gothicglasses's review
5.0
So what do I choose for a book to read after not reading for an entire year? This this evil book. This isn't a book for a novice reader. This book makes you think. This book draw from us as a population. This book hurts you it tears you up and throws you away with all the other trash of this world. I liked it and think others should try it just don't go looking for a happy book.
whammajamma's review
I understand that this is a sci-fi book, but it's got some messed up idiosyncrasies about race for a book written by a white person.
Content Warnings
Extensive racial microaggressions, both towards the "enemy" in the book and towards the protagonist
biblialex's review
3.0
Really enjoyed the cool world building-the desert, the politics, the religion, the magic, the technology-but not so much the bloody severed heads and bugs crawling in wounds type stuff.
jefffrane's review
4.0
I had a tough time starting God's War but gave it some effort. After a couple of chapters I was all on board for Hurley's strange Islamofuturist, post-multiple apocalypses, Noir tale of bugs, dust and gore. Before I'd gotten to the end I had ordered copies of the next two books in the series.
Judging by her own comments and bio, I think Hurley knows a lot about facing death and brings that authenticity to every page.
Judging by her own comments and bio, I think Hurley knows a lot about facing death and brings that authenticity to every page.
itabar's review
I wanted to like it 'cause I read something on her blog which I liked a lot. The writing and world-building is good, but......
DNF. Too brutal, grim and depressing for me. I can handle that if I cared about a character or if the grimness is leavened with a dollop of humor. I coudln't find any in the first 2 hours (of 12) so gave up. Might be able to read it 'cause I could skim.
DNF. Too brutal, grim and depressing for me. I can handle that if I cared about a character or if the grimness is leavened with a dollop of humor. I coudln't find any in the first 2 hours (of 12) so gave up. Might be able to read it 'cause I could skim.
xoa's review
1.0
I'm struggling thinking of how to properly articulate my thoughts on this one. I did not like anything about this book, it took me a very long time to read, and I physically rolled my eyes multiple times. At the same time, I don't think it's a bad book, per se.
There is a particular genre of sci-fi TV show which at this point makes up almost all sci-fi on the Syfy channel: a ragtag group of space criminals/bounty hunters who are hardened killers but have a special bond with each other and mean well deep down. As far as I can tell, Firefly is the root cause of this - ironic considering it got canceled.
God's War hews very closely to this formula; it even has a scene where Nyxnissa, the hardboiled whiskey-drinking captain, is asked to disarm and produces a comedic number of hidden weapons from her person, a gag that I have seen repeated so many times since I was a child that it has long since stopped being funny to me.
I hate this subgenre of science fiction.
God's War also takes quite a bit of inspiration from Space Westerns (which I hate) and from dieselpunk and steampunk fiction (which I hate). It has a central M/F romance, which I hate.
So, even setting aside the specifics of God's War and its execution, writing, story, etc: at its core, this is not a book for me. I don't think there's any meat that could be added onto the skeleton of this book that would have pleased me, so it's hard to feel like my more specific complaints are particularly meaningful.
That said, I have a lot of specific complaints.
The protagonist Nyxnissa is supremely unpleasant. I don't think a main character has to be good or nice or likable! I don't think "the protagonist is deeply flawed" is an inherently bad thing and it is often something that I enjoy very much. However, there are certain circumstances and plot structures in which a Very Terrible protagonist is not a good fit.
Nyx's crew have no reason to be loyal to her. No one has any reason to even tolerate her; she insists frequently, out loud and in the narrative, that she is very good at her job, but this isn't shown to be the case at all. We see her fail a job spectacularly and get fired and then arrested, fail another job, get kidnapped twice, and get several people around her kidnapped and murdered due to sheer incompetence. In one scene she thinks to herself that she is very good at driving and then immediately crashes her car into a tree.
It's hard to believe that anybody would want to hire her for anything important when she is not only demonstrably bad at her job but also really really obnoxious and an alcoholic. It's unclear why anyone would agree to work for her in the first place besides being extremely desperate, and it's even more unclear why they would remain loyal to her or have any affection for her whatsoever.
