@heiseonline@social.heise.de2025-07-09 10:00:00
@heiseonline@social.heise.de2025-07-09 10:00:00
@heiseonline@social.heise.de2025-05-30 08:20:00
@tiotasram@kolektiva.social2025-07-19 00:58:45
I just finished "An Ember in the Ashes" by Sabaa Tahir. I picked it up because I found her non-fantasy novel "All My Rage" extremely compelling, and I enjoyed fantasy a lot as a genre in my youth but as my politics have changed I'm too disappointed to enjoy a lot of fantasy any more but I thought Tahir might not fall into that.
Although I don't think Ember in the Ashes is bad, it's definitely not what I was looking for, and I don't think I'll pursue the sequels, at least not right now.
Overall the writing was weaker in a lot of ways than All My Rage, and in terms of basic fantasy quality, the worldbuilding was noticeably lacking, the romantic subplot felt stilted, and the politics were a bit murky. Compared to what I felt was Tahir's deft, delicate, and very meaningful handling of trauma in All My Rage, trauma in Ember felt overused and thin.
I also recently finished "Black Panther Red Wolf" by Marlon James, which had excellent world building and (to me) a much more nuance in both romance and in handling trauma. The politics felt a bit off for this one too I guess, but for me it was an overall more enjoyable (if much more difficult) read.
#AmReading
@wraithe@mastodon.social2025-06-11 17:49:04
Another eclectic collection of books has been dropped off at the local “Little Free Library” with their “please don’t sell me” stamps and QR codes to the various books pages at https://Bookwyrm.social (Fedi GR alt) & @thestorygraph.com (Black owned GR alt) so that people can read about/review the books.
