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A review by teokajlibroj
Unwrapped Sky by Rjurik Davidson
2.0
I really wanted to like this book. I loved the idea of class conflict and revolution in a magical fantasy setting. The Industrial Revolution seems like a great new area for fantasy with lots of potential. I have a big interest in politics so a novel where philosopher-assassins tackle political questions seemed amazing.
Yet I found it really difficult to get into the book. No matter how I tried, I just couldn't connect with the story. The writing is just too clunky and awkward. The author is trying to be profound but it just reads like a dense and obscure political treatise.
The characters are so dull. I'm forcing myself to care about them, but it's just too hard. They're just too empty and lifeless. There are 3 main characters and none of them have any agency, they are completely passive. They spend their time moping around, being melancholic and feeling sorry for themselves. The side characters too are empty and forgettable.
The conversations are completely dull and mechanical. In fact, there is little dialogue, instead the characters prefer to reminisce and remember the past in large exposition dumps (I swear, it feels like half of this book is just reminisces). Why won't somebody just do something?
I got halfway through the book and nothing had happened. No, seriously nothing. It still felt like the characters are being introduced and the plot hasn't begun. Every chapter I'm begging someone to actually do something instead of just feeling sad. Characters end their chapter in the same place as where it begun with nothing having changed. I reach the end of chapters struggling to remember if anything happened in what I just read.
Nor is there much worldbuilding. We are told that the Houses run society, but never told how? Is it feudalism, slavery, capitalism? How exactly do they control society? The revolutionaries aren't any clearer, in fact it's never said what they are rebelling against or what they will replace it with. They are in favour of freedom and that's all the detail so far. They supposedly like the working class, but don't seem to ever meet any of them. We are repeatedly told about the plight of the oppressed, never shown it.
There's the occasional philosophical statement awkwardly shoe-horned in every couple of paragraphs, but it doesn't connect with the plot or build any major theme. Don't even get me started on the half-hearted attempt at a love story. It's incredibly forced and doesn't feel the least bit natural.
Basically the problem with this book is that everything happens in people's heads, they say and do incredibly little. I slogged through two-thirds of it before finally giving up because I couldn't care less about what happened.
Yet I found it really difficult to get into the book. No matter how I tried, I just couldn't connect with the story. The writing is just too clunky and awkward. The author is trying to be profound but it just reads like a dense and obscure political treatise.
The characters are so dull. I'm forcing myself to care about them, but it's just too hard. They're just too empty and lifeless. There are 3 main characters and none of them have any agency, they are completely passive. They spend their time moping around, being melancholic and feeling sorry for themselves. The side characters too are empty and forgettable.
The conversations are completely dull and mechanical. In fact, there is little dialogue, instead the characters prefer to reminisce and remember the past in large exposition dumps (I swear, it feels like half of this book is just reminisces). Why won't somebody just do something?
I got halfway through the book and nothing had happened. No, seriously nothing. It still felt like the characters are being introduced and the plot hasn't begun. Every chapter I'm begging someone to actually do something instead of just feeling sad. Characters end their chapter in the same place as where it begun with nothing having changed. I reach the end of chapters struggling to remember if anything happened in what I just read.
Nor is there much worldbuilding. We are told that the Houses run society, but never told how? Is it feudalism, slavery, capitalism? How exactly do they control society? The revolutionaries aren't any clearer, in fact it's never said what they are rebelling against or what they will replace it with. They are in favour of freedom and that's all the detail so far. They supposedly like the working class, but don't seem to ever meet any of them. We are repeatedly told about the plight of the oppressed, never shown it.
There's the occasional philosophical statement awkwardly shoe-horned in every couple of paragraphs, but it doesn't connect with the plot or build any major theme. Don't even get me started on the half-hearted attempt at a love story. It's incredibly forced and doesn't feel the least bit natural.
Basically the problem with this book is that everything happens in people's heads, they say and do incredibly little. I slogged through two-thirds of it before finally giving up because I couldn't care less about what happened.