isabel rated The Poppy War: 5 stars

The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang
A brilliantly imaginative talent makes her exciting debut with this epic historical military fantasy, inspired by the bloody history of …
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A brilliantly imaginative talent makes her exciting debut with this epic historical military fantasy, inspired by the bloody history of …
A brilliantly imaginative talent makes her exciting debut with this epic historical military fantasy, inspired by the bloody history of …
A brilliantly imaginative talent makes her exciting debut with this epic historical military fantasy, inspired by the bloody history of …
It was January 2021, and Rick Deckard had a license to kill. Somewhere among the hordes of humans out there, …
Der Roman spielt im England des frühen 19. Jahrhunderts und erzählt die Geschichte der fünf unverheirateten Töchter von Mr. und …
Eine tolle Einführung in hooks' Idee des Feminismus, die noch dazu eine ist, die auch diejenigen mitdenkt, die sich vom aktuellen Feminismus abgehängt fühlen. Der Titel "Feminismus für alle" ist als Anspruch von hooks an sich selbst zu verstehen, ein Werk zu schaffen, das ein Themenfeld, welches für viele erstmal komplex erscheint, für alle Menschen erschließbar zu machen. Und tatsächlich ertappte ich mich mehrfach bei dem Gedanken, dass es doch eigentlich sehr sinnvoll wäre, das Buch möglichst vielen Leuten weiterzugeben. Denn selbst, wenn man sich als standfester Feministin begreift, kann man aus diesem Buch denke ich doch noch etwas mitnehmen.
Aus dem Englischen übersetzt von Margarita Ruppel.
Locker und leicht verständlich, klar und präzise erklärt bell hooks in Feminismus für …
Mir wurde die Mona-Serie von mehreren Bekannten empfohlen, und die Eckdaten sind auch erstmal interessant: Eine Geschichte über eine Hexe aus Frankfurt, die mit diversen anderen übernatürlichen Wesen ins Gehege kommt. Darunter Dämonen, Vampire, Werwölfe, verfluchte Skelette – die ganze Palette eben. Eine Romanze noch dazu. Ich hatte gerade etwas leichte Kost gesucht, um mal wieder ein bisschen ans Lesen zu kommen, da wirkte das auf den ersten Blick wie genau das richtige.
Leider muss ich jetzt, nachdem ich das Buch gelesen habe, sagen, dass es deutlich hinter meinen Erwartungen zurückgeblieben ist. Der Humor geht oft nicht über Referenzen zu bekannten Fantasy- und SciFi-Franchises hinaus. Die Romanze entsteht durch eine Zwangsheirat, die irgendwie von allen sehr leger behandelt wird. Tausende Jahre alte Dämonen verhalten sich wie Teenager und an jeder Ecke wird ein neuer Charakter vorgestellt, der die Geschichte durch seine Anwesenheit nicht unbedingt bereichert. Die Motivationen und Gefühle der …
Mir wurde die Mona-Serie von mehreren Bekannten empfohlen, und die Eckdaten sind auch erstmal interessant: Eine Geschichte über eine Hexe aus Frankfurt, die mit diversen anderen übernatürlichen Wesen ins Gehege kommt. Darunter Dämonen, Vampire, Werwölfe, verfluchte Skelette – die ganze Palette eben. Eine Romanze noch dazu. Ich hatte gerade etwas leichte Kost gesucht, um mal wieder ein bisschen ans Lesen zu kommen, da wirkte das auf den ersten Blick wie genau das richtige.
Leider muss ich jetzt, nachdem ich das Buch gelesen habe, sagen, dass es deutlich hinter meinen Erwartungen zurückgeblieben ist. Der Humor geht oft nicht über Referenzen zu bekannten Fantasy- und SciFi-Franchises hinaus. Die Romanze entsteht durch eine Zwangsheirat, die irgendwie von allen sehr leger behandelt wird. Tausende Jahre alte Dämonen verhalten sich wie Teenager und an jeder Ecke wird ein neuer Charakter vorgestellt, der die Geschichte durch seine Anwesenheit nicht unbedingt bereichert. Die Motivationen und Gefühle der Charaktere bleiben außerdem weitgehend recht eindimensional und es gibt wenige wirklich emotionale Momente, sondern eher solche, die einem als Leser*in als emotional beschrieben werden.
Stellenweise zeigt die Erzählung, dass durchaus viel Kreativität hineingeflossen ist, das möchte ich ihr gar nicht absprechen. Wenn beispielsweise immer wieder genervt auf die Zombies im Berufsverkehr verwiesen wird, die nur dem Unvolk aufzufallen scheinen oder ein besonders nerviger Dämon in Comic Sans spricht, dann hat das durchaus etwas charmantes. Allerdings sind das nur einige Momente, die das Buch nicht vor dem absoluten Mittelmaß retten können.
Nachtwächterin im Museum - die ungeschickte Hexe Mona braucht diesen Job dringend. Als sich während ihrer Schicht ein schwarzmagischer Einbruch …
Nachtwächterin im Museum - die ungeschickte Hexe Mona braucht diesen Job dringend. Als sich während ihrer Schicht ein schwarzmagischer Einbruch …
I like Xiran Jay Zhao. They're a great content creator and their Twitter is something to behold. So it was only a matter of time until I got to Iron Widow. That time was this week when I had a 5 hour bus journey in front of me and needed something to entertain me.
