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aldora's review against another edition
5.0
I wasn't sure how I would feel about this book going into it. It is unlike the sort of thing I would usually read. The only reason I picked it up in the first place was because I am a fan of Marshall from his podcast, Worldbuilding for Masochists.
I am so glad that I read this. The characters were amazing. The plot was intense but easy to follow. The writing was some of the best I have seen. You can tell Marshall really put his time and research into this one.
The thing I really have to give the most praise for though is the queernorm and polyamory elements in this book. They are so well written, and feel so naturally placed into the world. It made me feel incredibly comfortable in this otherwise dystopian society, and I don't think I could thank Marshall enough for that.
I am so glad that I read this. The characters were amazing. The plot was intense but easy to follow. The writing was some of the best I have seen. You can tell Marshall really put his time and research into this one.
The thing I really have to give the most praise for though is the queernorm and polyamory elements in this book. They are so well written, and feel so naturally placed into the world. It made me feel incredibly comfortable in this otherwise dystopian society, and I don't think I could thank Marshall enough for that.
eclairedelune's review against another edition
adventurous
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
siavahda's review
5.0
HIGHLIGHTS
~everyone uses motorcycles and it is always sexy
~monogamy??? never heard of it
~the mushroom goddess is in the radios
~all the radios
~the most mouthwatering tacos ever
~magic drugs
~when the system breaks you down, break the system
This is, without question, one of the best books of the year.
To start with, this is dieselpunk fantasy, which I don’t run into too often – the magic in Velocity is intimately and powerfully tied to speed, the kind of speed which can only be achieved with the help of an engine, and so everything from motorcycles to trains have their own magical (and arguably spiritual, within the context of the story) significance. And that’s a brilliantly interesting concept all on its own, when so many storytellers choose to pit magic against technology, casting fantasy and science as some kind of enemies; instead, here, they’re intertwined, each a vital half of the whole.
(And for the record? Where ‘steampunk’ is most often used as a descriptor for a specific aesthetic, and as a term has kind of lost any connotations of rebellion-against-the-system, when Velocity calls itself dieselpunk, it means punk. The clue’s in the title: this is a book that is all about questioning and fighting against the system, up to and including tearing it all down to start over. It’s punk as hell.)
The book’s blurb does a pretty good job of summing up the basic story: Wenthi is a police officer, one of the first people with native blood to make the cut. This is probably in large part because his mother is a very important woman, but also helped by the fact that Wenthi completely buys into the status quo, which has his country beggared as all its resources are sent abroad to their ‘allies’, and the population is divided up into a caste system which can be summed up as: the more native blood you have, the lower down you are on the ladder of ‘people who matter’. Wenthi has absolutely drunk the kool-aid, to the point of being freakishly calm and accepting even when he’s mistreated or abused because of his ethnicity. Whoever’s running the propaganda, they’re clearly very good at it.
When his superiors realise that, for whatever reason, Wenthi can slip through the magical warning system used by the rebels – one which means they can always feel the cops coming, and thus always slip through their fingers – he’s sent undercover. With one invaluable resource: a mind-link to an imprisoned rebel that will make his true identity impossible for the rebels to detect.
But honestly, that doesn’t capture even a fraction of the awesomeness that is this story.~
Read the rest at Every Book a Doorway!
~everyone uses motorcycles and it is always sexy
~monogamy??? never heard of it
~the mushroom goddess is in the radios
~all the radios
~the most mouthwatering tacos ever
~magic drugs
~when the system breaks you down, break the system
This is, without question, one of the best books of the year.
To start with, this is dieselpunk fantasy, which I don’t run into too often – the magic in Velocity is intimately and powerfully tied to speed, the kind of speed which can only be achieved with the help of an engine, and so everything from motorcycles to trains have their own magical (and arguably spiritual, within the context of the story) significance. And that’s a brilliantly interesting concept all on its own, when so many storytellers choose to pit magic against technology, casting fantasy and science as some kind of enemies; instead, here, they’re intertwined, each a vital half of the whole.
(And for the record? Where ‘steampunk’ is most often used as a descriptor for a specific aesthetic, and as a term has kind of lost any connotations of rebellion-against-the-system, when Velocity calls itself dieselpunk, it means punk. The clue’s in the title: this is a book that is all about questioning and fighting against the system, up to and including tearing it all down to start over. It’s punk as hell.)
