From ecf53720767d1dd27cdd9efd4befb13e3cebfc7d Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Julio Biason Date: Tue, 12 May 2020 12:12:13 -0300 Subject: [PATCH] Book review: Fledgling --- content/reviews/books/fledgling.md | 42 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 42 insertions(+) create mode 100644 content/reviews/books/fledgling.md diff --git a/content/reviews/books/fledgling.md b/content/reviews/books/fledgling.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d56bcf3 --- /dev/null +++ b/content/reviews/books/fledgling.md @@ -0,0 +1,42 @@ ++++ +title = "Fledgling - Sharon Lee, Steve Miller" +date = 2020-05-12 + +[taxonomies] +tags = ["books", "reviews", "scifi", "liaden universe"] ++++ + +[GoodReads Summary](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5585180-fledgling): +Theo Waitley has lived all her young life on Delgado, a Safe World that is +home to one of the galaxy's premier institutions of higher learning. Both +Theo's mother, Kamele, and Kamele's onagrata Jen Sar Kiladi, are professors at +the university, and they all live comfortably together, just like they have +for all of Theo's life, in Jen Sar's house at the outskirts of town. + + + +{{ stars(stars=2) }} + +First things first: I did enjoy the fact that the universe has gender roles +inverted -- with women being considered "strong" and "intellectual" and men +being the ones that want to look pretty -- and this is not throw at your face +at every moment, although it gets explicit by the end of the book, but by +then, you're already good with it. + +On the other hand, some things feel... weird. Not about the genders, but in +the story itself. There is some great secret, something the main characters +want to hide, doing a lot of schemes to conceal it and when it is said what it +is... it feels dumb. Ok, someone is clumsy, but that's natural in someone's +family and WHY THE HECK IS THAT A SECRET?!? + +Also weird are some dialogues. At some point, there is one character asking a +question and getting annoyed at it at the same time, like he didn't like to +hear the question he just asked. Some discussions just jump into conclusions +-- in the right conclusions -- which, again, feels weird. And there is a short +arc in the middle of it that leads absolutely nowhere. It is throw in the +story, affects absolutely nothing and goes away without a trace. + +Maybe it's because I got the book from Humble Bundle and jumped straight into +the 12 book of the series (the "Liaden Universe", although this is the first +book about a sub-series of one of the characters, or so it seems), but I +didn't feel compelled by any of the characters.