It was certainly a quick read for my standards. But then, I always seem to eat through YA literature as opposed to everything else I read, even if I go out of it with a sense of dissatisfaction. Which is not really something I felt here, even though the book has left me wanting in the worst possible way. The characters are... fine. Wu Zetian is the main character and thus the most fleshed out. The two love interests (it's an actual love triangle!) are somewhat shallow and everyone else is either window dressing or someone …
I like Xiran Jay Zhao. They're a great content creator and their Twitter is something to behold. So it was only a matter of time until I got to Iron Widow. That time was this week when I had a 5 hour bus journey in front of me and needed something to entertain me.
It was certainly a quick read for my standards. But then, I always seem to eat through YA literature as opposed to everything else I read, even if I go out of it with a sense of dissatisfaction. Which is not really something I felt here, even though the book has left me wanting in the worst possible way. The characters are... fine. Wu Zetian is the main character and thus the most fleshed out. The two love interests (it's an actual love triangle!) are somewhat shallow and everyone else is either window dressing or someone that violence is enacted upon in some way. Seriously, if you like violence and revenge fantasies, this will be right up your alley. Zetian leaves a trail of destruction in her wake that is bar anything I've read in recent times.
That comes at the cost of narrative depth though. There's so many elements to this scifi-fantasy version of medieval-modern China that are essential to the story - most importantly the concept of qi, which the pilots of the giant animechs people use to fight - that obviously have a lot of thought behind them but are explained so badly that, even after reading the book, I still have no idea what any of them are supposed to do. There's so many instances of "so I combined my Metal qi with his Wood qi" or whatever and I just kind of glossed over it as technobabble. Which is really disappointing because, again, there seems to be an actual system to this whole thing?
But none of that is explained in a satisfactory way because we need to get to the next fight, battle, torture, or romance scene as quick as possible lest the book lose the interest of its readers. It seems to have worked, as evidenced by the speed I read the book with. But it really didn't give me any opportunity to just let the whole thing sink in. There is no space to breathe between the pages which would've been necessary considering the onslaught of stuff that is happening. It also doesn't provide enough space to explore any of the character's motivations. Zetian is driven by revenge against a patriarchal society, that much is established. But she goes from "I hate my family" to "The. World. Must. Burn." so quick, it gave me whiplash.
I'd still say it's a decent read. And I'll probably read the second installment, as this seems to aim to be a series. But it neither left me hungry for more, really. Nor did it satisfy in a narrative sense.
which is a good thing. somewhat.
the book itself was a decently light read with an interesting story to tell. characters seemed pretty lively. especially barrington, though i don't mean "lively" in a positive way here. he has something to say about everything, and most of it is at least some degree of problematic. which isn't surprising coming from an old man, but even the love of his life morris calls him out on the regular for being just a smidge too cynical.
in the end i don't find myself astonished by this book, but that's not the expectation i was going into it with. i wanted something a bit lighter after bawling my eyes out at the ending of the these violent delights duology and, comparatively, mr loverman delivered on that. i still wouldn't classify it as a light read, because all the characters have some pretty deep-seated struggles. …
which is a good thing. somewhat.
the book itself was a decently light read with an interesting story to tell. characters seemed pretty lively. especially barrington, though i don't mean "lively" in a positive way here. he has something to say about everything, and most of it is at least some degree of problematic. which isn't surprising coming from an old man, but even the love of his life morris calls him out on the regular for being just a smidge too cynical.
in the end i don't find myself astonished by this book, but that's not the expectation i was going into it with. i wanted something a bit lighter after bawling my eyes out at the ending of the these violent delights duology and, comparatively, mr loverman delivered on that. i still wouldn't classify it as a light read, because all the characters have some pretty deep-seated struggles. but most of them have a pretty good ending at least. even barry, who, in accordance with him being an old cynical asshole, tries his best to sabotage it.
The first book in this duology, I thought, was a bit of a drag. It had an interesting premise, but it meandered for so long without actually doing anything decisive other than setting up the characters. The end felt like a big explosion scene in an action movie.
This book? I was this close to ugly crying in the subway when I finished the last chapter and turned to the epilogue. It improved so much from the first, and by the time the ending happened - which, by the way, puts a great twist on the whole Romeo and Juliet business that's also going on here - I was involved with all the characters. I cared about them. I dreaded what would happen to Roma and Juliette, but when it actually did happen, it felt right nonetheless.
Some minor qualms include the apparent "mentions of the blood feud" quota that …
The first book in this duology, I thought, was a bit of a drag. It had an interesting premise, but it meandered for so long without actually doing anything decisive other than setting up the characters. The end felt like a big explosion scene in an action movie.
This book? I was this close to ugly crying in the subway when I finished the last chapter and turned to the epilogue. It improved so much from the first, and by the time the ending happened - which, by the way, puts a great twist on the whole Romeo and Juliet business that's also going on here - I was involved with all the characters. I cared about them. I dreaded what would happen to Roma and Juliette, but when it actually did happen, it felt right nonetheless.
Some minor qualms include the apparent "mentions of the blood feud" quota that this book had to hit for some reason? Like, take a shot of water every time someone says the word and you're gonna be hydrated like no one else. But other than that, this shit is just great romance. It felt entirely natural, and all the cute little things they did for each other even though they're kind of busy with fighting for their lives in a city that's on the verge of being turned upside down? That is some emotional damage I endured right there.