nachosorcheetos

It's a weird one. The book is two genres - scifi and romance. Or more accurately, it is romance with a scifi setting. Unfortunately, the romance was weak, and I was more interested in the actual time war, which made this a chore to read. I don't particularly mind reading love burgeon through letters. It's just that the letters were a bit ridiculous and took themselves and words and metaphors too seriously. It felt very high school. Very try hard. But it did not feel romantic. And I was not convinced that two could fall in love through these letters.

Also, the two protagonists were too interchangeable. It felt like one person but with two character designs. They both work for evil agencies. they're both the best at what they do, they both have powers. But they felt like essentially the same person. It didn't help that I kept confusing their names - blue and red; it was not enough of a differentiator.

Also, almost every character was female or took the form of a woman. At first, I thought it was a world of women, which is fine, but this was not the case. I'm not sure what the reasoning behind this stylistic choice is, but I could not figure it out. This is more of a note than a criticism.

The scifi elements were easy enough to understand. There were nice metaphorical elements and thought experiments. They both touched each other's lives before their met. At times it was a bit disturbing. I don't know if I misunderstood this, but the tech one kissed the nature one when the nature one was still being grown, which is kinda gross.

Oh well.

it's a tragic tale from start to finish. the story's beautifully written but incredibly heavy - probably not the kind of book you reread. the highs and lows of the book make it a very frustrating read.

This was an absolutely stunning read. I came across a review on Goodreads that said it was misogynistic & homophobic, and the more I read the book, the more this angered me. This was incredible work of fleshed out characters and stories and emotions. You see the world from the eyes of someone who you think is forgettable, and you slowly watch them reach the height of their potential, someone who is driven by the best traits of humanity - courage and love and empathy. Somehow, despite the poetic descriptions of Achilles, he eclipsed him. This is probably the first book I've read that made me cry. Yes, we can all shudder at the descriptions of barbaric acts of violence against women, but that does not make a book misogynistic. Use it as a reminder of how things used to be. My only gripe is sometimes the metaphors flew over my head - is that bad writing or is it my obtuse brain?

The description of mental illness got to me.
The side plot, however, did not.

My first comic book read - I really enjoyed it. While I'm neither Pakistani or Muslim, it was relatable to me as a South Asian.