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Powell’s Essential List: 25 Best Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books of the 21st Century (So Far)
(www.powells.com)
this post was submitted on 28 Sep 2023
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A lot of those are excellent but The Priory of the Orange Tree is one of the most boring books I've ever read. The high-level idea isn't bad, but the big bads are just evil because... they are? Most of the characters are pretty flat, the worldbuilding is incredibly shallow (ok the religions seem semi-interesting, but they get mostly glossed over) and I only finished it to see if there was something to all the hype that I was missing. Having major characters be women/LGBT+/POC is awesome, but those things alone can't carry a book, especially one this big.
Bitching over, sorry. Replace that one with The Library at Mount Char or How To Lose The Time War.
Edit: bitching NOT over, where the hell is goddamn Baru Cormorant?!
I'll disagree with you on How to Lose the Time War, but Library at Mount Char is absolutely goated, and I'm surprised it's not on the original list.
I have Mount Char on my to read list, but Time War was a dnf for me. Just could not get into it.
I can totally see that Time War isn't for everyone, it's quite an odd one in style, structure, and just about everything else.
I actually really liked the style and structure! It had me hooked the whole way through, but it lost me at the last third or so, for reasons I can't quite remember now.
I agree with everything you said about Priory, and would add that the sex scenes were maybe the most badly written to the point it was painful. I almost never give up on a book even when I should, but I had to leave this one unfinished. And I've finally stopped seeing the cover of the second one and thinking ooh what's this? Before I realize it's nothing I want to read. I liked How to Lose the Time War pretty well and will check out your other recommendations!
Oh, yes, the world was pretty, but the characters were all so shallow and undeveloped that I didn't care what happened to them. Even the intelligent semi divine dragons were just flat powerful placeholders with no character. It was also transparent to see plot points, such as they were, from a mile away.
Okay, thanks, good to know
Feel free to read it, obviously lol. It wasn't outright bad, just so dull and I had really high expectations from all the hype it got. Beautiful cover though, I'll give it that.
There are enough books I haven't read on the list that I might s well skip that one or put it further down on my list based on your experience. I get that we're all different and this is inherently subjective.