Added this series to my list a few months back. Read book 1 about a month ago and I’m about 70% through book 2.
I’m struggling to understand why this book is so recommended here and on Amazon. Perhaps the English translation version is just bad?
The pacing is terrible and the plot is meandering (to put it nicely). And overall the character arcs and storyline is confusing. It has a ton of filler content that doesn’t add much and feels like it needs an editor to chop it down / tighten it up.
Every once in a while there are some novelties, like droplets (book 2). But last night while reading I was just skipping pages hoping to get it over with.
Was hoping for Alastair Reynolds but this is more Ayn Rand.
I hate quitting a book but I’m just about there. Throwing out a lifeline in case I’m missing something…
It had some interesting sci-fi ideas and concepts, even if some of them were so unrealistic that I couldn’t maintain my suspension of disbelief (esp. in the 3rd book).
Honestly, I think a substantial part of the reason that these books are so acclaimed is because of a largely liberal English-speaking readership (of which I am absolutely a member) that is currently over-eager to embrace works from other cultures and is willing to overlook considerable flaws in order to do so. If these books were written by a western, native-English-speaking author, I question whether the general reading public would be as quick to forgive – or just outright dismiss – their obvious flaws.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy to see the focus in literature change from its traditional, canonical focus on the writings of dead white men, but the post-colonial race to embrace ‘the other’ in all its instances has arguably jettisoned certain legitimate standards as unwanted dead weight in the process.
That’s my take. I may well be wrong, but I’ve noticed that, when a pendulum that has swung in one direction for too long invariably swings the other way, it swings far and wide.