BulbasaurusThe7th

I quit a third of the way in when they didn't even start their way to the small, angry planet. Yes. They are doing shopping at a market planet and a third of the book is already gone. If that tells you anything about the speed here then I'm happy I could help.

Here we have a space ship where a bunch of different creatures (though mostly humans) live together and do abso-fucking-lutely nothing interesting whatsoever. They get a new clerk and that's cool. I suppose?
So why did I hate this book so much?

This story is Tumblr and The Double Standards, The Novel. I doubt anyone has ever created something so kitchy and overly sweet while also being such a piece of shit deep down. This book manages to hit you in the head with the most forced positive sensitive snowflake shit while also being so incredibly two-faced it made me retch. I can explain it all through examples.

- This crew is a big family. They love everyone, they take in everyone, from feathered lizard creatures to humans with physical issues to one of the last members of a dying race that looks like (and I quote) ‘pudding with legs'. How quaint. They also have a single white man on the ship they hate and every single time he shows up everyone gets visibly disgusted by him. Is he nice? Nah. Would I be nice if my OWN CAPTAIN had self-professed issues with getting used to the sight of white people? Fuck no.
- Humans are constantly said to be the lowest of low idiotic pieces of inconsequential shit. Cool. They can do their shit in the galaxy but like... YUCK humans. At the same time Rosemary, the clerk has to think about her privilege because her family is rich. She literally thinks she is ashamed of having privileged ancestors because she had never eaten a certain type of “commoner” food.
- The feather-lizard types are constantly having orgies left and right while also don't give a shit about their offspring, which is considered to be a beautiful, colourful, diverse culture that everyone has to accept and love, Rosemary even repeatedly scolds HERSELF for not being automatically super into it, but humans are treated like total idiots for being monogamous or even just not wanting their long time sexual partners to die a violent death.
- It's horrible to call a space-feather-lizard a lizard even though it is a very mild insult, but repeatedly stealing others' personal hygiene tools they have paid for with their own money because they wanted to take care of their own specific needs is UWU cutesy quirky.
- Doing your job high out of your fucking mind while the life of people depends on you is cool, but not wanting to partake in said drug use makes you an asshole.

Honestly, I absolutely can't stand the fact that this book lacks any form of self-aware thinking when it comes to its own biases that are hiding behind this bullshit Care Bear glitter world. Anything human is automatically hated, anything alien, even when it's not at all nice or kind is magical and lovely. But hey, tolerance, UWU.
The issue of this is not helped by the god awful dialogue, absolutely brought to the highest level of the character Kizzy, who is this hyperactive, annoying ass mechanic. She sounds like a 12-year-old girl on Tumblr.

I have no idea where this book ends up, but if I have to suffer through one more page of Rosemary self-censoring her own thoughts that weren't even bad, just kind of surprised or confused because every fucking alien species of psychos is magically superior and wonderful just because Becky Chambers wanted us to feel like living a life that is considered normal by real world society is bad I am going to scream.
This thing is preachy, treats its reader like an idiot and does things just because being quirky without reasons is so in this season. Also, social constructs. I have heard that's a good buzzword, not like the stupid habits of aliens aren't as much of social constructs as actually not letting your fucking kids die is, but hey. Humanz R doodooheads, lulz.

I do not recommend this to anyone.

So I finished this series and I would like to talk about it as a whole for a bit, because I believe it totally deserves more attention than it has gotten. The thing about Jim Butcher is that I find he writes such approachable, human characters. In some circles he is treated like a literary criminal, who is lowly and offensive and just generally not okay whatsoever. At the same time... I love what he does. I love how during his works his characters become more than just paper thin things he moves for fun, because they are fun ans quirky, they have strong personalities, they have interesting connections and stories. Maybe they are not always the flattering specimens who will make you feel like you idealised fantasy self (which I see as a trend nowadays, especially with certain groups, where every character has to be the most idealised, positive example). I kind of love that. So Butcher, once again, wrote a series that felt welcoming and familiar, while still action-packed and fun. Because there is no shame in fun, you do not have to read books that are a struggle to get through, just for some sort of an intellectual bragging right. Unapproachable writing doesn't mean it's good writing. Here we had a story that is a perfect gateway drug for history lovers into fantasy, incorporating the idea of an ancient Roman society getting to a place with all kinds of nature spirits called furies, which they have learnt to work with and ultimately use to extend their own powers. After a few centuries of such life, they are being attacked by the vord, mind controlling, vicious bug monsters of a hivemind, lead by queens with crazy powers. The protagonist, Tavi is a boy who goes from a furiless nobody to become the first lord of their home, Alera and this is the end of his journey through becoming the leader of a country he needs to save as his first move to even have something or someone to lord over. So here is the elephant in the room; this is nothing like Mr. Butcher's Dresden Files. Tavi (or Gaius Octavian, because cool Roman names) is not at all like Harry. He has a completely different kind of strength, one he achieved through constant good decisions, always using his wits to achieve respect and to become an esteemed member of his society. He is not at all like the adorable bonehead with a tendency of powering through as his ass gets kicked in all kinds of ways again. Actually... Tavi kind of feels like the opposite of Harry. Hell, social interactions and human relationships come naturally to Tavi, which... we can't say about the chronic loner Mr. Dresden. It's also written in a completely different way. There is less humour, much less of the quirky crazy time of t-rexes running around and polka music and apprentices with coloured hair at horror conventions. Which is fine, because we are given more political intrigue. More subtle social workings, a completely different way of life, a whole different magic system. Aaaaand it's awesome. I would definitely recommend this to everyone who wants to read fantasy that has a bit of a different flavour, something extra. Of course most will still associate the name of Jim Butcher with the style of Dresden Files, but I find he is much more versatile than that, through this series and his new [b:The Aeronaut's Windlass 24876258 The Aeronaut's Windlass (The Cinder Spires, #1) Jim Butcher https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1425415066s/24876258.jpg 24239884].

