![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
extrapenguinI have acquired a terrible flu, and am frightfully bored, because I want to go outside and exercise, which is ... not advisable. Instead, I made inroads into more of my to-read pile.
The Stars are Legion
Firstly, it's a standalone, so no nail-biting wait for a squillion sequels.
Secondly, the back cover blurb doesn't quite capture the thing.
Despite the fact that it's first person, I liked it! (Especially the "Lord Mokshi, Annals of the Legion" bits that preface each chapter.) There are two narrators, Zan and Jayn. Most of the narration is from Zan's POV. The premise is that there is a Legion of organic world-ships who are decaying, but cannot leave their position – apart from one empty one, Mokshi, which Zan is sent to get into. By Jayn and her family. Zan has succeeded repeatedly, but each time she comes back without her memory. Now, Jayn's faction isn't the only one, and there's lots of interesting politics going on.
All the inhabitants of the world-ships are women, and the ship somehow makes the women get pregnant and give birth to components – gears, etc. The ships do have metal frames, but they're patterned off humans and have arteries and such. There is some gore and body horror, though I could read it, and I'm not at all a fan of body horror. If pregnancy squicks you, skip this one.
I was happy with pretty much everything except the ending. I'd much rather have had Jayn be Lord Kataryzna on the Kataryzna ship with the inevitable remainers, away from Zan, Lord Mokshi. Too much bad blood for me to believe anything could happen. Future Zan/Sabita, though, I'd be down for – especially if Sabita magically reacquires a tongue. I found Casamir annoying at first, but she grew on me later on. Arankadash, I started liking soon after her introduction, since I like her type of character. Das Muni I liked only a bit for her own sake, but mostly for how she was a way to showcase Zan's humanity – until the reveal at the end, when I was all yes good press those loyalty buttons.
On a related note, I am accepting book recs for science fiction. On a semi-related note, I tried getting into Fran Wilde's Uplift and bounced off the teenage first-person POV protagonist. I'll probably try it again later, but oh well. If that doesn't work, I have a younger sibling who's into fantasy.
The Stars are Legion
Firstly, it's a standalone, so no nail-biting wait for a squillion sequels.
Secondly, the back cover blurb doesn't quite capture the thing.
Despite the fact that it's first person, I liked it! (Especially the "Lord Mokshi, Annals of the Legion" bits that preface each chapter.) There are two narrators, Zan and Jayn. Most of the narration is from Zan's POV. The premise is that there is a Legion of organic world-ships who are decaying, but cannot leave their position – apart from one empty one, Mokshi, which Zan is sent to get into. By Jayn and her family. Zan has succeeded repeatedly, but each time she comes back without her memory. Now, Jayn's faction isn't the only one, and there's lots of interesting politics going on.
All the inhabitants of the world-ships are women, and the ship somehow makes the women get pregnant and give birth to components – gears, etc. The ships do have metal frames, but they're patterned off humans and have arteries and such. There is some gore and body horror, though I could read it, and I'm not at all a fan of body horror. If pregnancy squicks you, skip this one.
I was happy with pretty much everything except the ending. I'd much rather have had Jayn be Lord Kataryzna on the Kataryzna ship with the inevitable remainers, away from Zan, Lord Mokshi. Too much bad blood for me to believe anything could happen. Future Zan/Sabita, though, I'd be down for – especially if Sabita magically reacquires a tongue. I found Casamir annoying at first, but she grew on me later on. Arankadash, I started liking soon after her introduction, since I like her type of character. Das Muni I liked only a bit for her own sake, but mostly for how she was a way to showcase Zan's humanity – until the reveal at the end, when I was all yes good press those loyalty buttons.
On a related note, I am accepting book recs for science fiction. On a semi-related note, I tried getting into Fran Wilde's Uplift and bounced off the teenage first-person POV protagonist. I'll probably try it again later, but oh well. If that doesn't work, I have a younger sibling who's into fantasy.