Booker > Recent Status Updates

If there's one issue I really have with it so far, it is that the author has a tendency toward anthropocentrism.

...Turning this into the library bc I can't focus on it.

While it's engaging enough, I'm failing to see how these pieces connect and it comes across as several separate novels in the same world so far.

Some parts are interesting, others are bogged down in minutia. Some elements remind me of A Crown for Cold Silver, including the separation of the main characters, but it seems more worldbuilt and internally consistent so far. It also avoids the "let's have swearing bc that's adult right?" trap ACfCS blunders into, among other things.

Calling their dragon form their "animal form"? Hahahaha.

Okay, uh... main character had been a child bride less than ten years old and it actually being consummated?

Just looked it up. Marriages of royalty that young would not be consummated immediately.

(It's implied dragons have very similar sexual mores to humans, including ages. [Though the hyperfocused fidelity makes me think it's the same as the Na'vi, where they're idealized for it.])

So far, various elements have the same problem as before. Such as the splitting of dragon self from the dragons and how bizarre it is for dragons to have human taboos and modesty about nudity.

The focus on scents and smells and colors could work well, if it weren't for how it's very idealized, focusing on flowers and sweetness instead of how everything would be amplified...

The problem with these dragons is that, despite the emphasis on the difference between the dragons and humans, the dragons are framing everything in human terms. (Such as them having "Gifts" instead of thinking humans weak, or else how they're so focused on humans, and how one man treats his draconic nature as separate from himself, instead of treating his human guise as the oddity.)

How is it that vampirism works like this? Do vampires inherently enthrall humans whom they bite? Why???

(And why would holy water harm a human who's trying to purify themselves of vampiric taint, anyway?)

Everyone in this story is dumb as shit.

The internal and external continuity is incredibly muddled. She didn't think out the world's actual reaction to things like various supernatural existing and, secondly, how that would affect both the law and theology.

Especially since vampires are harmed by holy objects in-setting.

In this setting, it's assumed the Abrahamic god isn't a genocidal prick, so...

Convenient amnesia.

Okay, I'm forgiving of Kuroda's amnesia because it actually causes plot complications for him. Not this "make everything okay" bullshit.

JUST SHOOT THE BITCH.

...Ahem. Everyone in this book is incredibly stupid whilst thinking they're clever. Cut the Gordian Knot, assholes.

I've been yelling at the book "Stab the bitch" or "strangle the bitch" over the past... thirty pages at least?

Also, narrator has no real associations with family due to her situation, so why does she feel in such a way about the idea of family members killing each other? The whole point of her backstory is that she can't relate to that. "Family was a dirty word" and all.

This suffers an issue better addressed in A:TLA about why Aang had to fight Ozai instead of Iroh or Zuko.

Namely, because the leader of the rebellion is part of the current power structure, it's more like a coup than genuine social change.

It takes away agency of the actual rebellion in-story, since they're being treated as pawns by their horrible overlords.

Also, every character is dumb and I want to stab them.

Seriously, just STAB HER. IF SHE'S THAT BIG OF A BITCH, JUST STAB HER. SHE'S AN OLD LADY.

Okay, so this has the same problem as a lot of bad writing- using numerous plot twists and turns without any foreshadowing just to try to pull the rug from the reader and make the reader think it was clever.

It isn't clever if you pay attention, nor if you know about this sort of blatant manipulation on the author's part.

The supposed rousing speeches are all skipped over and summarized. My guess- worldbuilding's too weak for it to have any weight.

Still don't sympathize with them, even with the sudden sob story for the grandma. They're almost all assholes and I hope they die.

(Then again, I hate the idea of monarchies and anything like them. A dude considered important jizzing in the "right" lady and you popping out the "right" cunt doesn't make you inherently better or more worthy of respect.)

So now INCEST KIND OF.

...Look, the guy already hunts humans for sport. We don't need pseudo-incest attempted rape to hate him any more.

(Though it's probably to make it so that her murdering the guy is more palatable. Which is stupid because this book was already lacking in nuance.)

Why doesn't anyone have cameras or bugs in this place if they're that backstabbing and dislike what the others are planning?