How I read this: Free ebook copy received through Edelweiss
The stories themselves I enjoyed, despite them being brutal and often not having the structHow I read this: Free ebook copy received through Edelweiss
The stories themselves I enjoyed, despite them being brutal and often not having the structure a modern reader expects out of a story. It was even more interesting that way - to see the ways people of older days thought and saw the world. Older stories, even fairytales, are often like that. I also really liked the illustrations, and I loved the part about animals and spirits. But I did dock a star due to structural issues - it was often unclear why the stories repeat, or sometimes I felt as though they were repeating half a book away. Some of the stories would start in the middle and the beginning would be on the next page (I think it's a formatting issue which may not be present in the final printed book, but it made reading pretty terrible for me). I understand keeping different versions of the stories in one place, but more explanation and structure felt needed. Perhaps this is different in the final print book, as ebooks and especially review copies can often feel different.
I thank the publisher for giving me a free copy of the ebook in exchange to my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.
How I read this: Free ebook copy received through Edelweiss
This book felt like such a chore. Someone here in another review has mentioned that the lanHow I read this: Free ebook copy received through Edelweiss
This book felt like such a chore. Someone here in another review has mentioned that the language is really anachronistic, and while that's true, it didn't bother me. However, the two sisters kept switching between chapters, but they sounded like the same person, so later in the book it just got muddy whose chapter I'm reading when their circumstances stopped being so different that I could tell who it is solely by that. It was supposed to be thrilling, but was kind of just messy. I was so bored of the story I abandoned it for a couple of months... Then I decided to finish it on principle, and I have to admit, things did get interesting when it hit around the 80% mark, but I mean if you need to almost finish the book to get engrossed? Then it's probably not working. Shame, cause the book had nice ideas about putting things back in the museums of the countries they were taken out of, but... As for the story itself, didn't really hook me.
I thank the publisher for giving me a free copy of the ebook in exchange to my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.
How I read this: Free ebook copy received through NetGalley
Since my days of writing cohesive reviews are behind me, I've decided on a bullet-point forHow I read this: Free ebook copy received through NetGalley
Since my days of writing cohesive reviews are behind me, I've decided on a bullet-point format. TL; DR: really good book! Stina Leicht is becoming an auto-read for me. See book = must read!
- all cast are women or non-binary characters, and the book is very diverse in other aspects as well - they're not all young either, there are a lot of 40-50 year olds kicking some real ass; mature women are often underrepresented in scifi, which I found very refreshing - there is a good amount of action (although the setup does take a while at first) - a lot of characters, but when you get used to it and remember who's who, you get attached to them and their distinct personalities and quirks - a cat on a spaceship! And he curses at everyone with his smart collar! If that's not spice on a story, I don't know what is - there are some very interesting alien life forms and concepts - artificial life forms, sentient AI and anything you might want to know about them - the world building is very deep when it comes to this topic - this is set in the same universe as Persephone Station! I was very excited about that, because I adore it when authors take the time and effort to build entire worlds of their own. - there is contagion involved, and in a post-covid world, you relate weirdly and the situations read a lot more tensely than I would imagine they would have some 5 years ago. In my opinion, this added strongly to the story - it's something very minor to a scifi plot, and you might not even notice it, but the people in this universe seem to ONLY eat vegetarian meals. I don't think I've ever seen that in any other book. It's very interesting as a stylistic choice, and I love what the author's is (probably) trying to say by doing this. - this is not story related, but it's hilarious how much I enjoyed it. In the acknowledgements, the author explains how a book is written and gets on your shelf. Really, a lot more authors should do this, cause before becoming a book blogger, honestly? I also never knew.
Pick this up! I definitely loved it.
I thank the publisher for giving me a free copy of the ebook in exchange to my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.
How I read this: Free ebook copy received through Edelweiss
Wow. If you asked me what's the most random book I've ever read... it could very well be thHow I read this: Free ebook copy received through Edelweiss
Wow. If you asked me what's the most random book I've ever read... it could very well be this one. But not in a bad way!
