at the start the style of writing was preventing me from getting into the story fully, as i was reading i got used to it and by the end found myself quite enjoying it. apart from the style i find nothing particularly special about it. the conclusion is quite unexpected though. i found the epilog by terence james reed contextualised the writing of the book in thomas manns life really useful.
while it kept me awake until 3am for 3 days i really disliked the tonal shift between the second and third acts. how can he portray the lifestyle of the san the way he does and then have centaine tear up their sacred place of ancestor worship for diamonds. then the in-world justification, that it will provide "good water" for her son. to me is just blatant sugarcoating of an act that clearly violates the memory and principles of the people she has her life to thank for. though she had already all but forgotten them, when it was time for the story to move on from including o'wa and h'ani.
another gripe with the writing i've had is the way the female lead is written. it is so obvious, that the author is a man of the last century... centaine in both instances immediately falls for the male, that is so clearly set up to be her love-interest.
The book is from 1985, that might put some of this into perspective.
i can't quite remember where i even found this book. specifically the part after the timeskip pulled me in and i just needed to know what happens next. the book sets up a series and i am quite curious what else they are going to do with the characters - i am personally happy with what they did and wouldn't need more.
one small detail from the epilog i like is that apparently he co-wrote the concept for the book together with his daughter.
after reading the first half, i would already recommend this book. even without any context on the author or japan, this has some really funny stories. i also like how i can almost hear chris' voice in the writing.
this one took a while. started reading pretty much right after Native Tongue at the end of march. the book works well for piece meal reading, since it's a collection of stories set in a shared world. my favorites were the one where 'and the moon be still as bright' and 'the million year picnic'. overall i think i prefer this over fahrenheit if i had to recommend one. this one executes the almost educational tone better while telling actually great scifi stories, which often left me thinking about them later.
read most of this in two long sessions while we were in turkey. after a bit of a slow start i liked the spin on "dystopian future-not-future society"; the world building is reminiscent of handmaid's tale, but i felt like there was more exploration of the inner workings of why society is that way; the feminist context shines through especially towards the end, when the plot only works because the men are all arrogant assholes, which was satisfying but a bit one-dimensional.
started reading a weekly newspaper which had quite the impact on my reading time. i have a test subscription for 10 weeks, let's see if i can figure out how to balance my reading out...
the first half consists of surreal dreamlike short stories that only refer to their protagonists as 'me' and 'the girl'. second half is two longer stories. i enjoyed interpreting what everything might mean, but wasn't particularly drawn to the book because of the episodic nature at the start. read the second half in one afternoon.