Reviews

The Descent of Monsters by Neon Yang

lady_moon's review against another edition

3.0

Wtf with that ending, this wasn't supposed to go like this-

foolzerrand's review

My favourite of the 3- I'm not always a mystery person but I loved the suspense of it in this! And I am a sucker for multimedia

emilyrandolph_epstein's review

4.0

Taking the form of an epistolary, this novella introduces us to a new character in Sariman and further expands the world and conspiracy hinted at in previous books. Looking forward to the next.

pictrufa's review against another edition

5.0

Neon Yang logra sorprenderme con cada novela...Si ya las dos anteriores me parecieron originales, una abarcando más de 35 años y la otra menos de una semana; esta me ha dejado loca. Una novela epistolar que me ha hecho sumergirme en ella desde la primera página. Me la he bebido en menos de 24h y porque tenía que dormir y trabajar. Ojalá la saga me durase más pero es que es imposible. Me tiene enganchadísima. En el descenso de los monstruos no puedes parar de leer porque a través de una serie de cartas e informes, Yang va dando forma a los peores proyectos del Protectorado. Vas viendo quién está implicado, cómo intentan cubrirse entre ellos y cuánto abarca esto. Cierto es que me ha dejado mal cuerpo, no porque la imaginación de Yang sea una pasada y haya inventado algo nuevo, si no porque la realidad supera la ficción y este tipo de proyectos/investigaciones o estudios, ya se han llevado a cabo a lo largo de la historia, algo que me rondará la cabeza durante mucho tiempo. Igualmente, tengo muchas ganas de empezar el cuarto y último libro y descubrir qué ocurre al final con la trama del Tensorado. Sin duda, este está siendo mi mejor marzo asiático =)

mary_soon_lee's review

4.0

This is the third of Yang's Tensorate novellas, which I would classify as silkpunk science fantasy, if I had to pin a label on them. It's very well written. Yang succeeded fully at making me care about their characters, and this despite the fact that the story is largely conveyed via official reports, interview transcripts, and diary entries.

Spoiler

The voice of the piece is clear and damning, menace building as we gradually learn more and more. It reminded me of the feeling I had as a child when I read "The Hound of the Baskervilles" -- something about the combination of the precise diction with a sense of dread. Although the novella avoids wallowing in the unfolding horror, it is grim. I didn't precisely enjoy it, but

I found it compelling, intelligent, distinctive, and original.

About my reviews: I try to review every book I read, including those that I don't end up enjoying. The reviews are not scholarly, but just indicate my reaction as a reader, reading being my addiction. I am miserly with 5-star reviews; 4 stars means I liked a book very much; 3 stars means I liked it; 2 stars means I didn't like it (though often the 2-star books are very popular with other readers and/or are by authors whose other work I've loved).

blindforest's review against another edition

4.5

this one is definitely the best so far, neon yang i beg you for more sanao twin + rider stories they are so dear to me

martha_13's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

4.0

bluestjuice's review

4.0

I liked this the best of the Tensorate books so far, probably because I felt that the novella format (and the journal/reports/documents format) really worked best here. With both of the previous books, there was so much story included that the novella format felt too brief, like I was being cheated out of an immersion in the fascinating world and characters that Yang has spun. Here, the focus is an investigation on one particular incident, and the scope of the story is sufficiently limited to really allow the writing to shine. It's clever and creative writing, to be sure - there is an entire report that consists of 75% marked out sections! The primary character is also a new one, which worked as well despite us not having a great deal of time to get to know them very deeply. A work of fiction this short works more like a long short story in many ways than a novel, and I felt that we were able to get sufficient glimpses to keep our interest, while also having small revelations and pleasing moments with longer-established characters from elsewhere in the series. It seems that Yang's purpose in this series is not necessarily to fill out a particular narrative arc - I don't get the sense that there is an enormous metastory that is being rolled out in snippets, episode by episode. Rather, I think their purpose seems to be to explore the world and dynamics that they have written into place, and each book may simply capture a slice of what is happening in the ongoing drama of the Protectorate and the lives of Mokoya and Akeha. That can work for me.

yvkhan's review

3.0

Mid bc idgaf about Rider, the first recollection of Rider’s was dumb, speaker’s death was entirely avoidable, buildup of tension @ caverns was ultimately whelming — in the absence of real monstrous horror, emotional horror is required, and the novella lacked both imo. bc as a fan of the blacked out lines but perhaps not the discovery of the original documents.

connie__'s review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0