The only gay character, Taite, is brutally murdered; his murder is not particularly plot-important, because he is not particularly plot-important. There are plenty of bi characters who don't get murdered, but there isn't actually any f/f or m/m romance besides Taite and his one-scene boyfriend.
The brutal and cruel binary gender system in the book would be a really interesting framework in which to explore transness and gender nonconformity, but it doesn't come up ever.
The pacing of the book is clunky and strange. There's a whole long sequence at the beginning before Nyx gets arrested that is totally unnecessary and out of place, which is a weird way to start a book.
People spit on the floor a lot. Like, a lot? It got to be distracting, actually, how often people were spitting all over the place. There was also a lot of people drinking whiskey and putting their boots up on tables; it's that kind of thing. I was strongly reminded of a dieselpunk piece I once tried to read in which the main character would flick his cigarette onto the ground multiple times a scene just to establish how GRITTY and NOIR the whole thing was. Very tiresome.
The worldbuilding wasn't explained much and I didn't understand a lot of how things worked, but most of it wasn't especially important, so... whatever, I guess? It was still distracting how often details or elements of the world would be referenced and then not explained. A particularly egregious one was the revelation that Taite's mother made a habit of fucking dogs?? Shapeshifters having sex with animals while in animal form was not otherwise mentioned before or after this, it's implied by the context that her dog-fucking is somehow related to her "political beliefs" (???????), and Taite specifically mentions it as something he doesn't think is particularly bad or weird. Like... WHAT? It is never brought up again, so I guess it wasn't important?? SEEMS IMPORTANT TO ME?
I still don't really know what "reconstituting" means and why Nyx seems to have been brought back from the dead but nobody else who dies gets brought back. I assume that beheading someone means they can't be "reconstituted," and that bugs are involved somehow.
I could probably go on indefinitely, as there was really not anything I liked about this book, but I don't really... uh... care? I finished it and I won't be continuing the series.
I've got a couple of other Kameron Hurley books on my to-read list that seem like they'll be more up my alley, and I'm still going to get to those.
There is a particular genre of sci-fi TV show which at this point makes up almost all sci-fi on the Syfy channel: a ragtag group of space criminals/bounty hunters who are hardened killers but have a special bond with each other and mean well deep down. As far as I can tell, Firefly is the root cause of this - ironic considering it got canceled.
God's War hews very closely to this formula; it even has a scene where Nyxnissa, the hardboiled whiskey-drinking captain, is asked to disarm and produces a comedic number of hidden weapons from her person, a gag that I have seen repeated so many times since I was a child that it has long since stopped being funny to me.
I hate this subgenre of science fiction.
God's War also takes quite a bit of inspiration from Space Westerns (which I hate) and from dieselpunk and steampunk fiction (which I hate). It has a central M/F romance, which I hate.
So, even setting aside the specifics of God's War and its execution, writing, story, etc: at its core, this is not a book for me. I don't think there's any meat that could be added onto the skeleton of this book that would have pleased me, so it's hard to feel like my more specific complaints are particularly meaningful.
That said, I have a lot of specific complaints.
The protagonist Nyxnissa is supremely unpleasant. I don't think a main character has to be good or nice or likable! I don't think "the protagonist is deeply flawed" is an inherently bad thing and it is often something that I enjoy very much. However, there are certain circumstances and plot structures in which a Very Terrible protagonist is not a good fit.
Nyx's crew have no reason to be loyal to her. No one has any reason to even tolerate her; she insists frequently, out loud and in the narrative, that she is very good at her job, but this isn't shown to be the case at all. We see her fail a job spectacularly and get fired and then arrested, fail another job, get kidnapped twice, and get several people around her kidnapped and murdered due to sheer incompetence. In one scene she thinks to herself that she is very good at driving and then immediately crashes her car into a tree.