Try Not to Be Strange is all about this little sort of mostly imaginary kingdom of Redonda, it's convoluted history of more or less imaginary royalty and its lineage, and a little adventure in visiting it. Redonda is a real uninhabited island in the Caribbean with one of those legends of royalty, where someone claims they're king and everyone else, or - well, most people - agree to be in on the joke. Except that with Redonda, not even that many people know, but the ones who do are mostly in the literary world. And some of them squabble about who's who.
That's about all I can say about it, the rest is in the book - which is truly a very curious piece of nonfiction, hard to even categorize because it's just so... Random. It starts off with how the story began, and the quite detailed histories of some very problematic writers from the beginning of the 20th century who were the first "kings". After that the number of kings increased, but that's all well and good, cause the author doesn't go into too much detail about all the ones who came after that.
Try Not to Be Strange was a remarkably random, somewhat meandering read which was nonetheless quite a great way to spend my time, actually. I hope some of these odd facts will remain in my head and will become useful one day during a trivia round or something. I don't know if I'm better off for knowing about Redonda, but I definitely enjoyed getting to know about it.
I thank the publisher for giving me a free copy of the ebook in exchange to my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.
Somehow you don't expect a story that's so largely about racism - in a book about Asia. Racism is mostly discussed in Western settings, and it's usualSomehow you don't expect a story that's so largely about racism - in a book about Asia. Racism is mostly discussed in Western settings, and it's usually between white and non-white groups. Not so here - it's not solely about it, but Pachinko is largely about how racism damages lives, and it's even scarier that this is racism of Asians against Asians - people who are, from a Westerner's perspective, often lumped together into one ethnicity, as opposed to white people.
In Pachinko though, we see how horribly the Japanese treat Koreans during WWII and in the decades after, and we understand how horrible and damaging racism and nationalism can be. I've always known that the Koreans and the Japanese have had a difficult history, and as I've loved both these cultures and studied their languages, I've met people on both sides who explained these things to me in their own way. And yet, knowing all this, it's still just as shocking to read about it, because it seems impossible that such things happened. It was also poignant for me, because my own country has had a similar history with another one, and I could relate to a lot of the things being said in this book. No matter what nationality or geography, people will act a certain way in these situations. Regrettably, as damaging as the labeling is, it's also incredibly human to act that way. This dark side of human nature is something I end up thinking about a lot.
Perhaps the most shocking facet of it all for me, and one that is rarely explored in Western literature, was that even if you're rich - racism against you is still racism, and it doesn't lose its power. Being rich is not armor against it. People judging you and labeling you is still stronger than money and the power it gives you. You know how we tend to think money can solve anything at all? Well, apparently not.
There is also a facet to this story where it's about belonging - kind of intersects with being mixed race/ethnicity, although most of the characters in this book are not. But what I mean is, most of these people, while being Korean, are not thought to belong in Korea anymore, neither by their compatriots, nor by themselves (not even starting with the fact that the country they left technically no longer exists and is now two separate countries which are at odds.) And yet, they do not belong in Japan either, they're loathed there as a minority. Were they to move away to the US or Europe, they would be nothing more than outsiders as well. Weirder than that, most of them can't even travel because they'd be stuck in limbo - like in that movie where Tom Hanks gets stuck in that airport - because Japan won't issue them a passport, and some of them have never been to Korea, because they were born in Japan. Were they to go visit, there would be no home to come back to. This situation is brutal and unimaginable. Having a foreigner husband myself, I have gone through some migration department trouble (the word itself often gives me panic attacks), so reading what these people have had to go through made me feel strangely... Understood. But at the same time, it made me immesurably sad, because I thought my troubles were so big they didn't let me sleep. As if appears, they were not troubles - not by a long shot. Thinking that while this story might be fictional, there were thousands if not millions of people who had this or worse happen to them, makes me sad. And even though this might not be the case in Japan right now (actually, I have no idea whether it still is or not), but it was at one point, and it was so for many decades. Perhaps it is so for other people in other countries as well, especially if they're refugees.
