The Unbroken

This could absolutely have taken some bad, tropey turns but Clark managed to avoid them splendidly imo.

Take Luca, who could have been childishly good or cartoonishly evil. She struck a balance between ‘self-intrested' colonialist who doesn't hate the people she's colonizing but also isn't willing to give full sovereignty. The argument she makes for the Qazali to just wait until she gets power and ~then~ they'll receive basic human dignity, sorry about the people who'll die in the meantime, tho. That feels so painfully real.

And Touraine's constant struggle between the Sands, Luca, and the Qazali makes so much sense. Of course her loyalty would be split.

Did knock a point off because I really feel like the first 100 pages could have been condensed to some degree

Seriously, I'm mostly disappointed that it's a triology and book two isn't even out yet