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quoc's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
debchan's review against another edition
4.5
this book is so specific i understand why people have mixed feelings over it. i really enjoyed it.
it's unlike any fantasy book i've ever read. i know adrian tchaikovsky is more known for his science fiction but i'm not a huge scifi fan and i've actually never read his other books, as popular as they are. this cover was stunning so i picked it up. there's so many characters, so many plot lines, and all written in detail. it kinda feels like speed dating through different POVs, getting whiplash. there's isn't inherent structure like a traditional fantasy book. there aren't really shining beacons of morality and in fact morality at all is challenged here.
the writing took some time getting used to. it's like i can tell this man writes best in sci-fi bc i feel like the vibes were def leaning towards that rather than fantasy. all in all it's a book that you tell someone "oh you have to read the first 100 pages and then it gets really good." i wouldn't want anyone to say that to me so i won't say it. if it's not for you, it's just not for you. i powered through bc i placed my full trust in tchaikovsky and he didn't disappoint.
there are 21 povs. a staggering 21! and it's not even everyone bc every so often, we'll get a mosaic chapter and that means we hop into the present tense and get a bit of every character, even some complete randos. and it fit the story so much. because this isn't just about one person rising up. this is about an entire city, however their methods, rejecting the occupation, all by their own means and agendas. and what a fun cast of characters as well. besides like 3 or 4 of them, they'd all be perfectly willing to stab you in the back. and the only reason that's on hold is bc they hate the palleseens more than each other.
yasnic: a priest of God. they had such a funny and nuanced relationship. they only had each other and they found that though maybe they didn't want to, they couldn't live without the other. there's something in the way that God says "i'm cold." both yasnic and God are challenged to their core to re-evaluate who they are and they will do, especially God who has seen so many humans do harm to each other and can't stand to see more violence.
langrice: keeper of the anchorage. you really don't want to cross her. she's hard but she gets things done. not entirely sure what the anchorage is but on the outside it's like a bar and on the inside, illegal games are played and i assume it's a sort of safehouse against the occupiers. i liked how people kept coming back to her place, like even though she is NOT warm and friendly, the anchorage offers that and keeping a steady truce with her is to survive.
ruslav: one of the many rebels, except he has a reputation for being particularly violent. he'd stab anyone for anything. he's also known for chasing down those he admires, and then dropping them after sleeping with them. it's the chase, the pursuit. and then he sees a painting and his entire. life changes.as i was reading his first ch, i was like oh it'd be nice if he met someone and he didn't lose all feelings afterwards, someone who kept him on fire more. and then he meets shantrov and i was like haha he's in love. 😦 and then he really is. genuinely thought he was like 60 so was very shocked about the student thing but then he's only 28 so ig it's not that bad if shantrov is 20.
blackmane: a pawnbroker. he's also super dangerous and you do not want to mess around in his shop. he's got a long list of favors he can pull in and a long list of clients. he's particularly enemies with...
ivarn: a teacher at the university. and he'd love to see blackmane get sentenced to death fr this time. he's the one who speaks revolution as the students rally around him.
lemya: a student who everyone can see the zeal and idealism coming miles away. sure she was naive and young but she grew up quickly. she fought hard for "the cause" and literally wouldn't give up which i admire about her. she was always there pushing to make a difference. tell me your poems.
shantrov: fellow student of lemya's but he came from wealth and had ideas of being a hero. he wears his old family's jacket and parades around his old family's sword. and then it catches up to him and falls to him to lead hundreds of not-people creatures who follow him bc of his last name to revolt. give me your paintings.
vidsya: shantrov's cousin and a different type of revolutionary than the more unhinged violent ones. she also comes from wealth so she knows what she has to maintain, even if she thinks shantrov is stupid. she would rather deal with the politics and the power retaining than the power vacuum that the riffraffs on the street would cause.
carelia and evenne: the bitter sisters, twin leaders of the vultures. now these are the violent rebels, the ones who would do the looting and rob their fellow friend just as much as they'd rob their enemy. but they were so funny, mostly bc of the beast in their pit they fed poor unsuspecting idiots to, and also bc they just hated people so much. they still worked with them ofc but that didn't stop them from being mean or rude or a complete hater. i loved them.
hegesly: a rare pov into the palleseen occupation. i mean i thought he was funny at times and it was interesting to see how he tried to cling to what he had. so yeah! and his aversion to culvern was hilarious.
culvern: actually disgusting. and not like morally (but also), but like he's just a rotting corpse walking around. i've never felt such revulsion so congrats tchaikovsky.
father overchin: not much to stay except that i appreciated what he stood for. his guilt over the demons? same bro. and standing in solidarity with the students? yes!who was the mysterious woman in the window who killed him??? did i miss smtg like did we ever figure that out??? and why did she do it??
