Jurjen
First book I DNF in 6 years.
Almost every character in the story is motivated by their sexual lust, which for a significant part consists of inflicting sexual abuse.
Chapter 1: extended and explicit rape which is somehow framed as a positive experience for the victim.
Chapter 2: "consenting" sex but the sex is used to make a character stop talking as they are trying to make the other person stop doing something else that might be bad. I count that as sexual abuse.
Chapter 3: Once I read the names of the 2 characters it featured, i thought to myself "oh neither of them are mainly driven by sexual lust right?" Then the first paragraph, it frames the content of that chapter as character A threatening to rape character B in the unholy mansion of rape and sexual abuse.
The motives of a vast majority of the cast is ENTIRELY one-note, and these motives are expressed identically. Furthermore, the general personalities of most characters is just non-existent. Overall I think the character work is super weak.
I also think Palmer makes very poor use of the pretty interesting worldbuilding elements she came up with. The 25th century is a stateless society, and instead people volunteer for "hives" based on what philosophy is dear to them. Instead of exploring these different hives substantively, essentially NONE of them have any substance, and instead they exist to give the autocratic leaders of the hives power. We then follow only the decisions of these leaders as per Great Man Theory, and completely ignore the systems and institutions of the hives.
Also just don't fuck with mycrofts narrative voice. He essentially narrates the events in the story as though he's from the 19th century. And yea a lot of the characters revere the enlightenment era (their sexual abuse building is stylised after 19th century parisian culture or w.e), but I just don't see what it adds or what the point is. I just found it very grating and intrusive.
In short, basically every element of the story repulsed me on some level, and I didn't really like any part of it. I see a lot of people consider this series thought-provoking, and the only thought these 54 pages provoked in me were "I wonder if someone is getting sexually abused in the next chapter", and then in every one someone did. My bad for giving b1 4 stars/a 7.75. It definitely wasn’t that good, I was looking through rose-tinted glasses.
Unlucky I already own b3 and b4.
First book I DNF in 6 years.
Almost every character in the story is motivated by their sexual lust, which for a significant part consists of inflicting sexual abuse.
Chapter 1: extended and explicit rape which is somehow framed as a positive experience for the victim.
Chapter 2: "consenting" sex but the sex is used to make a character stop talking as they are trying to make the other person stop doing something else that might be bad. I count that as sexual abuse.
Chapter 3: Once I read the names of the 2 characters it featured, i thought to myself "oh neither of them are mainly driven by sexual lust right?" Then the first paragraph, it frames the content of that chapter as character A threatening to rape character B in the unholy mansion of rape and sexual abuse.
The motives of a vast majority of the cast is ENTIRELY one-note, and these motives are expressed identically. Furthermore, the general personalities of most characters is just non-existent. Overall I think the character work is super weak.
I also think Palmer makes very poor use of the pretty interesting worldbuilding elements she came up with. The 25th century is a stateless society, and instead people volunteer for "hives" based on what philosophy is dear to them. Instead of exploring these different hives substantively, essentially NONE of them have any substance, and instead they exist to give the autocratic leaders of the hives power. We then follow only the decisions of these leaders as per Great Man Theory, and completely ignore the systems and institutions of the hives.
Also just don't fuck with mycrofts narrative voice. He essentially narrates the events in the story as though he's from the 19th century. And yea a lot of the characters revere the enlightenment era (their sexual abuse building is stylised after 19th century parisian culture or w.e), but I just don't see what it adds or what the point is. I just found it very grating and intrusive.
In short, basically every element of the story repulsed me on some level, and I didn't really like any part of it. I see a lot of people consider this series thought-provoking, and the only thought these 54 pages provoked in me were "I wonder if someone is getting sexually abused in the next chapter", and then in every one someone did. My bad for giving b1 4 stars/a 7.75. It definitely wasn’t that good, I was looking through rose-tinted glasses.
Unlucky I already own b3 and b4.