A review by mschaeff
Silk Fire by Zabé Ellor
3.0
I had such mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, the world building is incredible, and I think it might be the best "gender bent" book I've ever read; it makes incredible social commentary by reversing the roles of men and women. I will say I spent about the first hundred pages of this book trying to figure out what on earth was going on. There are good ways to do "learn by immersion" and "show-don't-tell" - unfortunately, I'm not sure this book nailed those, since there were huge chunks of world building I still could barely grasp by the end. But it was fascinating and an incredibly unique fantasy. The one thing that absolutely murdered it for me was a) the main character, who just left a lot to be desired, and b) my personal least favorite fantasy trope, insta-love. And, while it's nice to see poly rep in a book, the love interests are both flat and felt very one-dimensional. Really interesting world, really neat ideas, fascinating work around gender roles, and yet... just sort of flat.
Merged review:
I had such mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, the world building could have been, and I think it might be the best "gender bent" book I've ever read; it makes incredible social commentary by reversing the roles of men and women. I will say I spent about the first hundred pages of this book trying to figure out what on earth was going on. There are good ways to do "learn by immersion" and "show-don't-tell" - unfortunately, I'm not sure this book nailed those, since there were huge chunks of world building I still could barely grasp by the end. (In fact, there were a... whole lot... of pieces I never got at all.) It also really tries to do too much. It's got some unique ideas, but there are so many of them that it's really challenging to follow. And the one thing that absolutely murdered it for me was a) the main character, who just left a lot to be desired, and b) my personal least favorite fantasy trope, insta-love. And, while it's nice to see poly rep in a book, the love interests are both flat and felt very one-dimensional. Really interesting world, really potentially neat ideas, fascinating work around gender roles, and yet... just sort of flat.
This book was provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Merged review:
I had such mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, the world building could have been, and I think it might be the best "gender bent" book I've ever read; it makes incredible social commentary by reversing the roles of men and women. I will say I spent about the first hundred pages of this book trying to figure out what on earth was going on. There are good ways to do "learn by immersion" and "show-don't-tell" - unfortunately, I'm not sure this book nailed those, since there were huge chunks of world building I still could barely grasp by the end. (In fact, there were a... whole lot... of pieces I never got at all.) It also really tries to do too much. It's got some unique ideas, but there are so many of them that it's really challenging to follow. And the one thing that absolutely murdered it for me was a) the main character, who just left a lot to be desired, and b) my personal least favorite fantasy trope, insta-love. And, while it's nice to see poly rep in a book, the love interests are both flat and felt very one-dimensional. Really interesting world, really potentially neat ideas, fascinating work around gender roles, and yet... just sort of flat.
This book was provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.