Sudden Death

I found this book hard to read and just plain confusing. Each “chapter” is very short, often just one or two pages, and jumps back and forth between different people in different locations. There were quite a few people mentioned and I found it difficult to keep up with them all (maybe I'm just dumb? lol). I ended up skimming through the last third of the book cause I just wanted to get it over with.

I was originally going to give it a 1 star rating but TBH there were some interesting historical tidbits in there, so it wasn't all bad!

I found this book hard to read and just plain confusing. Each “chapter” is very short, often just one or two pages, and jumps back and forth between different people in different locations. There were quite a few people mentioned and I found it difficult to keep up with them all (maybe I'm just dumb? lol). I ended up skimming through the last third of the book cause I just wanted to get it over with.

I was originally going to give it a 1 star rating but TBH there were some interesting historical tidbits in there, so it wasn't all bad!

This book broke something in my brain (maybe in a good way?) and it has some of the most beautiful and haunting prose I've ever written. But I constantly wanted to quit reading throughout the first half, which I can only describe as constant confusion.

It's the longest I've taken to read a book in my adult life (without DNFing) and every time I tried to stop reading, the writing and storytelling drew me back in.

Sudden Death kind of defies summary and it's impossible to describe. Around the 50% mark, the book started to come together (as much as it can) and speed up — I found it a lot more engaging as some of the threads began to weave together. The ideas and perspectives were fascinating and I really admire both the author and the translator's ways with words.

Despite what a deeply confusing time I had, I do plan to read You Dreamed of Empires!