Piranesi

 Book Title: Piranesi

Author: Susanne Clarke

Date Started: July 27th 2021

Date Completed: July 29th 2021

Genres: Mystery, Thriller

Quality Rating: Four Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Five Star

Final Rating: Four Stars

Review:

Piranesi was a lot of fun, and a way quicker read than I had expected. Full of intrigue, wonder and a lot of good characterisation, while it isn't quite the masterpiece some sell it is, it's a very well-crafted piece of fiction.

Overall, the book is well-paced and planned. Clarke puts a lot of thought into building tone and atmosphere, without overdoing the description. A great deal of this story relies on picturing the House and the things Piranesi comes across, and Clarke pulls it off with very succinct prose. Piranesi himself is a bit of an idiot but he's balanced well with his kind-heartedness. And who doesn't love a book that can pull off mysterious puzzles where the audience are invited along to solve what's happening themselves.

The best way to go into this is without knowing much about the story, but the tone is definitely more towards The Secret History meets Circe meets The Maze Runner (I seemed to have it in my head that it was a classical retelling, perhaps from the cover and marketing).

Iron Widow

 Book Title: Iron Widow

Author: Xiran Jay Zhao

Series: Iron Widow #1

Date Started: July 17th 2021

Date Completed: July 25th 2021

Genres: Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Historical, Action

Quality Rating: Four Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Four Star

Final Rating: Four Stars

Review:

◆ Thanks to NetGalley for this eBook copy for review ◆

Iron Widow was so, so much fun. It's marketed as Pacific Rim meets The Handmaid's Tale (I would say more Hunger Games), but honestly just the summary is enough to instantly sell it: a reimagining of the only Empress of China where massive metal creatures shaped as mythological beasts are piloted to fight invading hoards of aliens. But the corruption behind the scenes is more of a threat than the doom that approaches them from outside their walls.

I will admit that there are times when the book falls into cheesiness and might be slightly overdone, but it's such a cool way to explore Chinese cultural and mythological elements in both a historical and modern way that any little things that don't land perfectly are irrelevant. I love how and how rich the cultural influences were and how well the Chinese elements that might not be as well-known in the West were explained without info-dumping.

I also need to write about Zeitan herself, who is an utterly fantastic heroine. I'm going to parallel it to The Poppy War for the sole purpose of citing complex, questionable women who are humanised and that we are able to have empathy for. Also, shout out to the polyamorous relationship; I've never really seen it used before and quite honestly I'm not that familiar with it, but it was great.

It's so hard to articulate the modern contradictions for identifying as something and recognising (and accepting) the negative background and aspects of it, but Zhao does it. There are historically negative associations with being a woman; it doesn't mean femininity is bad. There are parts of Chinese culture that have hurt its people (one example criticised in this book is traditional foot-binding); that doesn't mean there aren't aspects that should be celebrated. Zhao fluently communicates that paradox, and it's genuinely moving and liberating.

Even aside from the politics, Iron Widow is just fun and exciting and engaging. If you also haven't seen Zhao's videos on Asian cultural influences in popular culture including Mulan, Avatar: The Last Airbender and Kung Fu Panda, then I highly recommend them. Her skill at picking up apart existing storytelling works is just as strong - if not rivalled - by her skill at creating her own.

The Bone Shard Daughter

 Book Title: The Bone Shard Daughter

Author: Andrea Stewart

Series: The Drowning Empire #1

Date Started: July 6th 2021

Date Completed: July 17th 2021

Genres: Fantasy, Mystery, Adventure

Quality Rating: Five Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Five Star

Final Rating: Five Stars

Review:

◆ Thanks to NetGalley for this eBook copy for review ◆

The Bone Shard Daughter was one of the best fantasy novels I've read in a long time. I read a lot of fantasy novels, and I'm particularly fond of high-fantasy with Asian influences which this novel sits comfortably in, and this is definitely at the front of the pack. The story was meticulously and diligently planned, the characters and world full-fledged and realised, and it was just an absolute joy to read.

Stewart has constructed such a well-built world, so different to so many, but so well-rooted and made accessible to the audience through the prose. The East Asian-inspired setting is lush and epic, and the constructs (creatures created from animal matter and controlled by the bone shards of the title, taken from the citizens of the empire as children and used to power the monstrous creatures until they have no energy left to live) are such a cool idea, and so well utilised in the story. You get the sense that Stewart isn't a making-it-up-as-she-goes-along writer (though, of course, I don't know!) but that she puts a great deal of thought into how she weaves her tapestry. So when you read it, it performs flawlessly.

There's also such a great balance of multiple complex, conflicted lead characters that each have full stories in their own right, but clearly have further to go until their paths inevitably intertwine. The politics and conflict they face are so believable because it's rooted in these characters and their positions and perspectives in the world. One of our heroines doesn't believe poverty exists and it's understandable, thus the need to teach her otherwise becomes to much more visceral and compelling.

I've gushed enough already, but there's plenty more to enjoy in the book itself past the base elements of literary storytelling. Part of what's so good about The Bone Shard Daugther is its action and its excitement, the puzzles that you're able to work out alongside the characters, and the mysteries that still plague them onwards to the next book, which I will be picking up the second it comes out.

The Harp of Kings

 Book Title: The Harp of Kings

Author: Juliet Marillier

Series: Warrior Bards #1

Date Started: June 22nd 2021

Date Completed: July 6th 2021

Genres: Fantasy, Historical, Adventure, Mystery

Quality Rating: Three Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Three Star

Final Rating: Three Stars

Review:

The Harp of Kings is another mystery in a strange court with uncanny hands in the plot from Juliet Marillier, the iconic writer of fairy tale fantasy adventure stories with strong female characters and addictive action. I didn't actually realise it was a further telling of another of her series, Blackthorn and Grim, until I started reading - not that you need to know that at all, but it's a nice little nod in the text.

Ultimately, this novel wasn't my favourite of Marillier's, mainly because I just didn't get into it in the same way I've fallen into some of her other work. I didn't connect to the characters as well as I usually do, and much of the joy of Marillier's writing is her characters. The cast is all fine in theory; the brave but stubborn female warrior perhaps too devoted to her brother, the wise but hesitant bard brother who's probably a bit too devoted to his sister, and the grudging rival along for the ride (and inevitably the male love interest for the series). But they don't come to life off the page for me, and so it was hard to feel any stakes or much drama.

Something that is maybe a bad habit, but one that I often overlook because I'm just having so much fun, is the tendency of these books to knock you over the head with the explanations resolving the mystery at the end. It really is explicit in how the clues and conundrums connect in the end, which is;t always the most satisfying. In The Harp of Kings, especially, there's a lot more weight in the emotional changes than in events themselves, so when you get to the end it's almost a surprise when you're reminded how their actions have actually solved the major mystery from the start of the book and here's why.

Honestly, it was a bit lacklustre for me overall. If this was the first Marillier book I'd read, I don't know if I would keep coming back to them like I currently do. Marillier's work is one of my favourite collections to default to if I'm not sure what to read next, because they're always a fun ride - this was one still a ride, but not quite as fun as I'd like readers to know her writing as.