But Pachinko is not only about that. It's also a sprawling history of a family - one that has not had it easy. Histories of war, famine, illness - they're never easy to digest. But even more so, now that I'm reading it in early 2022, only a couple hundred kilometers away from an armed conflict that has shaken the world and that I know will be discussed even after I'm gone from this world, probably. Even only just a year ago, I think Pachinko would have read slightly differently for me. Now, everything is sharper, comes into focus more and prompts completely different ideas in my head.
This is a largely character driven story, and it doesn't attach itself to one character - more like it follows the family, sometimes a few characters at the time, and makes you wonder about how wild, unimaginable and unexpected life can truly be. I ended up being attached to most of them, and they're all so wonderfully distinct and unique. And while you know it's just a book, you also realize you're suddenly remembering all those stories your great grandmother told you that were just like this, but also happened to someone living, not fictional. This book read like life - no embellishments, sometimes even harsher than life seems to be, but... Then you think about it and wonder, maybe you've had it easier than you thought. And you shudder, not knowing what the future might bring, especially in today's context.
Pachinko was unbelievable, and white it's a very long book, I read more than a half of it in one sitting on a Saturday afternoon. I couldn't pry myself away - it's been a while since I've been sucked into a story like this. It's not an easy read, but it's certainly very worthwhile. And now I find myself wondering about the author's choice for the title of this book. Is it Pachinko because the families worked in Pachinko business? Or is it Pachinko because human lives are like those balls, dropped on the pins, where they fall wherever chances takes them, randomly, but with very different consequences for the rest of their lives?...more
The first book was amazing, but what's up with this one? It seems there is no plot at all, and everything that happens is this constant parade of expeThe first book was amazing, but what's up with this one? It seems there is no plot at all, and everything that happens is this constant parade of expensive things that gets old real fast. Kind of way too over the top for me in this one. In the previous book, the positive characters we're supposed to root for were rich of course, but they weren't vain or snobbish. In this one? I'm not sure how we're supposed to understand it, but everyone's ridiculously, stupidly vain and an incredible snob. Feels very tasteless. Feels like it's going against what the first book set up.
I was also not sure why Kitty Pong was attempted to be made a sort of secondary main character..? It felt so artificial. She was put down so much in the first book as a brainless sellout, I couldn't bring myself to even start liking her in this one. Odd choice for upgrade to main character.
All in all, this felt like it was written by a different person than the first book. I swear, the only things that felt the same were the footnotes. Really weird....more
How I read this: Free ebook copy received through Edelweiss
4.5 stars, rounded to 5
I absolutely loved The Dreamweavers. A quick and satisfying middle-gHow I read this: Free ebook copy received through Edelweiss
4.5 stars, rounded to 5
I absolutely loved The Dreamweavers. A quick and satisfying middle-grade fantasy read that is based on Chinese folk tales, great for the child and adult alike. What I particularly enjoyed was that the author entwined her own fantasy with tales told her by her grandparents, as the author was born in China herself. Any fantasy tale that’s steeped in the author’s own culture is usually well worth the read!
How I read this: Free ebook copy received through Edelweiss
I was on page 15 of this book, when I took a long deep breath and covered my eyes, so I couHow I read this: Free ebook copy received through Edelweiss
I was on page 15 of this book, when I took a long deep breath and covered my eyes, so I could deal with the emotion better. I grew up as a single mother’s daughter. The novel is just getting started, and no, my dad didn’t die and my mom wasn’t a traditionalist housewife, and yet… Everything is the same. Somehow.
It just gripped my heart, and I nearly started crying. “No matter what she did […] or what she ended up achieving, she and her daughter remained on the other side of everyone else.” THIS. EXACTLY THIS. All my life.
