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A review by emilythesmelly
Islandia by Austin Tappan Wright
2.0
I have to DNF this at 63% because it's been over a year since I've read any and I have no motivation to ever pick it up again. I'm just being honest. I'm never reading that final 400 pages.
I started reading because Anne McCaffrey cited this book as foundational for her in her journey into writing fantasy literature.
Make no mistake: this is not fantasy.
Technically, it is, but only technically. It's about an Earth that is exactly like ours, except there's another continent on it. Nothing even a little supernatural going on.
There's not nothing of value in this book. Wright did The Worldbuilding in a way that would make Tolkein proud. Islandia is fully realized and detailed. I will not deny that. There are also really interesting critiques of colonialism, nuances of love and lust, investigations of home and belonging and family. There are some good and interesting points made by and in this book for sure.
But the narrator is insufferable. John Lang is at once a Nice Guy, a softboy, and a fuckboy. These interesting and progressive ideas almost never come from him, but are rebutted and argued by him. His narrative arc is that he wants to have sex (which by the way is a bad motivation for a book), and he does that ~60% through, so what is supposed to keep me as a reader going? And while The Worldbuilding is impressive, it's incredibly dull. It's overdone, and I just wanted it to be over.
I had to give up on it. Its merits were bogged down and suffocated by its annoying aspects, and I'm finally ready to admit that I'm done. A study of how to and not to create a fantastical world, all in one.
I started reading because Anne McCaffrey cited this book as foundational for her in her journey into writing fantasy literature.
Make no mistake: this is not fantasy.
Technically, it is, but only technically. It's about an Earth that is exactly like ours, except there's another continent on it. Nothing even a little supernatural going on.
There's not nothing of value in this book. Wright did The Worldbuilding in a way that would make Tolkein proud. Islandia is fully realized and detailed. I will not deny that. There are also really interesting critiques of colonialism, nuances of love and lust, investigations of home and belonging and family. There are some good and interesting points made by and in this book for sure.
But the narrator is insufferable. John Lang is at once a Nice Guy, a softboy, and a fuckboy. These interesting and progressive ideas almost never come from him, but are rebutted and argued by him. His narrative arc is that he wants to have sex (which by the way is a bad motivation for a book), and he does that ~60% through, so what is supposed to keep me as a reader going? And while The Worldbuilding is impressive, it's incredibly dull. It's overdone, and I just wanted it to be over.
I had to give up on it. Its merits were bogged down and suffocated by its annoying aspects, and I'm finally ready to admit that I'm done. A study of how to and not to create a fantastical world, all in one.