Smashbomb

This is a wonderful novel. The reader is taken on a childhood journey through the eyes of a young girl (or through the lens of the camera she see's herself through). This is a story about a child yearning for her mothers love, about friendship, about innocence and about the burden that abuse - emotional and physical - can have on an individual.
The relationship between the protagonist and the her friends is brilliant. The language, the vernacular, all make this novel as real as if you were right back to your own childhood, with words that I had long forgotten and which came back to me in laughter. I enjoyed the honesty of childhood, the realism of childhood relationships, the subtle way that situations are dealt with. I just loved it.

Kudos

Jake (52 KP) rated A Memory Called Empire (Teixcalaan, #1) in Books

Jul 25, 2019

Great premise but poor execution, and poor ending.

Some of the concepts and the worldbuilding were fantastic. Some of the names and places were a little too crazy (using old Mayan language as a basis? Teixalaan is the easiest of the weird words you'll find). Some of the world systems and culture didn't seem to make sense but I went with it anyways.

I was debating on rating it 4 stars but the ending was so poor. See spoiler below for some high-level spoils.

<spoiler>No huge climax, no really interesting turn of events, no facing the alien threat, no facing your darkest fear or something. Just... blah.</spoiler>

Anyway I won't be reading any sequels and I almost wish I would have stopped 3/4 of the way through when I understood the politics fully. Good luck.