It's hard to believe that anybody would want to hire her for anything important when she is not only demonstrably bad at her job but also really really obnoxious and an alcoholic. It's unclear why anyone would agree to work for her in the first place besides being extremely desperate, and it's even more unclear why they would remain loyal to her or have any affection for her whatsoever.
The only gay character, Taite, is brutally murdered; his murder is not particularly plot-important, because he is not particularly plot-important. There are plenty of bi characters who don't get murdered, but there isn't actually any f/f or m/m romance besides Taite and his one-scene boyfriend.
The brutal and cruel binary gender system in the book would be a really interesting framework in which to explore transness and gender nonconformity, but it doesn't come up ever.
The pacing of the book is clunky and strange. There's a whole long sequence at the beginning before Nyx gets arrested that is totally unnecessary and out of place, which is a weird way to start a book.
People spit on the floor a lot. Like, a lot? It got to be distracting, actually, how often people were spitting all over the place. There was also a lot of people drinking whiskey and putting their boots up on tables; it's that kind of thing. I was strongly reminded of a dieselpunk piece I once tried to read in which the main character would flick his cigarette onto the ground multiple times a scene just to establish how GRITTY and NOIR the whole thing was. Very tiresome.
The worldbuilding wasn't explained much and I didn't understand a lot of how things worked, but most of it wasn't especially important, so... whatever, I guess? It was still distracting how often details or elements of the world would be referenced and then not explained. A particularly egregious one was the revelation that Taite's mother made a habit of fucking dogs?? Shapeshifters having sex with animals while in animal form was not otherwise mentioned before or after this, it's implied by the context that her dog-fucking is somehow related to her "political beliefs" (???????), and Taite specifically mentions it as something he doesn't think is particularly bad or weird. Like... WHAT? It is never brought up again, so I guess it wasn't important?? SEEMS IMPORTANT TO ME?
I still don't really know what "reconstituting" means and why Nyx seems to have been brought back from the dead but nobody else who dies gets brought back. I assume that beheading someone means they can't be "reconstituted," and that bugs are involved somehow.
I could probably go on indefinitely, as there was really not anything I liked about this book, but I don't really... uh... care? I finished it and I won't be continuing the series.
I've got a couple of other Kameron Hurley books on my to-read list that seem like they'll be more up my alley, and I'm still going to get to those.
barry_x's review
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
This felt like a refreshing change (and if by refreshing, you mean, gritty, bloody and violent!)
'God's War' is the first in the 'Bel Dame Apocrypha' series and a book I picked up as part of a LGBTQIA speculative fiction reading challenge. Quite a few books I have read in this challenge have addressed gender and sexuality themes, and a fair few have explored matriarchal societies but this was the first one that explored a matriarchal society that wasn't all 'sunshine and flowers' and was very interesting as a result.
Our main character Nyx is a state sanctioned bounty hunter whose primary role is to execute deserters from the frontline in a never-ending religious war. The executions are brutal, typically involving the severing of heads of boys and men escaping (because it seems the loss of a head is the only way to make sure someone is dead in a world where bio-magic can rejuvenate and heal most things if one has resources). So straight away, I know I am not going to root for the 'hero' who kills for a cruel state.
And yet, there is an in-book justification to these actions, because it appears that the endless war is largely conducted via biological warfare. Corpses are hosts for all kinds of virus and contagions, and an escaped soldier from the front could be carrying something that could kill thousands, so as readers we aren't going to support it but we've a rationale for why it happens (even though I guess stopping the war would be better but no one is really interested in that).
The war is between two cultures on a colonised planet (I assume from Earth thousands of years ago, but who knows). The dominant religion on the planet, which is relatively isolationist draws heavily on Islamic-like cultures where faith and religion are highly important. Add to that a society that effectively runs on bugs, (vehicles, lighting, electricity, communications etc, all seem to run on harnessing the power of insects) and we have a wonderful setting for a book which feels unique, yet familiar at the same time.
