Read All The Books Aaaaaah! discussion

This has been on my TBR for a year now, but I had to bump it up to first in the queue because they just announced a movie based on it, and whenever that happens the library wait becomes very long, so I got there first this time.

I've begun it, and my first impression is that it's just like Evangelion. They're piloting giant humanoid shells refashioned from killed/captured monsters from Chinese mythology, with someone's soul being the fuel, just like in Eva they piloted giant humanoid things fashioned from cloned monsters from Hebrew mythology, with someone's soul as the interface.

My second impression is that there's a lot of information that is not given to the reader. The characters in this book are reimagined historical figures from Chinese history, but we are not told anything about the historical figures that would have given context to their roles in this story -- we're just given a note at the beginning to "please consult non-fiction sources." It's similar to having a story with characters named Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr, George Washington, and King George all playing roles similar to their historical roles, but only if you, the reader, have never seen those names before and have no idea about their history or personalities. So here I have to look up their history myself. Wouldn't this have been a good opportunity to educate the readers about historical figures that aren't covered in our schools?

Also, the names have meaning in Chinese that's not given to the reader. For instance, the main character's name is Wu Zetian. I had to look it up to see what it meant, and it means essentially "Heavenly Empress Military Weapon", which is both distinctive and appropriate for her role in this story.

So far, this book is a fiery, rousing revenge story. In addition to the Evangelion similarities, there are also some cool actions and symbolic surrealism straight out of Revolutionary Girl Utena! I can also see the comparisons to the Hunger Games, though the parallels there are a couple of extra steps removed compared to the anime parallels. This one is "avenge her dead sister against an unjust system", not "protect her living sister from an unjust system". Here it's military actions against a real threat, not entertainment for the rich, and it's all institutionalised sexism, not classism.

If the movie adapts this story faithfully, there's going to be a lot of talk.

Still really liking this ruthless character. Good book. 1 star taken off because it's all in present tense, though.

I wasn't expecting to see the phrase "free use" in this book, but I already knew about the polyamory.

Should add Iczer-1 to the list of anime influences in this book, I think.

Lots of weird twists going on here close to the end, and plenty of doubt as to whether they've done / are doing the right thing.

This book shows that writers don't need to spend the majority of the book beating the heroine into the ground before letting them rise up and get their revenge. You can, in fact, have most of the book being the heroine getting a systematic revenge against everyone that wronged them.

The book also had a satisfying ending, while providing hooks for the next book in the epilogue. I think I'll read the next book, because I liked this one.

Four stars, and probably would have been 5 if not for the whole book being written in 1st person present tense.