Jeannette P

An evocative and fascinating 1800s travelogue with about the racism you'd expect

Revisado: 12-25-23

This is a very interesting book for someone who likes American history, but I wouldn't recommend it for everyone.

I chose this version of the audiobook because the narration was the best, and I think the narrator did a good job throughout.

The author's letters offer an incredible and detailed glimpse of the daily life of American settlers in Colorado in the late 1800s, and a general perspective of how English people viewed America, which is very interesting. If you know Colorado you will recognize the towns and the landscapes she describes, and if you don't, it will make you want to see them. She captures the beauty of the mountains and the plains with unexpected vividness, and her descriptions of the farmers, ranchers, and mountain men are humorous and sincere. She is blunt and honest about her views, which can be either funny or uncomfortable.

The author is a woman of her time and class, including religious, nationalist, and casually racist views. The majority of the book is a detailed account of her travels by horse and rail through white settlements of people colonizing Colorado. Native Americans are portrayed as a regrettable inconvenience that are being (mis)managed in various ways. Her condescending tone will be familiar to anyone who has read other 19th century literature from white authors talking about non-white populations. She seems indifferent towards people of color in general, and uses words that are considered slurs now. It's an unfiltered and sometimes unpleasant glimpse into the mindset of the people from that time.

I came away from the book feeling that I had learned a lot that I hadn't known, both good and bad.

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Adrian, you ok? An Existential Crisis, with Crows

Revisado: 10-10-23

This book grapples with some big, big questions at exhaustive and repetitive length. The first 5 chapters and the last half hour are the interesting and thoughtful storytelling that we all come to Adrian for.
The ....6 chapters? in between really bog down into raising the same few questions and ideas over and over.

I can't tell whether the author didn't trust the audience to get the idea the first ten times around, or whether this book suffered from a lack of editing.

I loved Children of Time, thought Children of Ruin was pretty good, and I think Children of Memory is not the worst sci-fi I've read. It was nice to get a glimpse of the next stage of the society we've been following in the series. But wow, does it stretch a novella's worth of story into a full length novel.

If you want to listen to the book, feel free to skip ahead a section every time you get bored. You almost certainly won't miss anything.

The narrator, as always, is excellent.

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Fun, Silly, Piercing, and Creative

Revisado: 12-31-22

Tightly crafted to entertain and play with some fun corners of the time travel trope. Imparts a sense of loss and sadness without taking itself too seriously.
I wish it were longer, because few authors engage with speculative ideas and wit like Adrian Tchaikovsky, but he was right to keep it short.

He does a surprisingly good job of narrating his own stories. The only other author I've enjoyed as a narrator this much was Ursula K. Le Guin, and probably for a similar reason. He hits all of his own notes well.

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Creative, funny, hopeful, queer

Revisado: 12-17-22

N.K. Jemisin doesn't miss. The story was engaging and fun, with lots of brief dips into the histories of different NYC burroughs and global cultures. The author raised real issues with a creative and hopeful twist that avoided the nihilism that a lot of sci-fi suffers from. I'm really curious to hear how people from the cities and burroughs mentioned in this story feel about their portrayal. It seemed like the author put effort into showcasing both the negative and positive qualities of everything, which kept me interested. I hope there is more to come in this series.

The narration and production quality were excellent. I'm not a New Yorker so I can't judge how good all the accents were, but every character had a distinct and recognizable voice.

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Historically interesting with rich visuals

Revisado: 10-29-22

Overall I enjoyed this book, but I found the protagonist frustrating. There is a lot of rich historical detail to appreciate, and the main character is a realistic woman of her time. That means that she is always working around men and authority figures without the means or will to defy them directly. She is often bullied and constantly unsure of herself, except in her own private pursuit of art and beauty through needlework.
She abhors slavery in America but doesn't see herself as able or responsible for directly working to fight it. She makes decisions that make sense for who she is, but that are sometimes selfish or weak. She is a sympathetic but sometimes dangerously mediocre and naive friend to her free Black neighbors, in ways that made me cringe to read.

As a study of early American Scottish immigrant femininity and society, it's interesting. I greatly enjoyed the somewhat unglamorous depiction of Nathaniel Hawthorne. It drags in some places and had moments where I completely lost sympathy for the main character. But overall I think it was a worthwhile read for those interested in a slice of European immigrant historical imagining.

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Weird, Self-aware, funny, and hopeful

Revisado: 10-29-22

The story was unexpected without relying on twists to be interesting. All the characters feel like fully realized people, and the narrative maintains a sympathetic but humorously ironic perspective on many bulwarks of progressive belief that allows it to explore some heavy topics while avoiding self righteousness or gloom. I enjoyed the entire book and finished it more quickly than I wanted to.

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Couldn't finish it. Boring, and poorly handled SA

Revisado: 10-04-22

This book contains a casual, almost light-hearted recounting of sexual assault. I understand what the author was trying to do with it, but it was so off-putting in the midst of an otherwise predictable and somewhat boring narrative that once I hit pause, I ended up never returning to the story.

The premise of the book had me excited to read it, but somehow despite the many exciting and dramatic events and characters, it dragged.
The tough lady reporter chasing a lead reads as a stereotype after the first few pages. The other characters felt flat, as if the author liked the idea of their skills and exploits but didn't know how to give them personalities.

I gave it three stars to be fair because I don't know how it ends. Despite what is clearly intended to be a tantalizing mystery, I just didn't care enough.

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Entertaining and well acted

Revisado: 10-04-22

Engaging, mildly suspenseful, fun, and a little heartfelt. The voice actors were great, and the dialogue felt believable. A really enjoyable listen.

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