The general plot of the book is Nyx falls on hard times due to her actions, goes to jail, gets stripped of her Bel Dame licence and forms a bounty hunter group before she gets a big contract from the Queen of Nasheen which then kicks the story into gear.
So what did I like about it? First of all, the setting. It's SUPERB. We have a wonderfully realised world which feels so well crafted it's untrue. You can see, smell, taste everything in the dusty streets, or sweaty boxing gyms of heady brothels. The planet seems to have five main nations, of which the two are engaged in a possibly hundreds of years of perpetual war. Nasheen is a matriarchal society, whereas Chenja is the patriarchal one. Taking a step back, they feel very much like two sides of the same coin. Neither nation state appears to be a 'just' one and one is left feeling that the war has no purpose and leaves unbelievable misery in it's wake year on year.
I loved how Nasheen was presented, it could have been so easy to paint the matriarchal world as the 'intelligent' or 'empathetic' one, but instead Hurley presents a matriarchal society that is cruel, violent and oppressive. Gender roles are flipped, in that because women are strong and powerful, that boys should be 'protected' and not be cannon fodder. I love how the infantilising of men was handled in the book, it mirrors how 'helpless women' are depicted in fiction and society, without ever feeling that you are getting hit on the head with 'here is the message I want you to take away'.
Chenjan society may feel a little more 'familiar' in that their society is patriarchal with strict gender roles and women are veiled and seen as mothers and domestics, and because all the men are sent to die at the front, the powerful men have homes with ten or twenty wives. Whilst there are 'breeding compounds' in both societies to create new soldiers I loved how the birth of a boy in one culture is a prize, and in the other is a tragedy, even though the fate will be the same.
From the observer looking it, it feels clear that everyone on the planet is following the same god (and the aliens seem like Christian missionaries too for me), and yet their views on faith and gender roles are so very different. It's wonderfully realised. The reader will recognise the call to prayer and how depictions of gods and prophets are understood. At times I didn't know how I felt about 'reimagined Islam' but after reading I don't have a sense that the book is fetishizing Islam, nor do I feel it is in anyway insensitive, whilst absolutely telling the reader how pointless religious war is. The book never spells it out for you, but after reading, one wants to scream 'stop the war today and recognise what you have in common'. But this is a book, filled with not nice people, living in a horrible world.
The cast of supporting characters is diverse. Most of Nyx's gang come from other countries, and it is through them that we learn about their cultures and their reasons for being where they are. It's kind of cool to read about Nyx and Rhys who probably love each other, but in Nyx's culture sleeping with men is considered a bit lowbrow, whereas Rhy can't look at a strong unveiled woman without being conflicted. We've got a guy who had to leave his strictly segregated nation where male homosexuality is the norm because he's straight, and another who is in the closet, because to be gay would mean execution.
In some hands I guess this book could be viewed as a diversity tick list and be far weaker as a result, but I never felt it reading it. Likewise, in less skilled hands the book could be viewed as intolerant and misandrist - again it doesn't really come across. The world is shitty, the author isn't. The world is diverse, and yet it is authoritarian and most people can't 'fit in'. I love the book can show you racism that makes you uneasy, whilst never feeling the need to tell you it's bad. The writing and depiction of events tells you it's horrible, not the author's voice.
I've talked a lot about the setting (which I loved!!) but what about the story? Essentially, it's a bio-punk violent sci-fi thriller. There's lots of twists and suspicions of double crosses. You think you know who the bad guys are, then quickly realise it is mostly everyone. It's exceptionally violent and murder, genocide and torture are never far away. It's feels very much like sci-fi grimdark where you quickly expect everyone you care about to be tortured and killed, so it definitely isn't for everyone. I haven't read anything this violent in a while and to be honest it hit the spot.
