Reviews tagging 'Genocide'

Les Oiseaux du temps by Max Gladstone, Amal El-Mohtar

66 reviews

sheriffrockyraccoon's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

I’m sorry. I know from all the reviews this is a much beloved book but it just wasn’t for me. I had high expectations: initially when I saw this book floating around I thought it was nonfiction due to the title and cover. After realizing it’s fiction and about time travelers falling in love, I was excited! Unfortunately, the writing was too sparse and I did not feel much for the characters, making it made it a very difficult read.

I think my biggest issue might be my disinterest in science fiction. I am always trying to reach outside my comfort zone and read genres I may not consider. In this case, the characters were so science fiction they didn’t feel human, although I think that was the point? I think? I genuinely don’t know if they were supposed to be nonhuman or just futuristic humans.

I really struggled with the writing. There were some very beautiful sentences but it was not cohesive and felt confusing. This also made me sad because normally I love wordy books and reading between the lines, but here I just felt frustrated because I didn’t feel any sense of a plot. Again, maybe it’s just not my cup of tea, but the fact that there was so much time jumping between letters and points in their lives didn’t help me see how their relationship developed over time (this is ironic for a time traveler story, I know).

Overall, I would recommend this to fans of science fiction and queer literature. Maybe only people I am acquainted with, though, I don’t think I could ever recommend this to a friend.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Cannibalism, Suicide attempt, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Confinement and Colonisation

leannanecdote's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Abandonment, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

linkamarisa's review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Blood, and War

Moderate: Animal death, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Genocide, Torture, and Forced institutionalization

fkshg8465's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

This was a mind bender. Had to throw out everything I knew and thought I knew about how time and space work and accept everything happening as plausible and fictionally factual. Also had to stop trying to make the narrative make sense on any level. It was the only way I could enjoy it, and I did enjoy it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Torture, Violence, Murder, and War

peppypenguin's review against another edition

emotional hopeful fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Beautiful writing and storytelling. It feels like a fever dream: you have a sense of the key concepts and how the characters and their relationship are developing. I could not, for my life, visualize the time-traveling and how it worked. That’s okay because the mechanics of the time traveling for each character and their factions serve more as a way to distinguish how they move about space and time and interact with the universe. It also forced me to take my time and digest the words on the page, and in turn the story. 

This is great as a novella. Because there is so much poetic prose it helps to have the story told in fewer pages, making it move a bit faster. 

The letters between the characters are very well planned. You get a sense of their voices, understand their worlds, and watch their relationship bloom. They feel so real, and have so much depth, and seeing how they fall for each other and leave messages across time, as well as how their paths cross throughout the story is fantastically done.

As a lover of science fiction, this hit the right spot. The time traveling and manipulation of events as it’s done by each side was really interesting! The two sides of the war (the different futures fighting to win) are really unique and so vastly different. I love how they are explained just enough to have real depth and thought put into them. 

Red and Blue are wonderful characters. You never learn their real names, but that’s the point. They are opposite sides of the same coin, and to see how they start as pure enemies but eventually come together is beautiful. The genre and unique world of the book is used as a tool, masterfully so, to tell their story.

Lovers of romance and/or science fiction should give this a go.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Death, Genocide, Gore, Incest, Self harm, Violence, Blood, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Torture

jennabean855's review against another edition

hopeful inspiring mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Suicide, Blood, and War

valerian_honeybee's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Death, Gore, Suicide, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Suicide attempt, and War

Moderate: Body horror and Grief

Minor: Genocide

justmys's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Genocide, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Murder, and War

jen3699's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

I loved it and I'm recommending it. It's short but a masterpiece. Every minute of this is used to create this beautiful love story. I love it.

The end is my favourite. It's crafted so beautifully and with such dedication. 

The idea of a love that you take into your being so literally, unconsciously and consciously. The type of love that consumes you and remakes you into something new for you and your partner. Beautiful.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Death, Genocide, Gore, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal death, Infertility, Miscarriage, Grief, and Abortion

monstrouscosmos's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Characters: 10/10
Relationships: 10/10
Atmosphere/Setting: 9.5/10
Writing Style: 9/10
Plot/Intrigue: 9.5/10
Internal Logic: 10/10
Entertainment: 10/10
Overall: 68/70, 5*

I love epistolary novels, quantum time travel plots, and messy star crossed sapphic romances, so I figured from the get that I'd be really into this. and I was! I especially loved the ways the characters spoke with one another across timelines, and gave context for themselves as individuals, within their respective collective experiences, and within their shared relationship over time(s). the writing about writing was also really fun! there are definitely moments that delve into disturbing themes and events, but for the most part I found the tone stayed hopeful in belief for better circumstances. 

it's definitely something I need to relisten to (I feel like I missed a lot in my first run thru due to the narrative bouncing around quite a lot), but I'm so excited to revisit it! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gore, Gun violence, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Stalking, Fire/Fire injury, and Gaslighting

Minor: Cursing, Sexual content, and Religious bigotry

Graphic: spiders