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Comments 21

_ocelott_ January 17 2012, 06:33:24 UTC
Actually, when I first saw the cover I wondered if it was a repaint of the Blood Rights cover. Upon closer look, there are some differences, although I wouldn't be surprised if the artist used reference pictures from the same photo session.

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calico_reaction January 17 2012, 23:27:40 UTC
I can see that, though I feel this cover really bears stronger resemblance to Anna Dressed in Blood because of the whole wind-effect hair thing. :)

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geekygirl January 17 2012, 09:07:42 UTC
While I will not be reading this one, you -have- convinced me to try N.K. Jemisin's The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms! :)

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calico_reaction January 17 2012, 23:27:01 UTC
Ooops. :) But hey, I look forward to your thoughts on the Jemisin! It's quite an engaging book, and an interesting trilogy!

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aliciaaudrey January 17 2012, 11:37:42 UTC
I finished it, but it was a fight. It hit too many pet peeves for me, and my issues with it may in fact be personal to a "oh holy jeebus not this again" sense of having heard this particular story before. Repeatedly ( ... )

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calico_reaction January 17 2012, 23:30:48 UTC
It makes me wonder what the ratio of people who like anime who ALSO read and like this book is to the people who don't watch and/or like anime at all and don't like this book? Probably not a really fair comparison, but you've made me wonder.

I can think of one SHU grad for sure who was a major anime far, but I kept having to remind myself it wasn't this author (the girl I'm thinking of looked like she could be your little sister, weirdly enough). But now that you mention it, I'm remembering a short story of the author's I read, and during the crit session, there may have been mention of anime influence, so you could most definitely be on to something.

Which would go a LONG way in explaining why this didn't click for me. Which should be a moot point, because anime is primarily a visual style, no?

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aliciaaudrey January 17 2012, 23:58:26 UTC
Well, here's the thing: it's a Japanese medium, and ergo everything you get is going to be filtered through their cultural tropes, and how they see our culture, if it's one of our cultural things they're riffing on. Sometimes this looks...very odd...to someone who grew up in a Western culture. Someone who had some reason to know (being of Asian extraction and having grown up partially overseas, in Japan) explained it to me like this once: our cultural "things" are as exotic to them as theirs are to us. So they like to use them in their media, but it doesn't...translate...exactly like you'd expect. Because sometimes what they think is important isn't important to us or because they're comparing it to something in their own culture that doesn't exist in ours. I've heard that from a few other people, too, but at least one who I expect has some real personal basis for saying it (which I don't: I lived overseas, but not in Asia ( ... )

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calico_reaction January 18 2012, 01:19:42 UTC
I would LOVE to know what your friends think of this. :)

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nymeria81 January 17 2012, 14:03:11 UTC
Yeah, I love the cover too. Really eye-catching ! And I haven't read Jemisin's book yet, so maybe I'll try this one. Thanks for this review ^^

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calico_reaction January 17 2012, 23:23:10 UTC
Please let me know your thoughts on this if you get around to it! I hope you enjoy!

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amitielcandra January 19 2012, 04:39:52 UTC
I have not read this, but just from the description, the only thing going through my mind would be that there HAD to be an aesthetically better term to use for whatever the main character is supposed to be then 'blood head.' It sounds like a bizarre skin condition. :-P I guess I'm one of those people who likes the language to flow, and that doesn't for me. It would be distracting enough to make it hard to read the book.

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calico_reaction January 19 2012, 17:12:38 UTC
If that's the only thing that bothers you, it wouldn't hurt to read a sample to see if the book engages you otherwise. :)

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