As for the story, I kind of like that the reader is thrown into the world. At times the story is a bit hard to follow, as if the author knows who everyone is and where they are and forgets the reader may not be there. It feels weird reviewing because I have talked about how much I love the setting and I generally loved the characters also - none of them are particularly lovable but in the context of the book, I didn't hate them either. I guess though, there isn't a particularly memorable story that I'll come back to with fond memories, so the book is good, but not great.
'God's War' is the first in the 'Bel Dame Apocrypha' series and a book I picked up as part of a LGBTQIA speculative fiction reading challenge. Quite a few books I have read in this challenge have addressed gender and sexuality themes, and a fair few have explored matriarchal societies but this was the first one that explored a matriarchal society that wasn't all 'sunshine and flowers' and was very interesting as a result.
Our main character Nyx is a state sanctioned bounty hunter whose primary role is to execute deserters from the frontline in a never-ending religious war. The executions are brutal, typically involving the severing of heads of boys and men escaping (because it seems the loss of a head is the only way to make sure someone is dead in a world where bio-magic can rejuvenate and heal most things if one has resources). So straight away, I know I am not going to root for the 'hero' who kills for a cruel state.
And yet, there is an in-book justification to these actions, because it appears that the endless war is largely conducted via biological warfare. Corpses are hosts for all kinds of virus and contagions, and an escaped soldier from the front could be carrying something that could kill thousands, so as readers we aren't going to support it but we've a rationale for why it happens (even though I guess stopping the war would be better but no one is really interested in that).
The war is between two cultures on a colonised planet (I assume from Earth thousands of years ago, but who knows). The dominant religion on the planet, which is relatively isolationist draws heavily on Islamic-like cultures where faith and religion are highly important. Add to that a society that effectively runs on bugs, (vehicles, lighting, electricity, communications etc, all seem to run on harnessing the power of insects) and we have a wonderful setting for a book which feels unique, yet familiar at the same time.
The general plot of the book is Nyx falls on hard times due to her actions, goes to jail, gets stripped of her Bel Dame licence and forms a bounty hunter group before she gets a big contract from the Queen of Nasheen which then kicks the story into gear.
So what did I like about it? First of all, the setting. It's SUPERB. We have a wonderfully realised world which feels so well crafted it's untrue. You can see, smell, taste everything in the dusty streets, or sweaty boxing gyms of heady brothels. The planet seems to have five main nations, of which the two are engaged in a possibly hundreds of years of perpetual war. Nasheen is a matriarchal society, whereas Chenja is the patriarchal one. Taking a step back, they feel very much like two sides of the same coin. Neither nation state appears to be a 'just' one and one is left feeling that the war has no purpose and leaves unbelievable misery in it's wake year on year.
I loved how Nasheen was presented, it could have been so easy to paint the matriarchal world as the 'intelligent' or 'empathetic' one, but instead Hurley presents a matriarchal society that is cruel, violent and oppressive. Gender roles are flipped, in that because women are strong and powerful, that boys should be 'protected' and not be cannon fodder. I love how the infantilising of men was handled in the book, it mirrors how 'helpless women' are depicted in fiction and society, without ever feeling that you are getting hit on the head with 'here is the message I want you to take away'.
Chenjan society may feel a little more 'familiar' in that their society is patriarchal with strict gender roles and women are veiled and seen as mothers and domestics, and because all the men are sent to die at the front, the powerful men have homes with ten or twenty wives. Whilst there are 'breeding compounds' in both societies to create new soldiers I loved how the birth of a boy in one culture is a prize, and in the other is a tragedy, even though the fate will be the same.
From the observer looking it, it feels clear that everyone on the planet is following the same god (and the aliens seem like Christian missionaries too for me), and yet their views on faith and gender roles are so very different. It's wonderfully realised. The reader will recognise the call to prayer and how depictions of gods and prophets are understood. At times I didn't know how I felt about 'reimagined Islam' but after reading I don't have a sense that the book is fetishizing Islam, nor do I feel it is in anyway insensitive, whilst absolutely telling the reader how pointless religious war is. The book never spells it out for you, but after reading, one wants to scream 'stop the war today and recognise what you have in common'. But this is a book, filled with not nice people, living in a horrible world.
