Completed: 9/21/2022
Recommendation: Not Recommended
Recommended By: The Nebula list
Review:
This book had its moments. It is difficult to tell which of the characters is thought to be heroic. It feels to me like simply none of them were. Throughout the book, the characters basically held to the same broad stereotype with which they were painted from the start. It did not feel to me like any of the characters learned from the life-changing experiences that littered the novel during the timeline of the novel. Status changes happened and then the characters did not adjust, but continued to operate in the same manner in the new status. This happened over and over. Maybe this is an effort to demonstrate fundamental character flaws, but the characters rarely grappled with these flaws. I had the impression that this book was something like Neil Gaiman's American Gods, but I see only passing similarities. Finally the references to different positions of sitting and bowing are surely rife with meaning to someone familiar with Chinese culture, but, to me, these were just labels put on positions I could not envisage. Moreover, these various positions were certainly intended by the author to indicate levels of comfort and respect that I found it quite challenging to distinguish. I'm not sure how that could have easily been fixed without creating a tripping point over and over in the story, but it did not help me understand the novel and actually distracted from it as I had to go back over in my head what each position meant.
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