aullaime: when everyone had important roles to play in the revolution, hers was my favorite. plus getting to talk with demons? that's so cool. she drafted them new contracts with new clauses and essentially helped them out. my favorite part about this book WAS those demon contracts. it seemed so neil gaiman that the king down under would send demons up as if they were construction workers. and they didn't get a union. and how the demon thought about the good old days when they actually made bespoke items and unique trinkets, not machine generated junk. aullaime's rage for overchin, too, was satisfying.
fleance: this man was infuriating but also he reminded me of bero from Jade City in that he popped up always when you least expected it and caused havoc. i suppose it's not his fault but yeah it kinda still is his fault.i don't forgive him for killing vidsya AT ALL, i liked her!
i'm kinda bummed to hear the 2nd book is about a whole diff cast of characters/setting. like it seems like an entirely diff book with just one character. similar to how Children of Earth and Sky was set in the same world as A Brightness Long Ago but diff plots and little continuity. i like these characters and i want to stay with them in ilmar. but at least i hear it has yasnic and God so i suppose that's good.
but what was relevant was me reading this in 2024. ilmar is the city of last chance, it's being currently occupied by the palleseens and the simmering tension of the citizens of ilmar is about to erupt and al hell is about break loose (and i mean that very literally). it's fitting because one of the main focuses of this book is the student revolution. the occupiers dismiss the students bc what do they know, they're children. and yet the students stand up, barricade themselves, don't stop fighting, and risk arrest and death for their efforts. it's fitting because just a couple months ago, my own university called riot police and state troopers to round up some students who were protesting the university's investment in military aid for israel. free palestine was shouted across campuses not only all over america, but over the entire world. and news outlets and political leaders scoffed at the students, insisting they know nothing about politics. it's a tale that's been told over and over again. students protested south africa apartheid, racism and segregation, the vietnam war, and all the leaders in charge, the occupiers, the soldiers with guns in their hands did nothing but point their fingers at their very own students and accuse them of ignorance. one of my university's professors wrote, "it would be unfortunate if in our zeal to be on the right side of the law, we end up on the wrong side of history." bc when the dust settles and clears, and the bodies of innocents pile up, it will be the students who had shouted loudest and protested the hardest and those useless "thoughts and prayers" and cries for "never again" by those who had the power to do something and did nothing will be meaningless. as always, reject the occupier (fuck them) and free the occupied.
it's unlike any fantasy book i've ever read. i know adrian tchaikovsky is more known for his science fiction but i'm not a huge scifi fan and i've actually never read his other books, as popular as they are. this cover was stunning so i picked it up. there's so many characters, so many plot lines, and all written in detail. it kinda feels like speed dating through different POVs, getting whiplash. there's isn't inherent structure like a traditional fantasy book. there aren't really shining beacons of morality and in fact morality at all is challenged here.
the writing took some time getting used to. it's like i can tell this man writes best in sci-fi bc i feel like the vibes were def leaning towards that rather than fantasy. all in all it's a book that you tell someone "oh you have to read the first 100 pages and then it gets really good." i wouldn't want anyone to say that to me so i won't say it. if it's not for you, it's just not for you. i powered through bc i placed my full trust in tchaikovsky and he didn't disappoint.
there are 21 povs. a staggering 21! and it's not even everyone bc every so often, we'll get a mosaic chapter and that means we hop into the present tense and get a bit of every character, even some complete randos. and it fit the story so much. because this isn't just about one person rising up. this is about an entire city, however their methods, rejecting the occupation, all by their own means and agendas. and what a fun cast of characters as well. besides like 3 or 4 of them, they'd all be perfectly willing to stab you in the back. and the only reason that's on hold is bc they hate the palleseens more than each other.
yasnic: a priest of God. they had such a funny and nuanced relationship. they only had each other and they found that though maybe they didn't want to, they couldn't live without the other. there's something in the way that God says "i'm cold." both yasnic and God are challenged to their core to re-evaluate who they are and they will do, especially God who has seen so many humans do harm to each other and can't stand to see more violence.
langrice: keeper of the anchorage. you really don't want to cross her. she's hard but she gets things done. not entirely sure what the anchorage is but on the outside it's like a bar and on the inside, illegal games are played and i assume it's a sort of safehouse against the occupiers. i liked how people kept coming back to her place, like even though she is NOT warm and friendly, the anchorage offers that and keeping a steady truce with her is to survive.
ruslav: one of the many rebels, except he has a reputation for being particularly violent. he'd stab anyone for anything. he's also known for chasing down those he admires, and then dropping them after sleeping with them. it's the chase, the pursuit. and then he sees a painting and his entire. life changes.