The cast of supporting characters is diverse. Most of Nyx's gang come from other countries, and it is through them that we learn about their cultures and their reasons for being where they are. It's kind of cool to read about Nyx and Rhys who probably love each other, but in Nyx's culture sleeping with men is considered a bit lowbrow, whereas Rhy can't look at a strong unveiled woman without being conflicted. We've got a guy who had to leave his strictly segregated nation where male homosexuality is the norm because he's straight, and another who is in the closet, because to be gay would mean execution.
In some hands I guess this book could be viewed as a diversity tick list and be far weaker as a result, but I never felt it reading it. Likewise, in less skilled hands the book could be viewed as intolerant and misandrist - again it doesn't really come across. The world is shitty, the author isn't. The world is diverse, and yet it is authoritarian and most people can't 'fit in'. I love the book can show you racism that makes you uneasy, whilst never feeling the need to tell you it's bad. The writing and depiction of events tells you it's horrible, not the author's voice.
I've talked a lot about the setting (which I loved!!) but what about the story? Essentially, it's a bio-punk violent sci-fi thriller. There's lots of twists and suspicions of double crosses. You think you know who the bad guys are, then quickly realise it is mostly everyone. It's exceptionally violent and murder, genocide and torture are never far away. It's feels very much like sci-fi grimdark where you quickly expect everyone you care about to be tortured and killed, so it definitely isn't for everyone. I haven't read anything this violent in a while and to be honest it hit the spot.
As for the story, I kind of like that the reader is thrown into the world. At times the story is a bit hard to follow, as if the author knows who everyone is and where they are and forgets the reader may not be there. It feels weird reviewing because I have talked about how much I love the setting and I generally loved the characters also - none of them are particularly lovable but in the context of the book, I didn't hate them either. I guess though, there isn't a particularly memorable story that I'll come back to with fond memories, so the book is good, but not great.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Body horror, Death, Gore, War, Medical content, Murder, Religious bigotry, Torture, and Violence
Moderate: Cancer, Colonisation, Sexism, Homophobia, Islamophobia, Alcohol, Cultural appropriation, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, and Racism
theliteratecondition's review
3.0
(from my blog post "deeper look at 'God's War'") http://theliteratecondition.wordpress.com/2012/11/28/deeper_look_gods_war/
It took 60 pages (if I remember correctly) to get to the driving point of the plot. I wondered if the whole novel was just going to be Nyx stumbling from one “note” to the next endlessly and pointlessly as the war. But then the big one fell in her lap and projected her and her group further down the rabbit hole of bounty hunting = the plot.
This novel touched on many themes and ideas and world building that I found really interesting. The plot did not exactly go there, however.
But the world building really is something. Bug tech! Maybe I don’t read enough of this type of sf to know better (has this been done a lot? I don’t know). I liked it, though.
Hurley has populated her novel with not necessarily likeable characters: they tend toward pessimistic, stubborn to narrow-minded, they don’t learn any lessons or change by the end of the novel. But then again, not all people learn and change and not all novels and stories are about lessons, either. The characters’ ability to deal with emotions, especially attraction, romantic feelings, or love, is certainly limited and this is frustrating, but what is to be expected? the nations are stuck in an endless war that has mostly annihilated the planet. Emotional intelligence is not going to be taught at school (some of the characters didn’t or barely finished general education, limited as that was) and won’t on the top of people’s hierarchy of needs.
These are flawed characters. And yet I didn’t not like any of them. Hurley kept them all human and understandable, even if I did disagree with their actions and views. To be honest, I am not sure how much of my not disliking them had to do with my already lowered expectations. If it has more to do with her writing, then that’s an achievement.