The book’s blurb does a pretty good job of summing up the basic story: Wenthi is a police officer, one of the first people with native blood to make the cut. This is probably in large part because his mother is a very important woman, but also helped by the fact that Wenthi completely buys into the status quo, which has his country beggared as all its resources are sent abroad to their ‘allies’, and the population is divided up into a caste system which can be summed up as: the more native blood you have, the lower down you are on the ladder of ‘people who matter’. Wenthi has absolutely drunk the kool-aid, to the point of being freakishly calm and accepting even when he’s mistreated or abused because of his ethnicity. Whoever’s running the propaganda, they’re clearly very good at it.
When his superiors realise that, for whatever reason, Wenthi can slip through the magical warning system used by the rebels – one which means they can always feel the cops coming, and thus always slip through their fingers – he’s sent undercover. With one invaluable resource: a mind-link to an imprisoned rebel that will make his true identity impossible for the rebels to detect.
But honestly, that doesn’t capture even a fraction of the awesomeness that is this story.~
Read the rest at Every Book a Doorway!
jolietjane's review
4.0
The Velocity of Revolution is an incredibly unique story with some oh-so-familiar tropes, perfectly blending classic storytelling with bold ideas.
Overview:
Overview:
novella42's review
adventurous
challenging
inspiring
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Dieselpunk polyamorous rebels in a queernorm world using magic psychedelics to lead a revolution against colonizers? Um. Yes, please!
I'm amazed how well this book depicts a truly sex-positive society, in a way that I've never really seen before. I don't even think "sex-positive" is the right word for it. Maresca treats the worldbuilding around sexual mores in a fascinating way, including thoughtful consent dynamics and respectful asexual rep. I'm writing this review months after reading it, and I still think about it often.
The only reason I took half a star off is that the book gets pretty chaotic at times, and that made it hard to follow. But I respect the risk Maresca took in being so ambitious with everything that went into this world and story. One thing that is very clear to me on reading this is how much fun the author was having. So, yeah, it's chaotic, but it's gloriously chaotic, and it's really fun to read. I would absolutely read more in this world, and in the meantime, I've definitely been recommending it to my extended polycule.
I'm amazed how well this book depicts a truly sex-positive society, in a way that I've never really seen before. I don't even think "sex-positive" is the right word for it. Maresca treats the worldbuilding around sexual mores in a fascinating way, including thoughtful consent dynamics and respectful asexual rep. I'm writing this review months after reading it, and I still think about it often.
The only reason I took half a star off is that the book gets pretty chaotic at times, and that made it hard to follow. But I respect the risk Maresca took in being so ambitious with everything that went into this world and story. One thing that is very clear to me on reading this is how much fun the author was having. So, yeah, it's chaotic, but it's gloriously chaotic, and it's really fun to read. I would absolutely read more in this world, and in the meantime, I've definitely been recommending it to my extended polycule.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Classism, Forced institutionalization, Drug use, Racism, Ableism, Car accident, Toxic friendship, Body horror, Colonisation, Confinement, Genocide, Medical trauma, Police brutality, Sexual content, Terminal illness, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: War, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Xenophobia, Vomit, Violence, Dysphoria, Slavery, and Gun violence
Minor: Drug abuse, Kidnapping, Infertility, Deportation, Gaslighting, Sexual assault, and Torture
ritabriar's review
challenging
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This character-driven book has a rich and beautiful setting, world-building, and magical system.
The two main characters grow or change throughout the book. They don't get rid of the scars that hold them back at the beginning, but they do grow bigger than their scars so that they're not so all-consuming.
The social structure is caste-based, with legal and systematic enforcement. I really love the way the characters think about the caste system from different perspectives, specifically early on whenWenthi lumps "caste-jumping" in with murder and robbery in a category of the most serious crimes, contrasted with how Nalia reacts to the concept of caste-jumping with anger and disgust. I also enjoyed the way each character interacted with the local food, which was largely dependent on their caste and background. Also, man I want some good tacos now.
The magical system is inspired by mushroom ecology, the way mushrooms can permeate and connect everything in an area. The afterword mentioned "psychic mushrooms" --not psychedelic-- and this is very accurate. I loved the possibilities opened by this magic system.
This book starts at a fast pace and has a constant acceleration in pace and stakes as it goes. I still marked it as medium pace, though, because there are places you can pause along the way. The plot seems to have a structure of "walk, run, sprint, result/rest, repeat" with an echo of this structure over the entire book. Many tropes were flipped in the results, in a character-driven way.
There's a lot of sex, but there is also respect for a sex-repulsed character's wishes. (I do wish more flavors of Ace would have been acknowledged, but it's perhaps a start.) I would not call this book a romance, or even having a romance sub-plot. While there are plenty of conflicts between possible romantic interests, there is no useful resolution of the relationships on-page, though the main and main character plots ease things somewhat.