There’s a glass wall that was put in between me and the world DECADES AGO. And it’s a gap I am still unable to close, at age 33, myself now married and with a good career.
How I read this: Free ebook copy received through Edelweiss
From the Ashes made me sad, like every single book about Native/indigenous people's strugglHow I read this: Free ebook copy received through Edelweiss
From the Ashes made me sad, like every single book about Native/indigenous people's struggles in the post-collonial world does. The saddest thing of all is that most of the stories carry a lot of the same vibe, same reasons and tragedies, so despite having read only a few, you still know that it's a story of so many more people's lives - people who simply couldn't afford to tell it. And that as bad and as sad as it was, it isn't even the worst one, most likely. My heart always hurts knowing how these cultures were robbed of their future. It's such a loss to our world as a whole.
From the Ashes is told in a straightforward manner, and the key takeaway for me was that unless you are loved, you will not thrive. And that it's not even poverty or hardship that undermines your chances in life so much as the fact that nobody has properly loved you as a child, or at least hasn't made it known to you that you were loved and someone believed in you. As a child, the author felt that maybe his parents' shortcomings were his fault somehow (as most children feel about their parents' problems or divorce), and that only as an adult he realized that every carer he's ever had looked at him and his brothers as burdens, transactions, duties... But not children. Not people who needed love to not only thrive - to simply survive and not crumble.
As for the story itself, it really kind of baffles the mind - in the sense of "how did he even survive". Some of the things the author went through... You think, it's plain impossible that he's here, publishing this book right now. Because it simply can't be humanly possible. Nothing short of a miracle or a few in fact. And they're a bit scary. I'm obviously glad the author was given so many chances and managed to get back up eventually. But it's also scary to think how many chances he just let go of, how many chances given it took for him to stand up and get out of the darkness.
It really is a powerful story, but it's not an easy one. There are many hard points to this story - assault, homelessness, violence, disease and emotional trauma, abandonment and so, so much more. Most of the book is dedicated to these points, and not the ascension "from the ashes". It's a powerful story, but a sensitive reader should think twice before they tackle it - it's not for someone who is struggling through anxiety or depression at the moment. Keep this story for when you're stronger. But you won't regret reading it - I wouldn't call it inspiring rather than just "awakening". After reading something like that, you will count your blessings in life.
I thank the publisher for giving me a free copy of the ebook in exchange to my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.
How I read this: Free ebook copy received through Edelweiss
There is a lot of positive stuff about this one, but it didn't quite balance it out for me.How I read this: Free ebook copy received through Edelweiss
There is a lot of positive stuff about this one, but it didn't quite balance it out for me. I'll get the negative stuff out of the way and then mention what I did think was awesome.
I wasn't sure what to think of this book - I couldn't figure out for a long time whether we're supposed to hate this new stepmother character, or not. Because some of the times, she'd do something terrible or threatening, and you'd think she's a manipulator and a danger to Josie, the main character. Other times, she would do something positive or show understanding, and it was unclear whether she was going to come out positive after all. Is this a bad woman who Josie will have to beat? Or is it just a different point of view that Josie will have to overcome and eventually they will click and there will be learning? This wasn't clear way past even the midpoint, and it was driving me nuts. I do understand that in life things aren't quite black and white like that, but the reader, especially a middle grade reader, is usually being guided towards what they're supposed to feel. I couldn't pick that up here - it felt like the book isn't quite making up its own mind.
Another big trigger for me is irresponsible or bad dads. Unfortunately, this book had one. Absolutely not the book's fault and that's probably the whole point, but that's also why I didn't quite click with the story. While most of the time the dad is being manipulated by a woman, he is still... just not a very good dad. This made the story pretty hard for me to read. I guess I didn't expect the dad to not be on the side of the child, and it greatly upset me. But I realize this is all me - that's a valid plot and it's not the book's fault that it particularly triggers me because I had an absent father.
