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aplpaca's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Terminal illness, Child abuse, and Ableism
canaanmerchant's review against another edition
4.0
Definitely a book to be sipped and savored rather than devoured. Each sentence is packed with layers and layers of meaning and the book manages to be a collection of myths, a political intrigue novel, a ghost story, and treatise on the wonders of learning all in one story.
And some of the best world building I've encountered in a while.
And some of the best world building I've encountered in a while.
ebeth's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.25
beautiful prose. hard for me to stay engaged because the plot was often so quiet. however the ending really sealed the deal. I think in the future I will love this book much more. the writing was just exquisite
skycrane's review against another edition
4.0
The silence. End of all poetry, all romances. Earlier, frightened, you began to have some intimation of it: so many pages had been turned, the book was so heavy in one hand, so light in the other, thinning toward the end. Still, you consoled yourself. You were not quite at the end of the story, at that terrible flyleaf, blank like a shuttered window: there were still a few pages under your thumb, still to be sought and treasured. Oh, was it possible to read more slowly?—No. The end approached, inexorable, at the same measured pace. The last page, the last of the shining words! And there—the end of the book. The hard cover which, when you turn it, gives you only this leather stamped with old roses and shields.
I didn't quite feel that way as I finished A Stranger in Olondria, but it certainly resonates with me. The language throughout perfectly evokes its narrator, Jevick of Tyom, a man in love with books and the wondrous land of Olondria from which they come. Parts of the book, especially those that describe his homeland, feel like translated poetry, while the parts in and about Olondria feel much more natural, a hint about who Jevick is speaking to. All in all, the writing feels deliberate and purposeful, part of the characterization of person and place.
As for the story, when Jevick takes his father's place in the annual journey to sell pepper in Olondria, he at first thinks that the place is even more wonderful than he had imagined from his tutor's stories. But no land is paradise, and he finds himself involved in a conflict between the old hedonistic cult of death and a new ascetic religion. However, though major events happen around Jevick, the focus always on his personal, introspective journey. The other main characters are made relevant by the stories they tell; to Jevick, a person's story is their soul.
xeyra1's review against another edition
2.0
This was not the book for me. I've been trying to read it for a month and persevered through most of it, but I've reached a point where I don't quite care to finish it anymore because there's nothing I'd consider a plot that I need to see through to the end of the book. I am quite sad I didn't enjoy this book past the first 20%, which gave me such high expectations: the beautiful writing was at its best, the main character's voice as he talked about his childhood and upbringing was really compelling and I devoured those first chapters.
And then the main character arrived at Olondria and things got terribly confusing to the point I wasn't understanding anything anymore. The writing I'd so enjoyed at the beginning was a detriment to the understanding of the story, too embellished, too abstract sometimes, as to perpetuate the confusion of what was happening while events were going on at a breakneck speed. In the space of a couple of chapters, Jevick, our MC, arrives at a new city, ready to adventure into trading and commerce as was his training and suddenly, without much follow-through at the beginning, he is deliriously ill, is taken by a religious sect that imprisons him because of the visions he sees while delirious (they're blasphemy) and then is contacted by a rebel religious faction who has the opposite idea, and in betwixt all this, our MC's voice is an amalgam of authors and books he has read to the point I wondered if he had any original thought himself.
By this time it was too late to grab me again because I realized early on that Jevick had no real agency in this story. People talked at him, about him, acted in accordance to their wishes, and Jevick just got dragged along constantly without having any real say. His haunting by this mysterious ghost is just another way he gets kicked in by fate and makes him even less of a character I could care about. And because of this, it ended up feeling like an effort to continue reading, reason why I've ultimately decided I'd finish at 80% without any real need to see how it ends, much to my sorrow because I was convinced I'd love this novel by those first 20-25%...
And then the main character arrived at Olondria and things got terribly confusing to the point I wasn't understanding anything anymore. The writing I'd so enjoyed at the beginning was a detriment to the understanding of the story, too embellished, too abstract sometimes, as to perpetuate the confusion of what was happening while events were going on at a breakneck speed. In the space of a couple of chapters, Jevick, our MC, arrives at a new city, ready to adventure into trading and commerce as was his training and suddenly, without much follow-through at the beginning, he is deliriously ill, is taken by a religious sect that imprisons him because of the visions he sees while delirious (they're blasphemy) and then is contacted by a rebel religious faction who has the opposite idea, and in betwixt all this, our MC's voice is an amalgam of authors and books he has read to the point I wondered if he had any original thought himself.
By this time it was too late to grab me again because I realized early on that Jevick had no real agency in this story. People talked at him, about him, acted in accordance to their wishes, and Jevick just got dragged along constantly without having any real say. His haunting by this mysterious ghost is just another way he gets kicked in by fate and makes him even less of a character I could care about. And because of this, it ended up feeling like an effort to continue reading, reason why I've ultimately decided I'd finish at 80% without any real need to see how it ends, much to my sorrow because I was convinced I'd love this novel by those first 20-25%...
heylook's review against another edition
1.0
Okay, this is another one of those fantasy books with a bunch of made-up names and places, which is obnoxious enough, but then it's another god damn journey quest against all powerful evil or something. The theme underlying it all is apparently the power of telling stories, but all that means is that there are dozens of asides that go off into different narratives (poetry AND prose) so it's all just a big muddle of extraneous material with no real bearing on the plot. Masturbatory self-indulgence.
sydneyjn's review against another edition
This was so beautifully written and so damn boring.