_We Set the Dark On Fire_ Tehlor Kay Mejia
Jul. 2nd, 2023 08:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
walkitoutI bought this late May 2020 — it was one of many books I bought written by women, written by authors of color, and within the broad swathe of speculative fiction. There is a lot of great stuff going on here — there is some enemies to lovers, which I am only occasionally a fan of. There is a graduation from a Special School that involves getting married in a triad. There is a revolutionary group and it is just not clear whether they are meaningfully better than the current crop of awful in charge (at first, anyway — it becomes more clear over time, because the awful in charge are remarkably awful).
It would be easy to poke at the tech level and to complain about how people keep having their supposedly secret conversations overheard, and their supposedly sneaking around being observed. I cannot actually tell how much of that is I Need People to Know for Plot Reasons, and how much of that has actually been carefully thought through. But if you put yourself in the headspace to enjoy a good adventure story with substantial political wallpaper and some absolutely amazing women characters (good guys, bad guys, and just not sure what to think guys), it has powerful narrative and really carries the reader along in this alternate world.
I read this because I bought it. I will probably eventually buy and read the sequel, but I am still trying to Read What I Own, so maybe not right away.
It would be easy to poke at the tech level and to complain about how people keep having their supposedly secret conversations overheard, and their supposedly sneaking around being observed. I cannot actually tell how much of that is I Need People to Know for Plot Reasons, and how much of that has actually been carefully thought through. But if you put yourself in the headspace to enjoy a good adventure story with substantial political wallpaper and some absolutely amazing women characters (good guys, bad guys, and just not sure what to think guys), it has powerful narrative and really carries the reader along in this alternate world.
I read this because I bought it. I will probably eventually buy and read the sequel, but I am still trying to Read What I Own, so maybe not right away.