Status Updates From What We Are Seeking

This is really a bizarre mix of world building styles. I'm both annoyed and fascinated. Also the main character has even more Hot Takes that I can't wait to be confused about/rant about in my review.

After the first two chapters nothing is making sense, and it's not making sense in a "huh???" way rather than an "oh this is interesting" way. Also, wishing you didn't have to eat meat because, of all reasons, you think rats look like humans is... a hot take.

I'm a big fan of the use of a biased narrator encountering human societies different from his own here. I love that he judges the humans on Scythia for their backwards views on marriage and queerness, while at the same time not being aware of how his very narrow definitions of gender from his own homeplanet reads to me as a trans reader. Makes the worldbuilding really fun to puzzle out.

beautiful writing, and a subtly complex narrative that I am quite in love with already. The only way this could be better is if I had a hard copy to read, but my local library only had the digital version. Ah, life!

I am stresssssseddd 😵

This book is so slow😭, but it's culturally, linguistically, and biologically rich so I guess it's worth it