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105 reviews

Amelia

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Amelia is Currently Reading

Amelia is currently reading

Wild Seed (Patternist, 1)

by Octavia E. Butler

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Jul 16, 2026 08:15AM

Amelia rated a book it was amazing

An Empire in the Clouds

by Ai Jiang (Goodreads Author)

bookshelves: currently-reading

Reading for the 2nd time

read in July 2026

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Amelia said: " Thanks to Netgalley for an early arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I’m an atheist but I am choosing to believe this book came to me through some sort of divine intervention.

I’d been mourning The Spear Cuts Through Water and the uniqu Thanks to Netgalley for an early arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I’m an atheist but I am choosing to believe this book came to me through some sort of divine intervention.

I’d been mourning The Spear Cuts Through Water and the unique, immersive, largely second person narrative that offered me. I read it way too quickly and fell in love. Then - like a light through a tunnel, I open Netgalley and this glimmering gem is on my suggested page.

and goddamnit I read it way too quickly again.

The Empire in the Clouds was simply stunning. I can’t begin to describe with remote adequacy just how beautiful I found everything in these short pages. The prose is lush and mythic, this absolutely incredible blend of decadent Chinese inspired fantasy that invokes this almost fairytale feel, mixed with such incredible Sci-Fi and hypertechnological world. I’ll be so honest I didn’t think it would work and would like to sincerely apologise to Jiang for ever doubting her. It really really worked, and so many of the details like the Mimics were both highly inventive and honestly creepy af 😂.

We follow Xīlán and No Face in a world where corruption has rotted the roots of the world and immortality is a commodity bought and sold. Everything about An Empire in the Clouds was engaging and addictive. The plot is disorienting in a way I honestly really enjoyed, it kept my guessing and my heart racing to the very last page. This is truly a book you can’t decide who to trust even yourself sometimes, and it worked so well in this plot’s favour.

One of the things I loved best about this was the emotional core of the story. Yes there’s plenty of action and adrenaline, tonnes of truly beautiful prose. But where it shone the best for me was the emotional bits. The discourse around fragmented identity and unusual familial relationships was done fantastically by Jiang. I’d be in the middle of something action packed then get hit by a brick wall with emotion that did universal even in this truly unique world.

Praise to the chef, truly.

Yes the second person narrative can be a bit throwing, but let yourself get used to it. Here it’s done so well and in such an immersive way I’ll bet money you’ll struggle to read anything outside of second person ever again.

If you will excuse me I’m running to buy the rest of Jiang’s repetoire, asap. ...more "

Jul 05, 2026 08:44AM · see review

Amelia’s Quotes

“Dreaming is fickle, capricious, cannibalistic. Dreaming, like sadness, loves nothing so much as those that need it terribly.
Show me, anywhere, a gifted Dreamer, of true and verifiable sound mind”
― Clare Robertson, Some Advanced Notes On Practical Dreaming

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“At some point you have made the decision that all that is magic must equally be wondrous. At some point you have made a mistake.”
― Clare Robertson, Some Advanced Notes On Practical Dreaming

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“Sam does what only someone who was shamed out of a promising career as a teenaged introvert can; she takes a breath and she shakes out her wrists and she pretends to be somebody else entirely.”
― Clare Robertson, Some Advanced Notes On Practical Dreaming

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“Sid's love for Nina and Nina's love for Sid should be kept in a museum. Put behind glass where it can suffer no more than fingerprints and overzealous light.”
― Clare Robertson, Some Advanced Notes On Practical Dreaming

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“Sam thinks of witches, thinks of women chained to rocks, thinks of drugs in wine and little girls killed to raise a more favourable wind.”
― Clare Robertson, Some Advanced Notes On Practical Dreaming

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