This must be cool, like the Dresden Files, right? It must be, I swear it is going to be awesome like that.
Spoiler: it really isn't.

October Daye is a private detective and half-fae, she lives with her boyfriend and their young daughter, until she gets caught by the person she was following. She doesn't die, though, but gets turned into a koi fish in a park pond for 14 years, until she turns back. Her family doesn't know about magic, so they think she just left, so they want nothing with her. Then a fae boss lady she knows gets murdered and she needs to solve the crime.

You know, by that description Toby probably sounds tough, right? She sounds like a cool person, someone who can stand her ground and just do her shit. I have bad news, she isn't. Toby Daye is pretty much an idiot who doesn't even seem to have a defined personality. One moment she says she has a hard life and was forced to be super though, the next she makes mistakes that make me think she deserves it all for not learning from anything.
Pert of the story is about her ex-bf, who is basically a scary, evil Peter Pan for the half-breed children. Toby goes on long tangents about how he is totally abusive and their relationship was unhealthy and just wrong. What does she do then? Fucking goes to him and sleeps with him because he was nice for 5 minutes. She is not some victim here, she actively makes her own life miserable through sheer stupidity.
But now that we are talking about the men around October we have to discuss that they were all her lovers or flirt like crazy with her. No, honestly, in this one book she has her baby daddy, her evil ex-bf, her nice ex-bf and then also this cat guy who haaaates her, but he is hot and flirty. Do we really need more “I'm so nothing special” female characters who have a horde of male underwear models fighting for their attention? Do we?

The other thing undefined about Toby is her worth. We are told half-human fae types are considered lowly and crap, basically not really taken in by the fae and not suited for living as humans because of their abilities. On the other hand she is connected to all the freaking people. She has her liege, who is super cool, her ex-bf, the lady who got murdered, she is a knight, she solves supernatural cases, she has other friends and such. Honestly, it doesn't really feel like she is in such a bad position when she has extremely powerful people on her side.
She also looks down on said people. Except for the ones who do her bidding, of course.

It's all written in a weird way as well. So lets just imagine someone who is a mother figure to you gets kidnapped and you can't save her. How would you describe her? I have a feeling that “kind and the most egalitarian person ever” is not the way. Egalitarian is cool, but not the way you describe someone whose loss caused you such sorrow, eh? Or if someone around you gets murdered saying “they breached her privacy and murdered her” sounds stupid. Those two things ain't the same kind of heavy. Again, I don't understand why the author made the specific choices when she was writing the book in first person, this is not how a normal human being thinks.
Then again, she seems to have a lot of faux-poetic, melodramatic thoughts. Now of course this is a first novel, which explains a lot, but where Harry Dresden is kind of charmingly goofy in his own first few, kinda clunky books... Toby is more teenage fanfiction.

I'm not saying this can't be okay later on. Maybe it is, I've seen weirder things before, but this first book is not particularly convincing. I don't like the protagonist, the lore is about fae which aren't my favourite fantasy characters, the prose is not at all brilliant, the supporting characters act like Toby is some heavenly perfect creature.
I will most likely read more of it, though. Maybe I'm just not ready to accept that this series is so uninspired and sucky. I would like to like it, to have another fairly light series of fun action and urban fantasy. So I will give it another chance, maybe a few more. For now I'm not sold. But for that Toby needs to grow a freaking spine and stop being such a plain ass nobody who is treated like solid gold.

Good night and let me take a Daye off!