Josefine
Basically my personal utopia. Humans live in harmony with both nature and each other, technology has been re-evaluated and culled down to what actually makes our lives better, and people follow a profession that fulfills them. Also, as a tea fanatic myself, the idea of tea monks is awesome.
This is definitely the kind of feel-good book I needed right now. Though that doesn't mean there's no conflict! I really felt the personal struggle of the main character.
What's keeping me from giving A Psalm for the Wild-Built a 5/5 is that, to me, it was lacking the special it-factor. I don't have anything in particular that I didn't like, but at the end of the day, there also isn't much that I found to be outstanding.
Absolutely a lovely read that I would recommend to basically anyone, though.
Note: I did not finish this book; I dropped it after around 80 pages.
Even though I can appreciate what it's doing, I find it difficult to recommend Herscht 07769.
I think it's the kind of book that only really works for a very specific kind of person in a very specific kind of mood. Namely, someone who wants to read a deeply exhausting (in terms of style) and depressing (in terms of themes) novel.
In addition to that, I've got two major problems, one of which is more personal, the other is not.
For one, I am currently very much disillusioned with anything relating to politics. I am especially disappointed in and anxious about the rise of facism globally. This book directly addresses this issue.
This could have been a way for me to reckon with these feelings, but instead, I just felt a deep dread.
Secondly, I did not like the prose. While it was surprisingly easy to get used to, I don't see how this Herscht being written in a single sentence actually adds anything to it.
I could have seen an argument if the book was written like a stream of consciousness of the main character, which it often is. However, we also quite frequently get PoV's from different characters, which makes the experience very jarring and exhausting.
Additionally, the author (or translator) has to resort to a few tricks in order to make the prose work. As these are repeated quite often, the writing gets pretty repetitive. I can imagine this being better in the original language or something like German, but alas, I read the book in English.
While Acceptance didn't hit as hard for me as the previous two books in the series, I still loved it. I can definitely see how it could be the favorite entry for many people, as it is much more plot driven than the others and wraps up the trilogy quite nicely.
However, I personally much preferred the focus on a single main character in the previous books. Maybe I just read too much epic fantasy at this point, but I found the constant switching between PoV's to be pretty annoying.
It felt like the pacing hit a bit of a brick wall every time we got a switch -- which I can't actually back up with any examples because VanderMeer doesn't actually waste time with recaps at the start of new chapters. Thus, this must be more of personal preference thing, especially since I usually only read at maximum a chapter a day.
For me, it probably would have worked better if the stories were told one after another, rather than in parallel. But then we'd be talking about a very different kind of book. And I must admit that it's really cool to see such a radically shifting structure in a series.
Other than that, I honestly have only good things to say about Acceptance.
It delivers just the right amount of resolution to be satisfying whilst still keeping the mystery of Area X intact.
The character development and payoff from previously introduced characters was also very good, though VanderMeer did Control a bit dirty, even if his development is justified.
I absolutely loved Saul's PoV. The casual gay/lesbian representation in these books is really nice to see.
Absolutely wonderful ideas and story. I found the way this is written quite fascinating, as Ted Chiang utilizes unexpected uses of tense in order to communicate the core "gimmick" (which I won't mention to avoid spoilers). I love to see a medium used in a way that would be impossible on other mediums.
Which brings me to the film adaptation, Annihilation. For some context, I saw Arrival before I was even aware of this Novella and it's one of my absolute favorites. Thus, comparison between the two was inevitable.
While the two versions are quite different from one another and I'd definitely recommend both, I think Arrival is the better version.
Story of Your Life has, at least to me, a pretty large flaw: it is way too interested in the nitty gritty of linguistics. While this was a really interesting insight and perspective, it also distracts from what I actually enjoyed about the Novella. Namely, cooperation in the face of an alien "invasion", the aforementioned gimmick, and its repurcussions.
My first short-story (or any story) by Ursula K. Le Guin, and what a first impression it made!
It took me three attempts to actually get through it because the prose is just so incredible dense. But when it finally clicked, I was absolutely captured by the world she is she is crafting.
I absolutely loved how unconventional the description if this utopia ended up being. There is actually quite a lot of social commentary in here, especially about the technologies we rely on and whether they actually serve us. I didn't expect a story from the 70's to be so urbanist-pilled!
I already knew the rough outline of the story from some summaries, so I expected the twist to not hit as hard. But I was so, so wrong about that. In roughly half a page I went from awe-struck at the beauty of it all to devastated at the pure misery being described.
However, what was even worse to me was the way the people of Omelas rationalize this suffering. "This is a fair bargain", they tell themselves, safe in the knowledge that they are not the one having to bear the burden. "It's better this way, actually" -- pure copium.
In the western world, we partake in these kinds of rationalizations essentially on a daily basis, and this story forces us to reckon with that.
Authority truly blew me away. It may be the perfect book for me to have read in this particular moment.
The prose is absolutely amazing and quite poetic at times. I love how Jeff VanderMeer shapes his choice of word according to the greater subject at hand, like using "drink/wine related" vocabulary in a chapter where the main character is obsessed with the word "terroir", a term used when discussing wine.
The general vibe of the book is, unsurprisingly, very similar to Annihilation -- terrifying without being overtly scary, but also somehow beautiful. I actually found it to be far more terrifying than Annihilation, even though it has no right to be, given that Authority is primarily about burocracy -- with some light spy elements. I think think this is due to how very personal this book feels, especially when compared to its predecessor.
As someone who is currently struggling with their job and is seriously considering quitting, I found myself reflected in Control. He, too, tries to change his workplace for the better but ultimately fails due to inertia in the system. He, too, is haunted by his past mistakes and feelings of inadequacy. He, too, fears the thought of losing his agency, of becoming just another cog in a huge, inconceivable machine.
So maybe it is time for me to also take that leap of faith.
This is a difficult book for me to rate -- I usually rate books by how much they stuck with me / how much they have changed me in some way.
I don't think The Final Empire really has any big ideas that really stuck with me. While I consider it to be one of the best coming of age stories I've read and an incredibly good starting point into more "grown up" fiction, I wouldn't say its truly outstanding in any particular aspect (except the coming of age bit, of course).
The world is pretty interesting but also kind of shallow. The prose is boring but functional. There aren't that many characters and they don't feel incredibly deep or well developed. The plot is pretty good but doesn't truly stick with you. (These are qualities I would ascribe to most of Brandon Sanderson's works, actually).
However, both times I've read it, it has nonetheless struck a deep chord within me.
The first one was when I re-discovered reading as a hobby, prompted by my then girlfriend (now wife!). It was the first book that I got really swept up in, maybe ever but at least in years.
The second one was when I had just started transitioning. This time, I saw myself in Vin and it gave me some much needed strength and courage.
Thus, I cannot help but think of The Final Empire as one of the most important books to me.