There is a lot of grey morality being practiced. Almost everyone thinks they're doing the right thing, or at least the best thing of bad options. Even Naliais definitely practicing categorical thinking, and assumes because of it that Wenthi has never really suffered.
The ending was complicated: not happy but hopeful. The book ended with a generalization enforced by (conditional, magical) violence and presented it as a good solution for the situation. Being a generalization, I think there were likely places where the violent solution made things worse. I hope these will be addressed in the next book, if there is one. Also, specifically in the very last chapter, I do not like that Lathei would have left if she had not been asked to stay by that specific person, at that specific time, in that specific way. I honestly think less of that person for asking her do to something she would not have otherwise done. Because of the reasons she stayed, I am not sure Lathei will be as helpful as that person is hoping, in the long term.
The two main characters grow or change throughout the book. They don't get rid of the scars that hold them back at the beginning, but they do grow bigger than their scars so that they're not so all-consuming.
The social structure is caste-based, with legal and systematic enforcement. I really love the way the characters think about the caste system from different perspectives, specifically early on when
The magical system is inspired by mushroom ecology, the way mushrooms can permeate and connect everything in an area. The afterword mentioned "psychic mushrooms" --not psychedelic-- and this is very accurate. I loved the possibilities opened by this magic system.
This book starts at a fast pace and has a constant acceleration in pace and stakes as it goes. I still marked it as medium pace, though, because there are places you can pause along the way. The plot seems to have a structure of "walk, run, sprint, result/rest, repeat" with an echo of this structure over the entire book. Many tropes were flipped in the results, in a character-driven way.
There's a lot of sex, but there is also respect for a sex-repulsed character's wishes. (I do wish more flavors of Ace would have been acknowledged, but it's perhaps a start.) I would not call this book a romance, or even having a romance sub-plot. While there are plenty of conflicts between possible romantic interests, there is no useful resolution of the relationships on-page, though the main and main character plots ease things somewhat.
There is a lot of grey morality being practiced. Almost everyone thinks they're doing the right thing, or at least the best thing of bad options. Even Nalia
The ending was complicated: not happy but hopeful. The book ended with a generalization
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Colonisation, Drug use, Confinement, and Classism
Moderate: Cultural appropriation, Death, Gaslighting, Forced institutionalization, Sexual content, Police brutality, Medical trauma, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Slavery, Torture, Gun violence, Suicide, and Injury/Injury detail
jordandotcom's review against another edition
5.0
4.5 stars at least. God this was so good and an absolute blast. a bit slow to start but so worth it. i did think some of the parts in the last 30 or so pages were dumb but these were minor and did not detract from how much I fucking loved this.
jerseygrrrl's review against another edition
3.0
I was this close to DNF during the first 20% of the book. I'm glad I stuck with it! It's a fun ride (pun intended) with important messages about caste, power, and resistance. I enjoyed the unique structuring of human relationships, the mushrooms, the spirituality, and the grit. Other plusses: Female protagonists, complicated relationships, imperfect humans, and intense trust and collaboration.
elvime's review against another edition
4.0
might be the horniest book I've ever read but also manages to squeeze in some really good worldbuilding, a mushroom goddess in the radios, a classic dancing with wolves-type of story abt a cop realizing how he might be one of the bad guys, medical experiments, some motorcycle racing and some thoughts about anticolonialism. don't know what I thought about the ending really, but everything else really worked surprisingly well? lots of classic tropes but still manages to feel unique. and also, everyone is bi? i had a great time reading it!
elliotvanz's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
When I started this book I was excited. I was amped to read a book about revolution, motorcycles, psychic mushrooms, and a bunch of bisexual punks forming a found family. On the surface this book has some of that but when you go deeper not so much.
As the book progressed I liked it less and less until by the time I reached the end I had lost all interest and was somewhat exasperated. At every turn I kept waiting for the protagonist to become someone better. And he doesn't. The revolution aspect is disappointing and ends up with a white savior serving as a deus ex machina. The found family is a lie. The bisexual element made me bristle because it seemed to reinforce the stereotype that bisexual means horny all the time and will sleep with literally anyone. (Nothing wrong with writing a society like that, but it wasn't what I was hoping for or pitched.) And the mushrooms make less and less sense the more the book tried to explain, and could have been used in far more interesting ways. I suppose the motorcycles were still cool.
One of the core problems for me is I just didn't think the prose was up to snuff, and it made the other problems with the story structure and characterization all the more noticeable. It just never gels, and the more I poked at it the more it fell apart. All in all this was a book that set up a bunch of cool ideas and then just missed every opportunity to do something I found interesting or emotionally resonate. I'm glad other people seem to enjoy it but for me it missed the mark entirely.