Tuesday, August 26, 2025

a dark and drowning tide by allison saft

Since its entire existence is so blatantly algorithm-optimized, I actually don't have much to say about the totally nonsensical premise, the weird pacing, the unoriginal fantasy setting, or the prose that's somehow overdone while still lacking romanticism. But it spends 300+ overwrought pages to determine that colonialism is cool and everything will work out, which also represents no development from the beginning of the novel. I would not call this an adult novel because it is not very sophisticated, but I would not call it a YA novel because those usually have actual, heavy-handed political sentiment.

No comments:

Post a Comment

the tyrant baru cormorant by seth dickinson

 Not really satisfying. The optimistic tone doesn't, in my opinion, serve the themes well, and it used an almost juvenile humor way too ...