On the positive note, I have to mention that the book is plenty culturally genuine - I can't check the veracity of how accurate it is, because I am a person born and living in Europe, so I've never known much about the Caribbean. But the language in the book and some of the cultural details mentioned were interesting and really painted a picture for me. That's always great, and we should have more books like that.
Another thing that was great was that Josie really wanted to play cricket, and she was really good - but she was constantly being put down as a girl player, and not allowed to play with boys. A big part of the story was overcoming that and that's a good storyline for sure.
Unfortunately, that wasn't enough to carry the story for me. I would have preferred a clearer plot - if it's 50% in and you're still wondering whether the villain is the villain, I would say the story is being needlessly ambiguous.
It did get obvious later on, but I have to say, it kind of got terrifying after that. (view spoiler)[ An 11 year old who fears for the life of her dad, disappearing pets and drowning teachers - (hide spoiler)]it was all a bit too scary and dark for a middle grade for me. Not to even mention that the ending read like a horror scene for me. I don't know if I would have wanted to read that as a kid. But maybe that's just me! I am a sensitive adult as well as I was a kid, so please consider other people's reviews too (especially if they're Carribean reviewers!)
I thank the publisher for giving me a free copy of the ebook in exchange to my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.
How I read this: borrowed through BookBeat audio subscription
Mixed feelings about this one. I liked it a lot at first, and the audiobook narration is How I read this: borrowed through BookBeat audio subscription
Mixed feelings about this one. I liked it a lot at first, and the audiobook narration is brilliant. But then, I don't know... Things kept going nowhere, and at the end, everything (view spoiler)[ falls into place as if it's an afterthought. Things that weren't in the story for most of the book suddenly matter. It kind of felt a little deus ex machina that way. (hide spoiler)] The book was certainly good entertainment, but it wasn't as good as I thought it would be.
I also had a pet peeve about this book. There was a bit where they spoke about a blood test for paternity ascertainment. But DNA testing wasn't used before the 60s or 70s. This is 1956. So I'm still confused about whether this was lack or research or maybe something else was meant. Meh.
I mostly enjoyed the plot and writing of this novel and even though it's not my favorite, I thought it was worth the read. HOWEVER, please keep in mind that my opinion is a European person's opinion and I know next to nothing about what India is really like. So please take a look at some opinions by genuine Indian readers here on Goodreads. Some of them saw certain problems with exoticizing India and real critique on how the caste system was represented. My rating remains as it is because I don't know anything about these subjects, therefore it only expresses my emotional enjoyment of the story. Please read Indian people's reviews too to form a complete opinion. One such example could be Shruti's review.
How I read this: Free ebook copy received through Edelweiss
4.5 stars
This book was incredibly interesting. While I have never been to Japan (sigh...), How I read this: Free ebook copy received through Edelweiss
4.5 stars
This book was incredibly interesting. While I have never been to Japan (sigh...), I have grown up in a country where foraging for mushrooms is common and normal. We would go on mushroom picking trips to the forest every autumn, ever since I was a little kid, and many other families did as well. The custom is sadly slowly fading out, but it's still quite normal to do it. So having grown up with it, I know what a rare treat foraging and actually FINDING stuff is. I sometimes wonder whether we tap into our ancient brain when we go picking mushrooms or berries - because there's certainly a high associated with finding them - at least for me, and it's a high like no other. It wouldn't surprise me if my brain still rewards me for accomplishing something my great great great grandmothers needed simply to survive.
So reading about foraging in a country whose culture I really admire was truly magical. I have never had or seen most of the plants mentioned there, but what is Google for anyway? Naturally, I spent the entire book googling the plants and fawning over imagined dishes with them. It was so interesting to learn that people apparently still forage a lot for wild vegetables - that's so interesting, because while it's completely normal to forage for wild strawberry, huckleberry, cranberry and mushrooms here, greens are just not something we pick (possibly due to the climate or simple widespread traditions of agriculture). Now more than ever I want to go visit Japan and find some local small farm to visit where I could taste some of these foods!