I think I was interested in Nyx and Rhys because I wanted to see if they could care about each other, or anyone other than themselves. They were interesting as characters to begin with, flawed and gritty and driven by fears that one can understand. But they did not change or learn… perhaps Rhys did discover something about caring for someone he did not like, Nyx, but he would not act on it. I think that would have helped this story: set on a world that is being destroyed by a permanent war about religious beliefs, if in this context two people from opposing sides could learn to care for the other despite the fact that they disagree and don’t even like each other, then there is hope – not an answer and not a solution and nothing short of Sisyphean work to change their cultures, but hope nonetheless. But Nyx didn’t change much less learn or recognize her affection for Rhys, and Rhys did seem to recognize his affection for Nyx, but not more.
So I don’t think I will be reading further in this series. Because if things don’t change, then that’s just bad melodrama and bad action movie series and booooring. There needs to be change, hope, uncertainty… faith. And faith needs to be challenged. I don’t think Nyx was challenged. Main character not challenged = not good.
The plot got complicated and convoluted instead of complex and I did get lost with some of the factions and double-agent stuff. Also, a bit repetitive in the kidnap and torture the main character or one of her group, get sprung, run a step or two forward toward goal, get captured and tortured again, and etc.
I am not a mystery or thriller or action reader. Perhaps that is why I thought the novel was such a thrill ride and I forgave much – it was easy to suspend my disbelief and let slide the things I didn’t like (including the disbelief which did filter through my lowered threshold) and look for the aspects I found interesting: gender roles, bug tech, political reproductive interstellar intrigue, fight scenes. I don’t go to roller derby expecting to be educated and enlightened, I go for some adrenaline fun and (restricted, enacted) brutality. I don’t expect finesse or deep thoughts. If that were included somehow, though, that would be pretty awesome.
Implications of race, religion, and gender but these were not explored. Gender more than the others, I’d say… at least it was in the forefront more than the others. I say this because when pressed with what to say about how gender was explored all I can come up with is women can be as greedy, violent, and hopeless as men. But that’s not really news. Perhaps it is to some. Someone mentioned a similar feeling about the message in “Cloud Atlas” that we are all interconnected, that there is no distinction of race or gender, and that that is not news…. and I agree, in my circle that is not news, that is a given, but in the rest of the world… well, I sadly sadly do not think that this understanding has yet hit the op-ed for the world at large much less the headlines.
While typing in ‘tags’ I decided to include ‘feminism’ and ‘characters of color’ because I think some people will read Hurley’s novel as being a pro-such. I do not think a book mostly populated by women and non-white characters is alone a reason to call it a feminist work or that it champions diversity, but we simply do not see many novels of mostly women characters and mostly characters of color… whether or not the novel is an action based thriller or a more cerebral tale. But it does depict a world populated and run by women and people of color and it does not make a big deal about these things, which is a nice change.
It just occurred to me that the racism and religion-based discrimination and hate are therefore all the more complex because this world is populated by women and non-white people. Racism and discrimination is usually a white to non-white issue because that’s the ‘dominant paradigm’, the ‘normative’ in North America (white, Protestant, heterosexual, cis male). I don’t know what to say about that, not in any coherent way that would translate well on this forum, and not in this already long post. And I didn’t even get into the sexuality issue.
Thanks for sticking around if you got this far.
It took 60 pages (if I remember correctly) to get to the driving point of the plot. I wondered if the whole novel was just going to be Nyx stumbling from one “note” to the next endlessly and pointlessly as the war. But then the big one fell in her lap and projected her and her group further down the rabbit hole of bounty hunting = the plot.
This novel touched on many themes and ideas and world building that I found really interesting. The plot did not exactly go there, however.
But the world building really is something. Bug tech! Maybe I don’t read enough of this type of sf to know better (has this been done a lot? I don’t know). I liked it, though.
