I loved the use of flashbacks; it flowed with the storytelling and bought shocking insights into why Ayo is that way.
I loved the use of flashbacks; it flowed with the storytelling and bought shocking insights into why Ayo is that way.
As an African woman, I have lived in shame, and shame has lived in me. I told myself I was keeping my virginity for my husband. I needed to be a virtuous woman to be appreciated, I did not know what virtue meant, and honestly, I still don't.
Niru is gay and cannot freely explore his queerness. Although he is in a country like America, the Africanness and religiosity in his parents would not let them support him. Rather they take him to pastors to pray the gay out of him.
We assume that people are either gay or lesbians, forgetting that the queer spectrum is broad and there are so many intersections. The rainbow has so many different colors, not just red and yellow.
It reminds me of a young man who once promised forever. He had been so consistent and intense in his promises of forever that I believed it, latched onto it, breathed it, and looked forward to it.
Then there are the themes in the book. Everything needed for a perfect dish of dark, grim fantasy is here. Magic? Check. Betrayal? Aplenty. Violence? You can literally hear the screams of dying men. A flawed hero? There's more than one flawed hero here.
It's a testament to the writer's storytelling and plot-twisting skills that he's able to get his characters into so much trouble and then get them out, all without giving his readers the impression that he's being overly partial.
The fighting is hats off, badass! The descriptions of sex are just as vivid as the gruesome literary pictures of broken skulls, disemboweled soldiers, hamstrung men and women, and decapitated men lying in pools of blood and gore.
Moving on, I love the way the author portrayed the events here. His writing and world-building improved greatly.
The world-building is beyond average; it’s awesome. Will Wight literally has a different world-building because each book is set in a different location.
Despite the Malazans being soldiers and all, they are still compassionate. It reminds me of what they did in Capustan. I was scared that the marines here would be a rip-off of the others, but I was wrong.
The world is amazing. For a small book, the author cleverly does a lot of rather unique world-building. It's not vast Midkemia, truth be told. This one is more straightforward, more streamlined, very different.