The book also includes recipes, but I don't know how useful they are outside of Japan. The author does mention some substitutions, but the recipes are mostly meant for foraged plants in Japan. For some of them, maybe they could be grown in your garden too, but since I'm not a gardener, I wasn't familiar with the names. However, if you are, you might know them, as the author includes both the English and the original Japanese names as well. She does mention in a couple of places where you could buy it if you're outside of Japan.
It also includes some pleasant, black and white line drawings that complement the essays and the recipes.
It was definitely not a standard type of book - I've never read one where it's not specifically a recipe book, but rather these essays about food and the history of foraging in Japan, historical methods of gathering and working the materials, with some recipes and ideas interspersed in between of the stories. I liked this format - it felt as if I was hanging out in someone's home, and they were telling me stories while I was also watching them cook and teach me the recipe. I would love to read more books in this format.
I thank the publisher for giving me a free copy of the ebook in exchange to my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.
How I read this: Free ebook copy received through Edelweiss
I loved this story! The best thing about it was that it had such an interesting plot, like How I read this: Free ebook copy received through Edelweiss
I loved this story! The best thing about it was that it had such an interesting plot, like you could tell this wasn't a Western story, because the layout of the plot felt so different, and I can't even tell you how exactly. It felt very different, but so good.
It also had quite a lot of character! Old ladies who seem to know stuff about ghosts and the living dead, invisible mothers, prying cat guardians... It's tough being a schoolboy in a situation like this! Kazu, the protagonist, is just a simple school boy, but soon finds out he can see some weird stuff that others can't. He gets really worried about this and ends up getting involved in a whirlwind of events that have something to do with people coming back to life - or more like, one specific person.
What I loved most was how touching this story was. Kazu was a very "soft" boy character, and it was great - this kind of softness and kindness isn't common in Western stories. Kazu cared so much about someone else's welfare - tried so hard to save someone, cried when they were in danger. It was such warm and sincere behavior, it really touched my heart. A lot of this story is about compassion and letting someone have a second chance.
But of course, apart from that, this story is also great because it has that "slightly mystical" thing going on, and it even had a story within a story, and a good moral side of the plot that really shines through at the very end. It was a wonderful read!
I thank the publisher for giving me a free copy of the ebook in exchange to my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.
How I read this: Free audiobook copy received through Libro.fm
Normally not much of a fantasy reader, I couldn't pass this one up, because I love anythHow I read this: Free audiobook copy received through Libro.fm
Normally not much of a fantasy reader, I couldn't pass this one up, because I love anything set in the Mesoamerican world. I have recently read Servant of the Underworld, so Black Sun felt like something incredibly enticing.
I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have made it through the book if I was reading a print version, but the audiobook is incredibly well done. The elements of epic fantasy which I know I would have been bored with on the page, came alive through audio. It's quite a complex story with many characters, and it's a bit of a shame this is a series, because I'll definitely forget all of them before I can read book 2! But I'm definitely curious about what happens. It is an epic, engaging story.
A couple of things to mention - one is that this book is about as inclusive as it gets - most characters are gender non-binary/non-conforming (I'm crossing my fingers I used the right term... You know what I mean!) or at the very least queer (loads of queer characters!) I think I remember a mention of someone trans? (That was a side character "in the wild" - completely culturally normal in the world of the book with the way it was presented, which was refreshing.) There were some special pronouns used regularly that I have no idea how I'd spell because this was on audio (maybe xe?), but from what I remember of some South American native cultures, it does check out - some of them did have a broader understanding of gender than our society generally does, which I found very cool. So this was great about the book.
