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A review by sashiko
When The Stars Alight by Camilla Andrew
0.0
One of the most insidiously racist books I have read in a long time.
I watched good video ab this topic -not book- that helped me put thoughts together, but it missed also something very important unfortunately that i noticed in this.
The author used „military“ language to describe a nation in this world which is modelled after mena, something which plays into what is now used to wage g-noc-de, but also has in history. The „east asian“ country is mixed up china and japan and possibly more and described to be very technologically advanced which plays on racist tropes. The author seems to have thrown together a bunch of esthetic elements of a lot of different cultures like persia and arabia - and even Turketi with rakwa „cezve“ in this novel - which don't make a cohesive picture to anyone who understands this cultures. It is also a very long known phenomenon of arab persian and indian traditions being mashed together because they look similar to people which happened here imo. It is a product of colonization and incredibly disappointing to see as a mena reader.
Characters with roman noses in this book, especially main love interest, are described with „hooked“, a very racist caricature which go back to protocol of the meetings of the learned elders of zion and fuel antisemitic conspiracy theories.
A country which I read as having be a mix of roman empire and tsarist russia having three groups of inhabitants who are all some kind of creepy beings was icky. One of them is egregious because they are very much JKRlike goblins. Then, having the rulers of this country be demons with a appropriated russian folklore look and one prominent member who is portrayed as one of the sole more „decent“ men of this „race“ in the text, having a secret quest of what basically amount to human experimentating is very disturbing, only only worse for this fantasy country is populated by just animal-like or only /humanoid/ people.
There's also the talk of ethics in writing a tsarist russia type culture in english-language fiction at all while russian imperialism is currently k-ll-ng thousands of people. The fence on the north border of my country creeps further more south every day because of russia's military intimidation so it's always honestly evil to see western people take things for the obvious esthetic of it and then to be xenophobic still- I can still defend people who do harm to me because racism isn't okay ever.
This book also has very bad western savior complex and supremacy. A country that clearly supposed to resemble france is portrayed in the only remotely „positive“ detailed way, and nothing this nation does puts it on any way a similar level to the evils of its opposition - russia/rome, I read. It is like if a country was Mary Sue who was clumsy, which is concerning when it's the only country with whiteness in its culture.
On a story level, the plot is shallow - it is basically some water to hold the sm-t. Style over substance, and the substance is racist.
I watched good video ab this topic -not book- that helped me put thoughts together, but it missed also something very important unfortunately that i noticed in this.
The author used „military“ language to describe a nation in this world which is modelled after mena, something which plays into what is now used to wage g-noc-de, but also has in history. The „east asian“ country is mixed up china and japan and possibly more and described to be very technologically advanced which plays on racist tropes. The author seems to have thrown together a bunch of esthetic elements of a lot of different cultures like persia and arabia - and even Turketi with rakwa „cezve“ in this novel - which don't make a cohesive picture to anyone who understands this cultures. It is also a very long known phenomenon of arab persian and indian traditions being mashed together because they look similar to people which happened here imo. It is a product of colonization and incredibly disappointing to see as a mena reader.
Characters with roman noses in this book, especially main love interest, are described with „hooked“, a very racist caricature which go back to protocol of the meetings of the learned elders of zion and fuel antisemitic conspiracy theories.
A country which I read as having be a mix of roman empire and tsarist russia having three groups of inhabitants who are all some kind of creepy beings was icky. One of them is egregious because they are very much JKRlike goblins. Then, having the rulers of this country be demons with a appropriated russian folklore look and one prominent member who is portrayed as one of the sole more „decent“ men of this „race“ in the text, having a secret quest of what basically amount to human experimentating is very disturbing, only only worse for this fantasy country is populated by just animal-like or only /humanoid/ people.
There's also the talk of ethics in writing a tsarist russia type culture in english-language fiction at all while russian imperialism is currently k-ll-ng thousands of people. The fence on the north border of my country creeps further more south every day because of russia's military intimidation so it's always honestly evil to see western people take things for the obvious esthetic of it and then to be xenophobic still- I can still defend people who do harm to me because racism isn't okay ever.
This book also has very bad western savior complex and supremacy. A country that clearly supposed to resemble france is portrayed in the only remotely „positive“ detailed way, and nothing this nation does puts it on any way a similar level to the evils of its opposition - russia/rome, I read. It is like if a country was Mary Sue who was clumsy, which is concerning when it's the only country with whiteness in its culture.
On a story level, the plot is shallow - it is basically some water to hold the sm-t. Style over substance, and the substance is racist.