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rachaelwho's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
I'm always curious how it happens that unusual turns of phrase get overused in a book. In a recent one, "charnel" stuck out like a sore thumb. Nobody says "charnel," how did no one notice that book using it every five pages? There were a few of those "really? Again? No one heard this?" phrases in this one. It also seemed awfully white to not notice how constantly using "black bodies" to describe crows in a book from a white author with a white voice actor for a white-coded narrator might sound if you aren't white.
This one dragged in some places. The second act was rough and repetitive. We get it-- ST wants to protect Dee and wants her to be what his image of a perfect human is, and is controlling and making her feel bad about herself. You can stop beating us over the head with it. There were a few too many close scrapes & death scares that had no payoff, like a soap opera. The emotional parts were sometimes really touching, and sometimes undermined by a number of things-- removing the stakes was a big one. There is a literal deus ex machina that I thought was actually pretty funny and was willing to hand to her, until it turns out to be pointless and the scene just goes on and on and on... Where are the stakes? There wasn't much control over tension and release.
The SA & reproductive agency motifs seemed sort of half-baked.
I appreciated the author's gesture toward an important anti-eco-fascist point: not all civilizations have been a "cancer" on the planet, over- harvested its resources carelessly, and lived out of balance with the ecosystem we're actually all a part of. When we treat "nature" and "animals" as somehow nobler and more pure than humans, putting nature in a false dichotomy with humans, we're telling on our (capitalist, patriarchal, colonizing) selves. Not recognizing humans as part of nature is what got us into this mess.
The voice actor for the audio struggled with a lot of the accents, I cringed at the vague, cartoony "Latin" voice many of them devolved into.
This one wasn't bad, I enjoyed things about it, but I don't know if I'd go out of my way to recommend it. Worth a shot if you liked the first one. Quick read.
This one dragged in some places. The second act was rough and repetitive. We get it-- ST wants to protect Dee and wants her to be what his image of a perfect human is, and is controlling and making her feel bad about herself. You can stop beating us over the head with it. There were a few too many close scrapes & death scares that had no payoff, like a soap opera. The emotional parts were sometimes really touching, and sometimes undermined by a number of things-- removing the stakes was a big one. There is a literal deus ex machina that I thought was actually pretty funny and was willing to hand to her, until it turns out to be pointless and the scene just goes on and on and on... Where are the stakes? There wasn't much control over tension and release.
The SA & reproductive agency motifs seemed sort of half-baked.
I appreciated the author's gesture toward an important anti-eco-fascist point: not all civilizations have been a "cancer" on the planet, over- harvested its resources carelessly, and lived out of balance with the ecosystem we're actually all a part of. When we treat "nature" and "animals" as somehow nobler and more pure than humans, putting nature in a false dichotomy with humans, we're telling on our (capitalist, patriarchal, colonizing) selves. Not recognizing humans as part of nature is what got us into this mess.
The voice actor for the audio struggled with a lot of the accents, I cringed at the vague, cartoony "Latin" voice many of them devolved into.
This one wasn't bad, I enjoyed things about it, but I don't know if I'd go out of my way to recommend it. Worth a shot if you liked the first one. Quick read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror
Moderate: Animal death, Gore, and Grief
Minor: Sexual assault
jourdanicus's review against another edition
adventurous
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
This is like the ideal kind of fiction for anyone who grew up reading the Warriors series and doesn't mind or enjoys somewhat gory horror/zombie apoc plots.
Hollow Kingdom is one of my favorite books. This sequel didn't do everything for me that the first book did, but I did enjoy experiencing the world a little more with ST. It felt like a continuation of the first book without quite enough plot of its own. I would still recommend it to anyone who liked the first book for its out loud laugh-inducing humor and language/writing style.
Oh, and the audio is a must. For both books. The narrator's performance of ST and delivery of the style of humor makes these novels what they are, in my opinion.
Hollow Kingdom is one of my favorite books. This sequel didn't do everything for me that the first book did, but I did enjoy experiencing the world a little more with ST. It felt like a continuation of the first book without quite enough plot of its own. I would still recommend it to anyone who liked the first book for its out loud laugh-inducing humor and language/writing style.
Oh, and the audio is a must. For both books. The narrator's performance of ST and delivery of the style of humor makes these novels what they are, in my opinion.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death and Cursing
Minor: Grief
aardwyrm's review
adventurous
dark
funny
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
There probably shouldn't have been a sequel to Hollow Kingdom. I read it. I enjoyed it. But I enjoyed it like I would a Patreon extra with fun character vignettes. ST is fun to listen to. The weird little interludes of the universe are inviting. But spending more time in this universe really exacerbates the ways it doesn't make any damn sense. I'm fine with a soft and stylized worldbuilding, but even the original didn't hold together in terms of basic continuity. Expanding the lore just makes all the nonsense stand out more. And a lot of the silliness of the first book (weird, tortured metaphors about evolution and cancer, sporadic gender essentialism, biological incoherence) starts to rankle after a while. Also, frankly, the damn books both need editors. Jokes, metaphors, and exposition are repeated. The emotional pacing is nonsense; redemptions and falls, reunions and forgiveness all turn on a dime, no lead up, no consequences. Scads of nameless mooks die while the world turns around the main characters. Even the main characters are plot puppets, making their choices often quite against established traits just to move things along. (Why is Ghubari a eugenicist now?)
If you liked the first one, you'll probably like this one, but you might like skipping it and just enjoying the effectiveness of the original remain unsullied in your mind.
If you liked the first one, you'll probably like this one, but you might like skipping it and just enjoying the effectiveness of the original remain unsullied in your mind.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Cancer, Child death, Confinement, Death, Fatphobia, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail
caseythereader's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Cursing, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail
maryellen's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Child death
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