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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
polychromatic_hedgehog_parable's review
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
ugh, I was extremely excited about this book, but
it took a bit of a turn in the last few chapters, and it kind of undermined what I liked about it
going to try not to go into a rant about Red Rising by Pierce Brown. going to go on a very short rant about Red Rising
1. If we know a priori that this is a story about infiltration mediated by expensive medical procedures, who was the money to do that? CIA/FBI/COINTELPRO/cops/etc do. The revolution will not be funded, folks.
2. Community organizing is relationship building.
Brown either disagrees on these points or hasn't been exposed to them, which made Red Rising seem contrived and (with the addition of the sexism) hard to read. However it seems like Maresca gets it, and The Velocity of Revolution was a much more believable and exciting image of revolution.
At the center of Revolution is mushroom magic whose literal function is deeper connections with one's peers, outlawed by the government due to the revolutionary potential of empathy and realizing your collective power. So literal. I love it.
ugh, it was going so great, but two things towards the end of the book kind of spoiled it for me.
1. I really liked the reveal that Varazina was just a llipe playing with chaos. Renzi's point earlier in the book was really on point. Strict hierarchical structures can be important for secrecy/operation success, but social justice movements should probably be at least somewhat democratic/anarchist/etc (at the very least leadership should be accessible/accountable) if they're going to be equitable? It really seemed that at this point the group might use the structure of the old revolutionary group to push their own values and politics. This would have further validated the importance of collective imagining and collective action as a tool for liberation. Then the reveal was removed again, when it turned out that Varazina had lied about her motives in the former reveal. Then the end of the book was about her + Renzi's sacrifices, shifting the narrative importance from collective action back to individual sacrifice. It sucks that the climax of the book was an individual action, not a collective one. Why didn't the mass riot have any narrative implications? Not where I thought the book was going to go. :'(
2. Towards the end of the book there was some important discussion about what decolonization would look like. I thought it was reasonable and characterful that some of the marginalized people supported retributive justice, but that Renzi did not. However, when Varazina's great plan was revealed, and she said she "needed" Renzi to soothe Nália's temper, that conversation took a different light, for me. Marginalized people don't "need" privileged people to soothe their/our tempers??? idk, I guess anger like that does exist and you could argue that it needs to be soothed, but I don't think that knowledge is endemic to privileged people arguing "we're innocent" lol. Marginalized people can soothe their/our own anger + teach eachother empathy + imagine just futures on our own? more thoughts on this but I'm cutting them out and doing something better with my life than writing this review lol.
other thoughts:
1. the imperialist propaganda could have been written better
2. really appreciated the asexual character existing in this society <3
3. there was a _lot_ going on in this book
4. I need more polyam books in my life.
1. If we know a priori that this is a story about infiltration mediated by expensive medical procedures, who was the money to do that? CIA/FBI/COINTELPRO/cops/etc do. The revolution will not be funded, folks.
2. Community organizing is relationship building.
Brown either disagrees on these points or hasn't been exposed to them, which made Red Rising seem contrived and (with the addition of the sexism) hard to read. However it seems like Maresca gets it, and The Velocity of Revolution was a much more believable and exciting image of revolution.
At the center of Revolution is mushroom magic whose literal function is deeper connections with one's peers, outlawed by the government due to the revolutionary potential of empathy and realizing your collective power. So literal. I love it.
ugh, it was going so great, but two things towards the end of the book kind of spoiled it for me.
1. I really liked the reveal that Varazina was just a llipe playing with chaos. Renzi's point earlier in the book was really on point. Strict hierarchical structures can be important for secrecy/operation success, but social justice movements should probably be at least somewhat democratic/anarchist/etc (at the very least leadership should be accessible/accountable) if they're going to be equitable? It really seemed that at this point the group might use the structure of the old revolutionary group to push their own values and politics. This would have further validated the importance of collective imagining and collective action as a tool for liberation. Then the reveal was removed again, when it turned out that Varazina had lied about her motives in the former reveal. Then the end of the book was about her + Renzi's sacrifices, shifting the narrative importance from collective action back to individual sacrifice. It sucks that the climax of the book was an individual action, not a collective one. Why didn't the mass riot have any narrative implications? Not where I thought the book was going to go. :'(
2. Towards the end of the book there was some important discussion about what decolonization would look like. I thought it was reasonable and characterful that some of the marginalized people supported retributive justice, but that Renzi did not. However, when Varazina's great plan was revealed, and she said she "needed" Renzi to soothe Nália's temper, that conversation took a different light, for me. Marginalized people don't "need" privileged people to soothe their/our tempers??? idk, I guess anger like that does exist and you could argue that it needs to be soothed, but I don't think that knowledge is endemic to privileged people arguing "we're innocent" lol. Marginalized people can soothe their/our own anger + teach eachother empathy + imagine just futures on our own? more thoughts on this but I'm cutting them out and doing something better with my life than writing this review lol.
other thoughts:
1. the imperialist propaganda could have been written better
2. really appreciated the asexual character existing in this society <3
3. there was a _lot_ going on in this book
4. I need more polyam books in my life.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Drug use, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Murder, Police brutality, Racism, Sexual assault, Slavery, and Suicide
Minor: Confinement, Infertility, and Rape
the sex culture got a bit rapey at times, but was mostly good?
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