Hurley has populated her novel with not necessarily likeable characters: they tend toward pessimistic, stubborn to narrow-minded, they don’t learn any lessons or change by the end of the novel. But then again, not all people learn and change and not all novels and stories are about lessons, either. The characters’ ability to deal with emotions, especially attraction, romantic feelings, or love, is certainly limited and this is frustrating, but what is to be expected? the nations are stuck in an endless war that has mostly annihilated the planet. Emotional intelligence is not going to be taught at school (some of the characters didn’t or barely finished general education, limited as that was) and won’t on the top of people’s hierarchy of needs.
These are flawed characters. And yet I didn’t not like any of them. Hurley kept them all human and understandable, even if I did disagree with their actions and views. To be honest, I am not sure how much of my not disliking them had to do with my already lowered expectations. If it has more to do with her writing, then that’s an achievement.
I think I was interested in Nyx and Rhys because I wanted to see if they could care about each other, or anyone other than themselves. They were interesting as characters to begin with, flawed and gritty and driven by fears that one can understand. But they did not change or learn… perhaps Rhys did discover something about caring for someone he did not like, Nyx, but he would not act on it. I think that would have helped this story: set on a world that is being destroyed by a permanent war about religious beliefs, if in this context two people from opposing sides could learn to care for the other despite the fact that they disagree and don’t even like each other, then there is hope – not an answer and not a solution and nothing short of Sisyphean work to change their cultures, but hope nonetheless. But Nyx didn’t change much less learn or recognize her affection for Rhys, and Rhys did seem to recognize his affection for Nyx, but not more.
So I don’t think I will be reading further in this series. Because if things don’t change, then that’s just bad melodrama and bad action movie series and booooring. There needs to be change, hope, uncertainty… faith. And faith needs to be challenged. I don’t think Nyx was challenged. Main character not challenged = not good.
The plot got complicated and convoluted instead of complex and I did get lost with some of the factions and double-agent stuff. Also, a bit repetitive in the kidnap and torture the main character or one of her group, get sprung, run a step or two forward toward goal, get captured and tortured again, and etc.
I am not a mystery or thriller or action reader. Perhaps that is why I thought the novel was such a thrill ride and I forgave much – it was easy to suspend my disbelief and let slide the things I didn’t like (including the disbelief which did filter through my lowered threshold) and look for the aspects I found interesting: gender roles, bug tech, political reproductive interstellar intrigue, fight scenes. I don’t go to roller derby expecting to be educated and enlightened, I go for some adrenaline fun and (restricted, enacted) brutality. I don’t expect finesse or deep thoughts. If that were included somehow, though, that would be pretty awesome.
Implications of race, religion, and gender but these were not explored. Gender more than the others, I’d say… at least it was in the forefront more than the others. I say this because when pressed with what to say about how gender was explored all I can come up with is women can be as greedy, violent, and hopeless as men. But that’s not really news. Perhaps it is to some. Someone mentioned a similar feeling about the message in “Cloud Atlas” that we are all interconnected, that there is no distinction of race or gender, and that that is not news…. and I agree, in my circle that is not news, that is a given, but in the rest of the world… well, I sadly sadly do not think that this understanding has yet hit the op-ed for the world at large much less the headlines.
While typing in ‘tags’ I decided to include ‘feminism’ and ‘characters of color’ because I think some people will read Hurley’s novel as being a pro-such. I do not think a book mostly populated by women and non-white characters is alone a reason to call it a feminist work or that it champions diversity, but we simply do not see many novels of mostly women characters and mostly characters of color… whether or not the novel is an action based thriller or a more cerebral tale. But it does depict a world populated and run by women and people of color and it does not make a big deal about these things, which is a nice change.
It just occurred to me that the racism and religion-based discrimination and hate are therefore all the more complex because this world is populated by women and non-white people. Racism and discrimination is usually a white to non-white issue because that’s the ‘dominant paradigm’, the ‘normative’ in North America (white, Protestant, heterosexual, cis male). I don’t know what to say about that, not in any coherent way that would translate well on this forum, and not in this already long post. And I didn’t even get into the sexuality issue.
Thanks for sticking around if you got this far.