Dara

Great Themes Hampered by Compromised Execution

Revisado: 04-25-25

I enjoy Xiran Jay Zhao's video essays and I wanted to give her book a try. Despite the low star-rating, I will start with the good, because there is a lot to like about this novel.

The horrors of misogyny, historical reimaginings, callbacks to the 4 classic chinese novels, and some of the imagery of giant animalistic piloted battle robots is great. I also want to say that the author does a great job of talking about the mundane horrors of foot-binding and how it genuinely cripples the main character and women like her. If you liked shows like Code Geass, Neon Genesis Evangelion, or if you want the Hunger Games but different, then this book might be for you.

For me however, it's that last point where I have problems. The plotlines of mass media manipulation felt a little shoehorned in. The further along I got in the novel, I wanted a little less teen angst and way more fight choreography and scene description. The present continuous tense wasn't always consistent in the protagonist's internal dialogue, which broke my immersion. Finally, there were some purple prose sections where the amount of adjectives and adverbs used weren't to my taste. When someone describes themselves with more than one adjective in a row, and one of them is "unravelling," my eyes tend to roll because it sounds less like they're feeling an emotion and more like they're trying to convince me they feel an emotion.

I suspect that, like most first-time authors, Zhao had to go through a lot of edits to her plot to make the book more sellable in the eyes of the publisher. In an idea world, more time should have been spent editing the pacing, blocking, and prose than the plot. I hope that now that she's found success, she can be more true to her own artistic vision in later installments and series and work with editors that care more about helping her pages shine rather than tread ground already paved by Susanne Collins. I'm tired of reading fantasy and sci-fi where everything revolves around teen and twenty-somethings whose problems are all resolved by violence or sex, so I needed something more from this novel which I didn't quite get.

As for the narration, it is nice when an English-language production makes an effort to pronounce historical and cultural names correctly. The narrator did a good job conveying the teen angst, but when the characters began to "chew the scenery," in their more melodramatic moments, the narrator really leaned into it. There were lines such as "welcome to your nightmare!" where I thought "Huh, that MUST be written in all-caps."

I think my low star rating can be summarized to feeling ping-ponged back and forth between whether to take the story seriously or not. The body horror, romantic entanglements, and important messaging framed by a re-imagining of historical characters were super interesting, but the melodrama, cliche' sub plots and my dissatisfaction with the prose got in the way of loving all those things.

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Fun

Revisado: 05-22-22

The draw for me is the setting of Modern India, which the author does a good job of bringing to life. The first two acts of the book are the most interesting and original, but there are a few cliches here and there. The final act is very formulaic if you've read any action mystery novels. I'm very happy they got a narrator with what sounds like a native Indian accent that can do a good range of voices. Given how formulaic the rest of the characters are, the baby elephant is the one that is the most interesting. I thought it was cute, so that's not a bad thing.

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A Novel Variation on a Clichéd Plot

Revisado: 01-23-17

The martial arts are well done in this book, but the plot is more contrived than it needed to be. The narration is okay, but the characters make moral choices that not every reader may agree with. The plot is full of clichés that are done better in other martial arts stories. What charm this book does have is in its well researched discussion of historical sword arts from Germany, Japan, and Italy. The fights are well written and you root for the protagonists during them. Try this if you like action and don't care about a believable plot, or if you're interested in historical swordsmanship, but if you like complex narratives with good twists or historical conspiracy stories, look elsewhere.

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Wittily written, but Dated and Snide.

Revisado: 08-03-16

My fiancee and I got this to listen to for a road trip, but while we enjoyed the opening chapters, I think we both quickly lost interest as the mockery in the writing became less affectionate and somewhat more genuine. The book is also somewhat dated by this time and these two things together made us lose interest.

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Broke my Willing Suspension of Disbelief

Revisado: 06-06-16

I loved Cline's previous novel "Ready Player One." But this one fell short for me. I'm used to reading story conventions from a lot of genres, but the reveal of this book, even though I saw it coming, felt clumsily handled to me and left me not wanting to read more. There are a few intentionally awkward moments in the book that, had they been handled better, left me dissatisfied. I've stopped listening to the story and moved on. Perhaps I'll give the book a second chance later. On the plus side, Will Wheaton's reading is very good.

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A great read for people who love pirate history.

Revisado: 09-21-12

The book sucked drew me in with it's premise (whacky economics and pirates) and delivered. The narrator speaks with a clear, calm voice explaining the economic rational behind violent (and in the chapter on torture the first hand accounts Leeson cites are graphically violent) sea banditry in the 18th century Carribean.

Leeson has obviously done his research; taking 17th century primary sources such as government documents and first hand accounts of piracy an applying modern economic theory to explain it.

The only drawback I can forsee with this book is that a reader who doesn't have any prior knowledge of the carribean pirates may need to pick up an Eyewitness series or other book on piracy to understand a bit more of the context.

If you like pirates, history, economics, or theories on why people commit violent crimes this book is a must listen.

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esto le resultó útil a 3 personas

A Great Mix of History, Anthropology, & Science

Revisado: 09-05-12

Would you listen to Lost Discoveries again? Why?

Yes. The book is a great piece of scientific history which turns many popular misconceptions of scientific history on their heads.

Who was your favorite character and why?

The Peter Johnston has a great voice reminiscent of Carl Sagan. He kept me interested the whole way through and conveyed the text very clearly.

Have you listened to any of Peter Johnson’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

I haven't heard any of Mr. Johnston's other performances, but I hope to hear more in the future.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes. It was too interesting to stop listening to.

Any additional comments?

I would recommend this book to anyone interested in anthropology, history, or the sciences.

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