ARC Review: Silk Fire by Zabe Ellor
My rating: 1 of 5 stars
Horse rating: -∞ out of 5 horses
ARC difficulty: actual curse
Expected publication: July 5th 2022
DNF at 7%
I was very intrigued by the blurb - a sci-fi fantasy story, with political intrigue and a queer love story?? Sign me up! I don’t read enough SFF these days. Alas, this was a stinker.
This is actually pretty hard to review, because I was so incredibly lost the entire time. Honestly, I mostly recommend that you read this review by dathomira on goodreads as its far better explanation of how bad this book is.
The names
Right off the bat, we get a pronunciation guide on names. Just names, no context. Who are these people? Are these titles? How do they relate to each other? Knowing how to pronounce these doesn’t help me at all.
On top of that, they are impossible to keep straight. Fantasy character names always end up a bit goofy, but these are long and complex to the point of my eyes glazing over. They don’t register, they’re too much. This is not what you want to have happen to your readers. As a result, I had no idea who was who or how they were related, because it was all just…keyboard smash.
This goes not only for character names (and possibly titles?), but also for world details.
…
The world building
Continuing on into the biggest issue, the world building, or attempt to do so. This book tried to do far too much, and explained none of it. There are districts? Are they like city-states? They kind of sound like it. One is called War. I think. Is Engineer one too? Or is that a job designation? Some random titles and street names. I have no idea how they tie together. Despite the intense overload of details, I cannot picture any of this. I have no idea what’s happening.
There’s a lost …city? It’s been lost for ten thousand years? And they just pop up suddenly, and all that happens is someone throws a parade and they go to a brothel I think. ???
I was interested in the matriarchal society setup, but as far as I can tell, it was just a heavy handed inversion of the patriarchal society we currently have. No nuance or interesting exploration.
There’s also just casually dinosaur.
The characters, or at least the MC
The main character didn’t make much sense to me, and was also a bit of a sad sack. He was very flat, all his feelings were told to us rather than shown. We’re told he’s a lot of things, and shown none of it.
He’s a high born bastard…but known by his father (isn’t this a matriarchal society? shouldn’t his mother be the important one?), he’s also a prostitute…and owns a brothel…and yet is sort of politically connected? Somehow? But also not that much. ???
It’s also hard for me to buy into political intrigue if the MC is telling everyone his plans left and right. He’s been working to take revenge against his father for like 8 years I think, why is he suddenly showing all his cards?
The writing
On top of all the confusion I was suffering, I found the writing style to be dry and confusing when it tried to be fanciful. This is from a fight scene:
Choppy and out of place, and doesn’t really illustrate the actual fight at all to me.
Overall, the premise was intriguing and very ambitious. Too ambitious. Unfortunately the execution left much to be desired on all counts. The cover is pretty though.
I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. All the opinions are my own.
View all my reviews
I was very intrigued by the blurb - a sci-fi fantasy story, with political intrigue and a queer love story?? Sign me up! I don’t read enough SFF these days. Alas, this was a stinker.
This is actually pretty hard to review, because I was so incredibly lost the entire time. Honestly, I mostly recommend that you read this review by dathomira on goodreads as its far better explanation of how bad this book is.
The names
Right off the bat, we get a pronunciation guide on names. Just names, no context. Who are these people? Are these titles? How do they relate to each other? Knowing how to pronounce these doesn’t help me at all.
On top of that, they are impossible to keep straight. Fantasy character names always end up a bit goofy, but these are long and complex to the point of my eyes glazing over. They don’t register, they’re too much. This is not what you want to have happen to your readers. As a result, I had no idea who was who or how they were related, because it was all just…keyboard smash.
This goes not only for character names (and possibly titles?), but also for world details.
Phfigezava, Readers of Knowledge. One of the many lines within the sprawling, knotted Dzaxashigé family tree. I recalled my childhood history lessons. “The Phfigezava fought alongside Varjthosheri the Dragon-Blessed in the Warmwater–Scholars War.”
…
The world building
Continuing on into the biggest issue, the world building, or attempt to do so. This book tried to do far too much, and explained none of it. There are districts? Are they like city-states? They kind of sound like it. One is called War. I think. Is Engineer one too? Or is that a job designation? Some random titles and street names. I have no idea how they tie together. Despite the intense overload of details, I cannot picture any of this. I have no idea what’s happening.
There’s a lost …city? It’s been lost for ten thousand years? And they just pop up suddenly, and all that happens is someone throws a parade and they go to a brothel I think. ???
I was interested in the matriarchal society setup, but as far as I can tell, it was just a heavy handed inversion of the patriarchal society we currently have. No nuance or interesting exploration.
There’s also just casually dinosaur.
The characters, or at least the MC
The main character didn’t make much sense to me, and was also a bit of a sad sack. He was very flat, all his feelings were told to us rather than shown. We’re told he’s a lot of things, and shown none of it.
He’s a high born bastard…but known by his father (isn’t this a matriarchal society? shouldn’t his mother be the important one?), he’s also a prostitute…and owns a brothel…and yet is sort of politically connected? Somehow? But also not that much. ???
It’s also hard for me to buy into political intrigue if the MC is telling everyone his plans left and right. He’s been working to take revenge against his father for like 8 years I think, why is he suddenly showing all his cards?
The writing
On top of all the confusion I was suffering, I found the writing style to be dry and confusing when it tried to be fanciful. This is from a fight scene:
Ria moved like a hero. Bolder than the crushing world. Fire flashed.
Choppy and out of place, and doesn’t really illustrate the actual fight at all to me.
Overall, the premise was intriguing and very ambitious. Too ambitious. Unfortunately the execution left much to be desired on all counts. The cover is pretty though.
I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. All the opinions are my own.
View all my reviews
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