Other than that, it is very different from Servant of the Underworld, because that book, while fantasy, was deeply rooted in the cultural research of those places the story was set in, and there was a lot of explaining about customs - sort of more historical, with fantasy elements. Meanwhile, Black Sun is more like... Straight up fantasy, that happens to be set in South America, god knows in what century. The line between fantasy and history blurs, and sometimes I wished I knew which facts and customs were real, and which were just fantasy, because I'm more interested in the historical cultures rather than the fantasy element. But most readers will enjoy that and it's by no means bad! Truthfully, there are too little books set in that culture and period, and these two are about as different as they can get - and yet we need all of these kinds, and more. (Please authors, write more.)
Overall, it was an interesting fantasy and if it engaged even me, not much of a fantasy fan, readers who enjoy this genre should love it. I certainly will be waiting for the sequels.
I thank the publisher and libro.fm for giving me a free copy of the audiobook in exchange to my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.
How I read this: Free ebook copy received through NetGalley
I enjoyed some of the stories in this collection, but most felt like a chore. I struggled tHow I read this: Free ebook copy received through NetGalley
I enjoyed some of the stories in this collection, but most felt like a chore. I struggled to finish this book, and I'm really sad, cause I'm a huge fan of the Remembrance of Earth's Past series. Part of this could be because I rarely enjoy short story collections (their themes tend to be too varied and the stories too different to really resonate with me). I hoped I'd still like them, cause this is Liu Cixin. But that didn't work out. I'm still giving it 3 stars though, because some of the stories are really good - I don't know, it's always so hard to evaluate story collections. They're all very different.
The author talks about connecting the big and the small in the preface - and indeed the stories do. The smallest of the people can save an entire civilization, and the smallest person can be compared to the biggest cosmic entity. Liu Cixin has always known how to contrast the tiny and the huge, how to make seingly insignificant things appear looming and world-changing. I guess that is the message he wants to put across with his writing, and these stories certainly carry this vibe well.
More About Each Story Individually
The Village Teacher was a touching, although very wistful and sad. However, I found deep meaning in it. It's a story of unrecognized huge deeds, or heroes who were forgotten before anyone even knew they were heroes. It is also a song of praise for the profession of teachers. This story will stay with me for a long time.
The Time Migration is a short philosophical musing on what we, as humans, leave behind as a heritage and the meaning of who we are. It's also a very classical scifi time travel story which lacked a little bit of substance for me.
2018-04-01 was similar, a super short story meant to evoke the idea of making a big choice that will decide the rest of your whole life and what you lose and gain because of it, but it failed to really hook me and was over before it really started it seemed. By the end of the book, I already barely remember what it was about.
Fire in the Earth contrasts human hubris and the power of the elements, and what cost must be paid for thinking of the human will as too grand, but also about the cost of progress and improvement. This story felt really powerful and tragic. The descriptions of the elements were both masterfully written, as well as masterfully translated. I was at the edge of my seat. (Also, after reading this one you'll Google Chinese ground fires of coal mines. There's one been burning since 1644 or something. It's bigger than you or me or anything, basically. That fire will burn long after me and you are gone. It's WILD. And I never knew this even existed, before I read this story.) This story will also stay with me a while.
Contraction is quite interesting and it has a nice twist, if you are unfamiliar with some bigger physics theories about the expansion and contraction of the universe. I, unfortunately, knew where it was going so it didn't really catch me unawares. However, it was a nice idea.
Mirror was longer and I immediately liked it. The characters were developed more than in the other stories, and the story was more involved. It's about what would happen to society if we knew what everyone was up to, all the time. The answer? Big changes, and definitely not good. This one reminded me of Liu Cixin's style, as I know it, the most - which is to say, it felt the most like the Three Body Problem books.