blackmane: a pawnbroker. he's also super dangerous and you do not want to mess around in his shop. he's got a long list of favors he can pull in and a long list of clients. he's particularly enemies with...
ivarn: a teacher at the university. and he'd love to see blackmane get sentenced to death fr this time. he's the one who speaks revolution as the students rally around him.
lemya: a student who everyone can see the zeal and idealism coming miles away. sure she was naive and young but she grew up quickly. she fought hard for "the cause" and literally wouldn't give up which i admire about her. she was always there pushing to make a difference. tell me your poems.
shantrov: fellow student of lemya's but he came from wealth and had ideas of being a hero. he wears his old family's jacket and parades around his old family's sword. and then it catches up to him and falls to him to lead hundreds of not-people creatures who follow him bc of his last name to revolt. give me your paintings.
vidsya: shantrov's cousin and a different type of revolutionary than the more unhinged violent ones. she also comes from wealth so she knows what she has to maintain, even if she thinks shantrov is stupid. she would rather deal with the politics and the power retaining than the power vacuum that the riffraffs on the street would cause.
carelia and evenne: the bitter sisters, twin leaders of the vultures. now these are the violent rebels, the ones who would do the looting and rob their fellow friend just as much as they'd rob their enemy. but they were so funny, mostly bc of the beast in their pit they fed poor unsuspecting idiots to, and also bc they just hated people so much. they still worked with them ofc but that didn't stop them from being mean or rude or a complete hater. i loved them.
hegesly: a rare pov into the palleseen occupation. i mean i thought he was funny at times and it was interesting to see how he tried to cling to what he had. so yeah! and his aversion to culvern was hilarious.
culvern: actually disgusting. and not like morally (but also), but like he's just a rotting corpse walking around. i've never felt such revulsion so congrats tchaikovsky.
father overchin: not much to stay except that i appreciated what he stood for. his guilt over the demons? same bro. and standing in solidarity with the students? yes!
aullaime: when everyone had important roles to play in the revolution, hers was my favorite. plus getting to talk with demons? that's so cool. she drafted them new contracts with new clauses and essentially helped them out. my favorite part about this book WAS those demon contracts. it seemed so neil gaiman that the king down under would send demons up as if they were construction workers. and they didn't get a union. and how the demon thought about the good old days when they actually made bespoke items and unique trinkets, not machine generated junk. aullaime's rage for overchin, too, was satisfying.
fleance: this man was infuriating but also he reminded me of bero from Jade City in that he popped up always when you least expected it and caused havoc. i suppose it's not his fault but yeah it kinda still is his fault.
i'm kinda bummed to hear the 2nd book is about a whole diff cast of characters/setting. like it seems like an entirely diff book with just one character. similar to how Children of Earth and Sky was set in the same world as A Brightness Long Ago but diff plots and little continuity. i like these characters and i want to stay with them in ilmar. but at least i hear it has yasnic and God so i suppose that's good.
but what was relevant was me reading this in 2024. ilmar is the city of last chance, it's being currently occupied by the palleseens and the simmering tension of the citizens of ilmar is about to erupt and al hell is about break loose (and i mean that very literally). it's fitting because one of the main focuses of this book is the student revolution. the occupiers dismiss the students bc what do they know, they're children. and yet the students stand up, barricade themselves, don't stop fighting, and risk arrest and death for their efforts. it's fitting because just a couple months ago, my own university called riot police and state troopers to round up some students who were protesting the university's investment in military aid for israel. free palestine was shouted across campuses not only all over america, but over the entire world. and news outlets and political leaders scoffed at the students, insisting they know nothing about politics. it's a tale that's been told over and over again. students protested south africa apartheid, racism and segregation, the vietnam war, and all the leaders in charge, the occupiers, the soldiers with guns in their hands did nothing but point their fingers at their very own students and accuse them of ignorance. one of my university's professors wrote, "it would be unfortunate if in our zeal to be on the right side of the law, we end up on the wrong side of history." bc when the dust settles and clears, and the bodies of innocents pile up, it will be the students who had shouted loudest and protested the hardest and those useless "thoughts and prayers" and cries for "never again" by those who had the power to do something and did nothing will be meaningless. as always, reject the occupier (fuck them) and free the occupied.
srm's review against another edition
Perfectly fine, and I might return some day, but I have other pressing things to read atm.
hastyentreads's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
an1roberts's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
akennedy772's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
4.0
I think this one might grow on me. Epic fantasy with a lot of characters took time to get going
cookieburger01's review against another edition
dark
funny
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
testaroscia's review against another edition
4.0
Mixes of Miéville, of Gaiman (and probably Pratchett although i yet to read him) a dash of Abercrombie. This Tchaikovsky is very different from the SF one. More playful but just as complex. Satisfying.