Herz des Imperiums

DNF - PG 131

Why?

Oh boy, have I got a lot to say.

First, you have to know that, currently, this book is billed as Ancillary Justice meets Reed, White and Royal Blue on Goodreads. Which were both also books I DNF'd. So, while I was uncertain about those comparisons, I went into this book with a lot of excitement because it's so popular but also because it sounded so good and I didn't really see how this book could fail for me. Yeah.

Okay.

I love fan fiction. It you see extended periods of time that I'm not reading anything or not making progress on what I am reading, that's likely because I'm reading fan fiction. On days I'm not reading books, I probably read an average thirty to fifty thousand words of fan fiction. A day, yes. So, I love fan fiction.

Knowing this book started out life as a fan fiction made me happy. Fan fiction inherently works well for me. This book, though, is all the worst bits of fan fiction. It's the bloated, unneeded word count, it's the plotless meandering, it's the underdeveloped everything. So to say I am disappointed in an understatement.

(I would also, in fairness, like to add that I heard someone say this formerly had life as a Star Wars fan fiction and I have never seen anything Star Wars. Being fair.)

I started reading this book and fifteen percent in, I'm already tapping my finger, wondering when something would finally happen. Now I've read over a hundred pages and, nothing does happen. Which, okay, I can tolerate that, I don't like it but I can tolerate it - if you give me something to sink my teeth into.

This book has nothing. The characters are... Honestly, the first word that leapt to my mind was ‘vapid.' They are devoid of real personality. They just are. Kiem is the charming one, Jainan is the quiet one - and I am firmly convinced that Jainan was being abused by Taam because that's one hundred percent how he reads to me. This is a side effect, I believe, of starting as a fan fiction. In fan fiction, we already know the characters. You don't have to take any time building them up because we know them and have at least a general understanding/idea how they would behave in a given instance.

Also, the descriptions of characters are borderline nonexistent. Once again, we know what characters in fan fiction look like so we don't need descriptions unless it' original characters. (This far into the book, the ‘couple' has been married for several weeks, the only physical description I found was Jainan having skin several shades darker than Keim. Or lighter. I can't remember now because it was only mentioned once.)

The world building is...world thrown around like they are supposed to mean something with no apparent rhyme or reason. I mean, I hate getting bogged down by authors and their ‘look at my awesome world building' but there's a difference between ‘did not show their work' and ‘did not do the work' and even if this book isn't, it feels like the latter. (Honestly, another symptom, I think, of being a fan fiction.)

Now let's talk about the sci-fi and romance of it all.

I love science fiction. I love queer romance. I tend to not love them when they are put together because my experiences have been more than lackluster. Usually when I read a sci-fi romance it quickly becomes a romance with a sci-fi setting. Which I hate. We have this amazing sci-fi world, and the author is more consumed with alien sex.

Le sigh.

This book, however, is not that. I don't know what it is, to be honest.

I'm happy that the romance is slow moving. (I love slow burn.) But it needs to move. To do that, the characters need to talk to each other. Which they are not. At all. They are making no effort to even be friends. I'm this far into a book with an arranged marriage trope and they are barely acquaintances. This is beyond disheartening. (Also, holy Batman, the liberal use of misunderstandings already. Just clear the air, talk, you useless boys.)

The science fiction aspect is some weird political murder mystery? I guess that's also supposed to be the plot? I don't really know and I am too far into this book to have no clear grasp on what the plot is. (Yes, romance could be the plot, but there isn't enough going on there, either.)

So, yeah. Over all, super duper disappointed. And I'm not wasting anymore time on it. (Just like I wouldn't if it really was a fan fiction because I have yanked the plug on more than one fan fiction that is just mindlessly meandering through the bloated word count.)