Book #07 - The Cloud Roads (Books of the Raksura #1) by Martha Wells
The Cloud Roads (Books of the Raksura #1) by Martha Wells
Moon is different from all the other groundling people. He can turn into a flying creature, but he has to keep this ability secret from everyone, or he'll have to move on yet again.
I liked the setup with Moon being a solitary wanderer. I liked the physical descriptions of the dragons. (Not that the word dragon is used anywhere.)
I didn't like the worldbuilding - that there is a race of beings that is inherently evil and wants to destroy everything - or is even unable to do otherwise - is not my thing (anymore since Tolkien).
I also didn't like the structure of Sakura society. Too rigid, too hierarchical. It was handled okay, but it reminded me uncomfortably of a/b/o.
This sounds really negative, but I actually had fun reading it, and it was a fast read with a very engaging and unpredictable plot. I wouldn't mind reading more of the series.
* I already said that I liked the dragons in their physicality. The scales, the spines, the frills. I also liked their behavior patterns, the clinging to ceilings and the dangerous flying maneuvers, and the ear-pecking instead of kissing. They were more birdlike than I personally would have made them if I had invented them, but I liked this type of dragons.
* I hated the fact that there are different castes. The whole society was much too strict for my liking. More like a beehive than any kind of human society. You can't choose what you want to be. You are one thing and that's your place. Chime being the exception, but it wasn't like he chose what to be, it was more a hormonal influence from the nest that made him change into another caste. That already reminded me of a/b/o, and I didn't like it.
* What I hated even more was that the queens had some kind of one-sided controlling influence over their colony. That was even more a/b/o than the caste thing. It was never really exploited, but that didn't really help. I am not interested in a world like that, or in relationships that have to function under that kind of constraint.
* The queens choose their consorts, and the consorts have to submit. His only choice, had the outcome not *by chance* been the one he wanted, would have been to leave the colony. Possible for him, because he'd been a wanderer all his life, and he could have done it. Impossible for any other consort, and even Moon didn't really want to do it, because he preferred living in the colony to living alone. Not nice choices.
* One of the praises on the book cover said "many races peacefully co-exist in a world constantly threatened by soulless predators" - apparently it's that easy for other people to distinguish between "races" and "predators".
* I'm not sure it's made better or worse by the fact that the Raksura and the Fell are related. The whole insistence that the Fell taint things by their mere presence doesn't make me think that we will learn that the Fell are "normal people" at some point - which is the only thing that would redeem the setup for me.
* I am surprised, myself, that I apparently have so many negative thoughts about this book now. Because I really liked the small things, and what's more, I liked it a lot while I was reading it (maybe up to the point where the queens fought over Moon near the end). I liked the landscape descriptions, the danger, the magic, the transformations, the flying, Chime, the (for me) unpredictable plot, the unreliable narrator. The character names, even.
* I liked that all the character names were household words - plants, animals, things from nature, colors. I love the idea, even though reading it aloud might prove a challenge. :D
* I loved the unreliable narration. Moon really didn't know anything about his race or his family, and he sucks at reading people. That was very much fun to read.
* I liked how cute and snuggly Chime was, always clinging to Moon. I'm not really into unacknowledged subtext slash, and it pinged like that to me. But if it is made text eventually, I am all for it, and this was a nice setup, in case that's where it goes in future books.
3 stars - Great in the details, annoying in the societal worldbuilding.
1 - 5 stars - The Obelisk Gate (The Broken Earth #2) by N. K. Jemisin [DW link & LJ link]
2 - 4 stars - The Stone Sky (The Broken Earth #3) by N. K. Jemisin [DW link & LJ link]
3 - 4 stars - Blackout (Newsflesh #3) by Mira Grant [DW link & LJ link]
4 - 5 stars - Sovereign (Nemesis #2) by April Daniels [DW link & LJ link]
5 - 4 stars - Moon over Soho (Rivers of London #2) by Ben Aaronovich [DW link & LJ link]
6 - 4 stars - Illuminae (The Illuminae Files #1) by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff [DW link & LJ link]
7 - 3 stars - The Cloud Roads (Books of the Raksura #1) by Martha Wells [DW link & LJ link]
x-posted from dw (comments:
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