Status Updates From Cizincem v Olondrii

damn can this girl take a breath 💀

Found its stride for real again with this last 30% or so. Gnashing my teeth rending my clothes etc. with how beautiful the last few chapters have been. Probably gonna finish this and need to stare at a wall for a while

ngl i have to pep talk myself into picking this up each day. it's well done and i think i understand the point of the story, but every new character and location just slides out of my brain with the next pageturn. the book has loftier ambitions than just action - it's a story about the power of books and words which i fully agree with, but there is still a real core conflict (the haunting) that keeps losing tension

“his stinging odor clung about me like the ghost of a struck match”

how do you even learn how to write like this

I think Samatar is challenging what epic fantasy is. Young male protag with dad issues a pastoral childhood and kooky mentor leaves home for adventure - but he's a gentleman scholar who can't fight. Invented languages, many countries, foreign customs, but ghosts and angels instead of monsters, rituals and hallucinogens instead of spells, nonWest instead of West. What IS epic fantasy vs. what we think is familiar

Took a sudden and SIGNIFICANT turn and now the POV and prose are different, framed as journal entries while Jevick loses his mind. This is now a ghost story. Samatar does a cool job of making the superstitions and supernatural beliefs seem real and fantasy, but we're not 100% sure because this is very low fantasy. Elements of this remind me of African lit I read in school. Jevick is frustrating but I'm interested

African+Mediterranean-esque low fantasy bildungsroman with very rich prose, written by someone who loves literature and travel. All about the vibes so far and the vibes are good. Our young naive aristocrat protag probably needs to learn to appreciate his quiet island home rather than keep on dreaming about rich distant cities. I love the stark contrast between cultures and how Jevick appreciates every little thing