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A review by xeyra1
A Stranger in Olondria by Sofia Samatar
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%...