soph (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sophia_sol) wrote2022-04-21 09:53 pm
sophia_sol) wrote2022-04-21 09:53 pm
Victories Greater than Death, by Charlie Jane Anders
This book is very good at being the kind of book it is, and I'm very happy for it, but unfortunately it's not my kind of book. Yes, another book read for the hugos! Yes, I somehow find it rewarding to read books I don't like in service of a greater cause!
Anyway this is a YA sci-fi adventure novel, with spaceships and daring rescues and attempts to save the universe and all that, and a group of ragtag misfits working together to fight evil against all odds. Also it's interrogating the idea of being a Special Chosen One. It does all these things well! But it's just not my thing.
I found it tedious, and the characters a bit one note, and I don't enjoy action scenes, and I just don't care about Chosen One narratives even when the point being made is that it's your actions and choices that define you, rather than what you were intended to be. Also it ends with a Big New Bad Thing being discovered to make you want to read the sequel. I hate when a Big New Bad Thing is introduced in the last pages of a book!
But you know what, I'm pretty sure that if this kind of book is your thing, you'll find it a fun read. It is very earnest about the things it's doing, which is charming, and Anders is a generally good writer! (I mean, I have yet to actively like a single novel she's written, but they're always good even if not my thing.)
Anyway this is a YA sci-fi adventure novel, with spaceships and daring rescues and attempts to save the universe and all that, and a group of ragtag misfits working together to fight evil against all odds. Also it's interrogating the idea of being a Special Chosen One. It does all these things well! But it's just not my thing.
I found it tedious, and the characters a bit one note, and I don't enjoy action scenes, and I just don't care about Chosen One narratives even when the point being made is that it's your actions and choices that define you, rather than what you were intended to be. Also it ends with a Big New Bad Thing being discovered to make you want to read the sequel. I hate when a Big New Bad Thing is introduced in the last pages of a book!
But you know what, I'm pretty sure that if this kind of book is your thing, you'll find it a fun read. It is very earnest about the things it's doing, which is charming, and Anders is a generally good writer! (I mean, I have yet to actively like a single novel she's written, but they're always good even if not my thing.)