Coleman
Lots of really interesting ideas. Very difficult and confronting writing of the male characters which I found very emotionally affecting. I am glad nevertheless that it actually doesn’t seem to be totally essentialist radfem content, that there’s maybe space for men to be good raised in a different society.
Never read sci-fi with this much linguistics, and as a linguist it holds up fairly well.
The prose was serviceable. I don’t really see the point of the minor plot threads (perhaps this becomes more clear in the sequels?), which also led the book to end on a note I found a bit random and campy after a strong second-to-last chapter. I did really enjoy Michaela, though I thought she was going to have more elaborate politics than she ended up having. Relatedly, sometimes it feels like the character’s motivations or actions don’t make *that* much sense, but rather need to happen for the plot. A weak point was the way Nazareth acted when she arrived at barren house—I thought this should’ve been a really climactic moment but it felt like it came out of nowhere and was almost Mary Sue (despite the complexities of Nazareth’s character in other contexts). Like they kind of dropped the whole thread of why it was important for her to come?
Stepping back though, a lot of interesting and original ideas you couldn’t see anywhere else, packaged up in a surprising narrative that kept me wondering where it would go.
Lots of really interesting ideas. Very difficult and confronting writing of the male characters which I found very emotionally affecting. I am glad nevertheless that it actually doesn’t seem to be totally essentialist radfem content, that there’s maybe space for men to be good raised in a different society.
Never read sci-fi with this much linguistics, and as a linguist it holds up fairly well.
The prose was serviceable. I don’t really see the point of the minor plot threads (perhaps this becomes more clear in the sequels?), which also led the book to end on a note I found a bit random and campy after a strong second-to-last chapter. I did really enjoy Michaela, though I thought she was going to have more elaborate politics than she ended up having. Relatedly, sometimes it feels like the character’s motivations or actions don’t make *that* much sense, but rather need to happen for the plot. A weak point was the way Nazareth acted when she arrived at barren house—I thought this should’ve been a really climactic moment but it felt like it came out of nowhere and was almost Mary Sue (despite the complexities of Nazareth’s character in other contexts). Like they kind of dropped the whole thread of why it was important for her to come?
Stepping back though, a lot of interesting and original ideas you couldn’t see anywhere else, packaged up in a surprising narrative that kept me wondering where it would go.
