Shannon Sullivan

Fabulous

Revisado: 02-27-25

This is the best story I’ve read since CJ Cherryh’s Cyteen . The issue of identity, what makes one human, the valuation of lives, is consistent throughout all volumes. I’m having difficulty articulating what’s so great about it, so I will just say it really reminds me of a song by Laurie Anderson:

“Last night I saw a host of angels
and they were all singing different songs
and they sounded like a lot of lawnmowers mowing down my lawn…”

“Some people walk on water
some people walk on broken glass
some just walk around and round in their dreams
some just keep falling down.
So when you see a man who’s broken
lift him up and carry him
and when you see a woman who’s broken
put her all into your arms
‘cause we don’t know where we come from
we don’t know what we are…” “Ramon”

Each character is utterly understandable and relatable. I loved them all. I cried when Justice of Toren One Esk Nineteen confessed her murder of the sibling of Basnaaid to Basnaaid. The heavy guilt carried by a ship’s AI was really something.

Although it took me awhile to get used to Adjoa Andoh’s accent during the first book, by the third book, I could not imagine anyone else performing.

Really, really great. Usually, I find stuff that wins awards kind of precocious and alienating (my taste doesn’t seem to match up with most other readers, I guess), but in my library, this deserves the accolades, and my 🦭of approval and appreciation.

Wow.

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Solidly good

Revisado: 02-25-25

Writing is seamless; clear, evocative, and never takes you out of the story.

Performance took a chapter for this American listener to learn to distinguish, but after my ears were broken in, I appreciated the clear vocal identities provided, except for the antagonist, who was barely more than a whisper.

Characters are clear, tho some take awhile to grow on you. Protagonist is likable and quirky. Dialog is often pointed, or sarcastic (which I think is fun).

Story: During first chapter, I thought I was reading something akin to Murderbot, but things got way deep very quickly. I then worried it would become too complicated and alien for me, but it surprised me with its accessibility.

It initially seems like a simple revenge story, but there are so many little bits, from ‘simple’ things like consideration of when someone becomes “I”, to class/race issues between colonized groups, to the idea that few who swear they would disobey power before slaughtering actually would refuse if confronted with kill or die commands, to one of the best presentations of caring for an addict I have read in awhile. It is a revenge/save the world story, but by the end, we’ve been through the wringer with a salad of issues.

Some ideas I did not grasp well, such as what the issue is/was about gender. I also missed what makes our protagonist able to resist some orders but not some others that had similar “values”.

Ancillary Justice is a great example of the “put the AI into a moral quandary” story that I would not hesitate to recommend to people who like complex, but not too technical, heady stories.

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Loved it, but…

Revisado: 02-15-25

I find Jeff Wheeler’s stories comfortable and satisfying. Love the consistency of his strong female protagonists, the use of history, or historical myth (e.g. the Angevins, Jeanne d’Arc, and here-Arthur?) as a skeleton. This provides a pre-made setting, as it were, that provides orientation for the reader.

If I have one beef, it’s the use of worn out phrases (“looking dazed and confused”).

And please, please, please open a thesaurus and find some other word for “throb”. Is Wheeler trying to rehabilitate the word from the romance genre? While it almost never gets used in other likely situations (how your thumb feels after you hit it with a hammer), it gets used in situations where there is a better word. Also, it gets used in multiple situations, so it’s meaning is diluted. One feels magic? Throb. One is hungry? Throb.

I wouldn’t be so picky, but it takes me out of the story as my roll (hard), and I consider what would have been a better word.

Kate Rudd’s reading is perfect. I especially like how she voices her main characters maturing over time. When choosing a book to listen to, if Ms Rudd is performing, it adds a point to my consideration.

Please, please, please: get a thesaurus. I’ll buy you one.

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Gently thoughtful

Revisado: 01-23-25

Just like Becky Chambers’ other books, I found A Psalm For the Wild-Built to be a comfortable, strongly character-driven story that raises deep questions about a lifelong perspective that I never questioned, but should have: is it necessary to be productive (“do something” in the world/“be somebody”). It is ironic that the robot has answered this question for itself, while the human is so clueless.

For those who need action or strong external conflict, this would not be the book for you. If you value good characters, philosophies, and interesting situations, Becky Chambers is the author for you.

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Like a good protein bar; little sweet, lot hefty, and sticks with you

Revisado: 01-16-25

Best self-acceptance story I’ve read in a long time.

