Wednesday, January 19, 2022

The House of Binding Thorns, by Aliette de Bodard

I'm at 2.5 stars on this one. Like the first entry in Dominion of the Fallen, the dialog in this book is heavy with melodrama. Every single line is breathless. This has its place, but if it never lets up it gets hard to enjoy the plot or understand the characters. Everyone is overwrought and overwhelmed, all the time, except Asmodeus who is equally melodramatic in being above it all (though he has character building moments at the end). I think this gets better in the later stories.

In some ways this style conveys the inhuman nature of the Fallen, so it has that going for it. But we get no contrast with humans--they are all in with the melodrama as well. Including dramatically stating all their intentions, and responses. "You'll find I'm no easy prey"--anyone or thing that has to say this is, in fact, easy prey.

This reading experience obviously appeals more to some than others. Not so much for me.

No comments:

Post a Comment

The Water Outlaws, by S. L. Huang

According to the introduction this book is intended to evoke "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" (thought that title is not explicitl...