S. Saavedra

Amazing

Revisado: 04-22-20

I finished it and immediately just started it again. Masanobu was so far ahead of his time that even now, we are still behind him, but this book is the future. You can start the future right now in your yard. Don't wait.

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Pretty brilliant

Revisado: 03-11-20

This could not have been an easy novel to construct given all the realities. It's impressively poignant, creative and engaging. I sort of wanted to see just a little character evolution in Dr. Haber, but it makes more sense for the character that there isn't. This is the most poetic of all her novels. It's about dreams but she managed to keep it utterly grounded. It doesn't end with a bang. It ends the way it lives, with an ordinary human moment in a messily real world.

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Dated but a piece of history

Revisado: 12-28-19

Expected all the reveals. The unflagging paternalistic quality of the story is cringe-worthy at this point in history and just makes it difficult to feel like the people are real humans and not just caricatures. Sure it was realistic for the times, but times have changed and this inability of misogyny and to stand the test of time is just demonstrative of its drawbacks. Not saying it's not worth reading. It's a piece of history. The telepathic world that's built is somewhat impressive, even if shudderingly patriarchal. Just keep in mind, it's dated and it shows not only with its misogyny but also with its outmoded psychological concepts.

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Good story, GREAT narration

Revisado: 12-22-19

Only three chapters in and so far the book is pretty good but the narration is incredible. Unfortunately, she died last year, quite young, which really is a loss because she reads as if she's actually acting. It sounds sort of like I have the TV on in the background, but since it's a book I don't miss out on anything by not watching because there's nothing actually to watch. Narration really doesn't get more top-notch than this. I thought this book was a fantasy novel in a modern setting but it's actually magical realism. It's told from the point-of-view of the main character who is quite a character. She's definitely entertaining enough to listen to. The story is told through her diary, which she makes entries in daily. The magical realism is done so deftly that you're never sure if what she calls magic is actually magic or a young person who just believes in her own imagination. It has a similar humor to Angela's Ashes and a similar overall feel except you'd have to replace one part grit with one part fairy dust.

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This is a YA novel

Revisado: 12-22-19

It doesn't seem to be getting marketed as a YA novel, but that's definitely what it is. Unfortunately, it's only a mediocre YA novel at that. I bought it because there's fresh new ideas carried into the fantasy genre by the indigenous basis and I felt like there's a lot of potential there, but this book failed to meet any of that potential. The aspects of this book that should have met their potential didn't because the author doesn't understand her craft. Apparently she's a lawyer which makes a lot of sense to me because her storytelling skills just aren't there. Her plot has build-ups of tension and release of tension, but the way she tells the plot doesn't build any tension and therefore her reveals fall flat. It's basically like you're just getting information you have to try to care about all the time.

As far as the narrator goes I like that they chose one that uses a Native American accent, however her ability to read different characters is almost nil so everyone sounds the same and even in that one way of reading, she really struggles to convey a range of emotion.

I admire the author's intention to bring indigenous existence into the world of fantasy literature, and I'm actually extra sad that it's so low quality because I don't think there's really anything else like it out there right now. Also, the author is not Navajo but the indigenous culture she puts in the book is and she has upset actual Navajo people by what they feel is disrespectful handling of their culture in the book, so that's also not so great. I hope someone with better skill and more tact tries writing something like this because I think the idea behind this book does belong in our literary world.

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Narrator obliterates everything good

Revisado: 12-22-19

It's Faulkner. How could it not be amazing? The narrator ruined it for me. Utterly. I know that it's amazing because I read it before I got the audiobook. But I could not listen to the audiobook for more than about 10 minutes. It's best to just read this one yourself.

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Like eating candy with a little bit of sand in it

Revisado: 12-22-19

It's worth a read just for the very beginning part about the kleptomania. It's stream of consciousness but upgraded for the postmodern era and it's entirely brilliant. Unlike Virginia Woolf's stream of consciousness, it's less poetic, more gritty, and entirely understandable.

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Amazing

Revisado: 12-22-19

Basically this review could just be me repeating the word amazing a hundred times. I think it's probably Virginia's best. As with all her other writing, the poetry shoots like lasers off the pages and emblazons her imagination into your brain where it burns, or mutes, or shines with motherly brilliance, or blankets you in gentle feminine darkness, or whatever under all the stars in the sky she wanted you to experience. It's the kind of book that's best if you let it wash over you gently and don't try too hard to reason out all the time. A lot of the communication of Virginia's writing was not logical, but more like looking at a painting, when you see shape and color in a composition the gives you a certain feeling, only she does it with words instead of paint.

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Couldn't get very far.

Revisado: 12-22-19

Slow moving. Tired stereotypes of men and women. It felt like hard work to listen to and so I stopped. Maybe I'll go back to it at some point, but the paternalistic quality of the writing makes me want to gag, so probably not now that there's so much wonderful writing by the new generation of sci-fi writers that doesn't include such misogynistic feeling as so much of the first 50 years of sci-fi writing did. Why waste my time with backward ideals when I don't have to?

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One of the most amazing books ever written

Revisado: 12-22-19

The prose draws you in immediately. The characters are bigger than life and mystical and they keep you hooked. The psychosocial understanding the author has of his characters is brilliant to say the least. The plot is complex, engaging, and moves at a steady pace. There's no aspect of this book that lags. It's an amazing tale written by a very skilled author who was clearly a consummate professional. Get ready to have your imagination taken on an epic journey of wow.

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