I began cheering for the protagonist from paragraph one, marveled at her authenticity throughout, and was not disappointed at the end.

I am, however, still thinking/trying to explain how the combination of ruthless pragmatism and magical thinking can inhabit the same brain.

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Solid!

Revisado: 01-05-25

1) Main Character: committed to doing a good job while filled with self-doubt. Consistent. Somewhat thoughtful. Flexible, so she often McGivers her way to expand magic. Likes Le. Not often stupid.
2) Magic system: persons teeth carry the type of magic ruled by their “tribe”. Great. Plague (seems to be) related to history/ behavior.
3)World/politics. Our protagonist is member of lowest status tribe doing heavy lifting for society.

All things I like: smart, flexible trying to do right protagonist dealing with medical/death/class struggles from the bottom, using interesting magic.

Absolutely recommend. Don’t forget it’s in two books: The Merciful Crow, and The Faithless Hawk

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Still keeping an open mind

Revisado: 12-09-24

Main characters are either jerks (the judge who twists the rules so he can act on his feelings - including hitting on the protege he pulled up from the gutter; frankly I’d rather he die than get the girl), or weenies (the protege, who spends way too much time screaming or crying). The Reader makes main character whiny.

Story might wind up being interesting if it ends as I suspect (the only reason I’m reading on). Will it ultimately be about putting your energy into the empire means you’re on the wrong side of justice? Is there an alternative that is not worse?

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Not your standard “Witch Hunts Were Awful” story

Revisado: 12-02-24

My favorite type of storytelling: impressionistic, moody, interior.

The bulk of the story itself is somewhat standard “Twisted Witchunter + shitty neighbors + calumnies + old/crotchety/uppity women = bummer for the women.”

What makes this story stand apart is it’s POV, which is first person of a young woman who survives the process, and then third person (barely) of her inquisitor.

The prose for our gal is beautiful and full; she describes things not only as she sees them, but as she feels them, or as what they are. You can get up and start your day, or you can arise, walk through the dim, warm house, then open the door to a cool sunlight, as tender as (pick your favorite)spring flower, dewdrops shining like diamonds, with steam rising languidly above the ground. (You get the idea)

Not only is the writing full, but the reading provides character match, particularly of our primary-some kind of regional English accent. The tone is my favorite - all sentences end in a period. Difficult life of a 17th century English woman, with all of its oppression, told in a muted, oppressed way. I love this matchup.

I also appreciated the author’s careful (and a little ambiguous) treatment of the impulse, when you are being as mistreated as these women were, to go to the other side.

Finally, I don’t want to forget a shout-out to the small and easily missed mother/daughter relationship epiphany the main character experiences as they wait over a year to learn their fate. Well done.

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Almost lost me at the half

Revisado: 12-01-24

I really struggled with this story during the entire wind battle section. Magic systems just sort of showed up (when was I supposed to have known about the blood bending ability? It caught me by surprise). I found it, frankly, boring because I had yet to be connected with any of the main characters. I got a whole bunch of observations without context of the observer.

I did appreciate the growth of the other main character, and because the “action” descriptions in later chapters were connected to a character whose inner world and motivation were familiar, those observations were set in a familiar context and made more sense. So much was missing, though, due to lack of character introduction and flushing out prior to attempting to get character to move story along. It would have helped understand Misaki better if we had “seen” her in some of her old life - claims of how wild things were(and what was it exactly that they did, and why?) just don’t carry enough information.

Otherwise, disconnected. It did not help that narrator was stolidly male. Deadly dull during battle, and interfered with character/reader bonding.

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Yeah, what the other 5-star reviewers said…

Revisado: 11-26-24

Well-written. Well read. Intriguing, seamless amalgamation of tropes:

-brilliant woman in a ‘stem’ field in a Victorianesque society (sexism)

-Dickensesque society that destroys another culture, then blames that culture for its place in society (as an Irish-American, the choice of English versus Irish accents to distinguish between the cultures tapped into hundreds of years of resentment I somehow carry)

-white woman syndrome (entitlement + cringey beliefs turn into heedless commitment to “make it right”), with great discussion whether morally right is based on intention or whether the act is actually helpful.

-steam-punkish scientific magic

-use of religion to block access to truth

-“good science is not moral”

-Socrates gets their revenge

100% Recommend

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