he must not care at all about the wife and son he left behind, from how he behaved after he travelled to a different time. The abandoned and disappeared son is just completely unimportant to him or to the narrative as a whole! Plus Joe himself seems not very believably like an alternate world version of Jem, to me, from what we see of both of them.
Also, this is just a personal bugbear, but the fact that there's never any explanation given for the pillars and the time travel between them is irritating to me!
So it's a very compelling book with a fascinating world and characters, and I was totally drawn in through my whole read of this very long book, but also....I feel so dissatisfied having finished it, instead of feeling like "YEAH" about it, you know? It's really disappointing, especially since it had such promise!
I do adore what the title of the book is doing though. It seems at first blush to be referring to the different kingdoms/versions of reality that exist, but it turns out to ALSO be referring to the crew from the ship the Kingdom, who are pivotal to the narrative. Love this.
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This really seems like a Pulley Thing: three times is a pattern! Well, I feel vindicated in not picking this one up. Sorry it was a frustrating experience!
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