08enolan's review against another edition
1.0
It's giving champagne socialist revelling in their supposed intellect...
n8duke's review against another edition
2.5
Started strong with great ideas, but kind of became a mess.
hannah_hethmon's review against another edition
2.0
Not really sure what to say about this book. The concept is really cool, the characters based on medieval women are fascinating. And honestly the story is pretty good. Only problem is that the story gets about 10 pages in this novel. I kept reading because the vagueness of the story and characters and post-apocalyptic world was intriguing, but every time something would start to happen, the novel digressed into long (and increasingly repetitive) sermons on the nature of humanity, love, sex, earth, etc. In the middle of someone being killed in a very dramatic way...all of a sudden we are riffing on the meaning of human flesh and waxing poetic about people's "sex" (also, too many euphemisms for genitals and a strange aversion to writing the word "vagina" when describing anatomy).
Maybe there's something I'm missing. I am familiar with Joan of Arc and Christine de Pizan, but I felt like so much of the book was beyond my grasp. I think, weirdly enough, it's because the author was so preoccupied with spelling out the meaning of the story that the meaning got lost in the thought monologues. There were literally so many moments where the characters suddenly drifted away from what they were doing (multiple times in one scene) to wonder "What if that's all humanity ever was...." or "What if that's all death ever was..."What if that's all sex/lust/earth/power/violence/etc ever was....". I was left wanting more from this novel. I wish I had gotten to come to some of these ideas naturally through the story, but instead the moral of the story became the whole point of the story. And there were too many morals to keep track of, making it ineffective in communicating them.
Maybe there's something I'm missing. I am familiar with Joan of Arc and Christine de Pizan, but I felt like so much of the book was beyond my grasp. I think, weirdly enough, it's because the author was so preoccupied with spelling out the meaning of the story that the meaning got lost in the thought monologues. There were literally so many moments where the characters suddenly drifted away from what they were doing (multiple times in one scene) to wonder "What if that's all humanity ever was...." or "What if that's all death ever was..."What if that's all sex/lust/earth/power/violence/etc ever was....". I was left wanting more from this novel. I wish I had gotten to come to some of these ideas naturally through the story, but instead the moral of the story became the whole point of the story. And there were too many morals to keep track of, making it ineffective in communicating them.
carmenere's review against another edition
3.0
This is a story of a future geocataclysmal event. The earth is dying. People of the ruling class have gathered pieces of space junk to build a sustainable living environment, CIEL, which hovers over earth and is ruled by a demented leader. Over the years the people aboard have devolved. They've lost their hair, their gender, their complexion. Long story short, it's not good, it's not healthy. The meek who have remained on earth are not well either and the young warrior, Joan, (loosely based on Joan of Arc) who inspired rebels to fight for freedom is trying to survive, just like the people in CIEL. Christine, living on CIEL and once a follower of their demented leader now despises him with as deep a passion as Joan. Somehow, these two ladies must unite to bring down this tyrant and mend what there is left of humanity.
Wow, this novel covers a lot of new age thinking. It's mother earth, it's love, it's creation, destruction, energy, it's "cosmic harmonies made of strings". It's "Everything is matter. Everything is moved by and through energy". It's different.
The author chose a prose that is raw and nasty but for some reason urged me on to the seismic climax. If you choose to read this one, prepare yourself for something mind blowing and not necessarily in a good way.
Wow, this novel covers a lot of new age thinking. It's mother earth, it's love, it's creation, destruction, energy, it's "cosmic harmonies made of strings". It's "Everything is matter. Everything is moved by and through energy". It's different.
The author chose a prose that is raw and nasty but for some reason urged me on to the seismic climax. If you choose to read this one, prepare yourself for something mind blowing and not necessarily in a good way.
agingerg's review against another edition
1.0
Not fair to rate since I didn't get very far. It didn't grab me.
jerrica's review against another edition
3.0
I read Yuknavitch's memoir over the summer so I was intrigued to see what her fiction writing actually looked like, since that's where the focus of her career is now. This book was odd, to say the least. It proceeded in a way that opposes most of my reading experiences, in that the beginning was messy AND boring but that as it proceeded to the end things picked up and became more interesting.
Yuknavitch is a talented writer, and I would say the writing is what shines through here. I almost gave the book 4 stars just for a couple spectacular passages about love, our relationship to the earth and to each other, and the true absurdity of the human condition. However, the plot is disorganized, the worldbuilding is patchy and uneven, the perspective changes constantly from 1st to 3rd even if the narrator remains the same, and again, I'm not entirely sure how I pushed through its confusing yet monotonous beginning. Probably I did that because I was reading some of it on a plane.
Give it a shot if you like queer dystopian fiction and appreciate some fine writing, but don't be afraid to abandon it if you just can't deal with all of its weaknesses.
Yuknavitch is a talented writer, and I would say the writing is what shines through here. I almost gave the book 4 stars just for a couple spectacular passages about love, our relationship to the earth and to each other, and the true absurdity of the human condition. However, the plot is disorganized, the worldbuilding is patchy and uneven, the perspective changes constantly from 1st to 3rd even if the narrator remains the same, and again, I'm not entirely sure how I pushed through its confusing yet monotonous beginning. Probably I did that because I was reading some of it on a plane.
Give it a shot if you like queer dystopian fiction and appreciate some fine writing, but don't be afraid to abandon it if you just can't deal with all of its weaknesses.
eidolonwall's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
jaswoahreads's review
dark
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
Could be good if the author wasn't weirdly obsessed with genitals
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body horror
leeroyuk's review against another edition
1.0
Abysmal!
I was so excited for this book. In fact, I couldn't wait for it to come out when I saw it on a 'best books of 2017' list and read its premise. I waited patiently for it to be available on kindle in the UK.
How disappointed was I!
The style is smart-arsed, show-off, and flashy. Classic style over substance - it reads like a champagne socialist intellectually masturbating to their own profundity. She throws about vulgarities with absolutely no skill. I'm not in any way prudish, I love an artfully placed obscenity way more than is decent. But there is an art to it. This reads like she's a kid who's just discovered the word 'vagina'. I'd say the self-indulgent style distracts from the narrative, but the narrative is probably worse; the characters are 2-dimensional with no endearing qualities. Their flirting was just cringeworthy. I wanted them to lose! If this story world is populated by them, then be glad it was nuked and move on.
Maybe it gets better in the second half. I don't know. I decided didn't have any more time to waste on it about a third of the way in after the line "I demand my cackle, you gut infested she-whore!"
I was so excited for this book. In fact, I couldn't wait for it to come out when I saw it on a 'best books of 2017' list and read its premise. I waited patiently for it to be available on kindle in the UK.
How disappointed was I!
The style is smart-arsed, show-off, and flashy. Classic style over substance - it reads like a champagne socialist intellectually masturbating to their own profundity. She throws about vulgarities with absolutely no skill. I'm not in any way prudish, I love an artfully placed obscenity way more than is decent. But there is an art to it. This reads like she's a kid who's just discovered the word 'vagina'. I'd say the self-indulgent style distracts from the narrative, but the narrative is probably worse; the characters are 2-dimensional with no endearing qualities. Their flirting was just cringeworthy. I wanted them to lose! If this story world is populated by them, then be glad it was nuked and move on.
Maybe it gets better in the second half. I don't know. I decided didn't have any more time to waste on it about a third of the way in after the line "I demand my cackle, you gut infested she-whore!"