Ode to Joy was a brilliant revisiting of the idea of Sophon, the intelligent and quite omnipotent quantum particle from Liu Cixin's Remembrance of Earth's Past (Three Body Problem etc.) series, except in this one, it's not the same Sophon and has nothing to do with Trisolaris, so it poses no danger to humanity. Instead, it has come to play a magical concert to Earthlings as an audience. The concert becomes meaningful not only musically, but historically. I found this story delightful and full of emotional significance, and I'm sure I'll remember it for a while as well.
Full-Spectrum Barrage Jamming - I barely got through this one. First of all, it's about war and it's fairly bloody - I have no interest in either of these two things. Second of all, the war is between Russia and NATO, and seeing as how my country is situated in between of what would be the frontline and it would get absolutely pulverized in something like that, I don't even want to think about it. Also, it was written by a Chinese man, so guess who wins? I mostly skipped through this one and wasn't comfortable reading it.
Sea of Dreams was a very depressing story and I didn't like it much because it was just too much of a downer. But I have to admit, it did carry a deep meaning - about how art survives above all. It doesn't matter if you lose everything and it's so hard to survive - art can still live even in the harshest environment - you can't tie down the human soul.
Cloud of Poems was quite a lovely story, about art and technology and what's superior, and its placement straight after Sea of Dreams makes sense too. In a world where humans are now livestock to dinosaurs, the meaning of ancient Chinese poetry changes the destiny of humanity.
The Thinker was quite magnificent, and a really lovely story to end the book on. It is made up of two elements - one is a very Asian love story - reminded me of the Japanese Tanabata, lovers in the sky who meet once a year during this festival. I am more familiar with Japanese culture which is why this came to mind, but I'm sure something like that exist in the Chinese mythology as well. The reason I'm calling it very Asian was because I've read Liu Cixin himself talk about this Chinese romanticism regarding one of his Remembrance of Earth's Past character story lines, which is why when reading this I thought he's doing the same here. So this story was kind of like that - a neuroscientist and an astronomer meet by accident, and then keep meeting with many years apart, secretly in love but not acting on it - it's very symbolic and very romantic, in the Chinese manner. It was beautiful. The other part of the storyline was that there's a cosmic consciousness for which a whole human lifetime is less than a single heartbeat long. It was a brilliant contrast of the big and small, and the marriage of romance plus science and intellect. If every story in the book was like this one, I would have given it 5 stars.
I thank the publisher for giving me a free copy of the ebook in exchange to my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.
How I read this: Free ebook copy received through NetGalley
DNF @ 20%
I was very happy to be approved for this book, and I'm very sorry to be unable to How I read this: Free ebook copy received through NetGalley
DNF @ 20%
I was very happy to be approved for this book, and I'm very sorry to be unable to finish it and give a proper review. When I requested it, I didn't know it would severely trigger me. I will not be able to comment about what triggered me because it's highly personal, but the book may be triggering to victims of abuse, so please read other people's reviews to learn more about the triggers before you pick this book up.
I thank the publisher for giving me a free copy of the ebook in exchange to my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.
How I read this: Free ebook copy received through NetGalley
This book brought me straight back to high school. Even though I'm not Chinese, I could relHow I read this: Free ebook copy received through NetGalley
This book brought me straight back to high school. Even though I'm not Chinese, I could relate to a lot of things David lives through because my high school rhythm was similar to his - I graduated with honors and spent most of my time studying. Well, thankfully, I didn't have to work evenings after that as David did! Being a straight A's student is already hard enough, without the added work.
And although I don't normally enjoy being brought back into my teen memories as it wasn't my best time, I enjoyed this book - because David seems to be handling things much better than I did. I really liked his character, and sometimes I wondered how things would be now if I had it in me to get out of the situations the way David managed.
I liked the story, and it wraps up very nicely, and reads quickly. It doesn't have very big dramatic events - just regular things in the life of a Chinese teen, growing up in America - but all the better, because daily struggles are just as real as life drama. So I can definitely recommend this read.
I thank the publisher for giving me a free copy of the ebook in exchange to my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.
Evelina | AvalinahsBooks
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