Review: The Ruin of Kings by Jenn Lyons (Preview Excerpt)

The Ruin of Kings by Jenn Lyons
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I received a free e-copy preview excerpt of this book from NetGalley for review purposes. It included the first 23 chapters (seemed like about half the book).

Ho-lee-crap. I was *not* expecting to love this as much as I did. I was expecting it to be your average adventure-fantasy, but there's a lot here to like. Kihrin is kind of a dumbass, but I was fascinated by his story. Getting to know the various characters was interesting, because they each had their own actual developed personality (unlike a lot of the newer stuff out there that sacrifices world-building and characterization for romance and a badly-written plot). The plot itself is pretty tangled up, and even though I'm pretty sure I got the first half of the book, I have no idea where it's really going. And for once, I liked that!!

There were two things that really took away from the book for me:

1. I HATED switching back and forth between Kihrin and Talon for each chapter.
2. Those footnotes! They were numerous, they didn't seem to be super helpful, and who the heck was speaking in them? It wasn't Talon, and presumably wasn't Kihrin - was it supposed to be the person writing everything down from the recording stone? Was it someone else? I'm hoping we get that later.

I am definitely placing this on my to-be-finished shelf (not that I have one) and will hopefully remember to pick up a copy when it's released so I can finish the damn thing! Setting Google alert now...

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Review: A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine (Preview Excerpt)

A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received a free e-copy preview excerpt of this book from NetGalley. I did not read the entire book, but there was enough to get a sense of the world, the plot, and the characters.

I love some great SF, technological, space opera, etc. It's usually a fun time reading about all the ways people think humanity may evolve (or could have evolved in different star systems). The beginning of this excerpt was pretty confusing, but once I got a few chapters in it became a little easier to navigate. While I was interested enough to keep going, I don't know if I will end up picking up a full copy to get the rest of the story.

My primary issue was with the naming system on the planet. It didn't make any sense, and the names were all absolutely ridiculous. One of the main characters was Three Seagrass, and she was making fun of someone who had named himself Thirty-Six All-Terrain Tundra Vehicle, and explaining that someone who named himself Two-E Asteroid was being subtly satiric. I didn't get it. I also couldn't figure out how to pronounce half of the made-up words, but that's a problem I encounter frequently, so I just glossed over them and didn't try to sound them out in my head. But the names!!! Ugh.

The story starts to get interesting just around where the excerpt ends - there's a bombing in the square (or wherever Mahit and Three Seagrass were), and she's being led off to meet one of the emperor's right-hand people (??). I don't know what ranks mean what in the grand scheme of things, and was hoping to glean more of that from the subtext, but it was more than a bit confusing. I was curious to see who set off the bomb, what it had to do with Mahit, and whether Twelve Azalea was a friend or a spy. Not curious enough to buy a copy. If it lands in my library reserve pile, I will update my review on Goodreads accordingly.

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