#overpowered mcs

I love Wang Ling. I think of all the overpowered, God tier somewhat emotionless protag (ie Saiki, Mob, Mash), he might be my favorite.

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A-: while the characters were a tad dramatic for my taste, everything about this book was so iconic I didn't even mind.

Zeitan is living a miserable existence on the frontier, threatened by monstrous aliens and mourning the sister murdered by the celebrity pilot of a Chrysalis, monster-fighting machines infamous for killing girls. So Zeitan leaves her family and her lover Yizhi to go kill him, and along the way ends up teaming up with a murderer, killing a ton of other people, and shaking Huaxia up forever.

5/5 I love this book - such a fun time.

Locke and Jean are two years into conning the Sinspire, the best and most secure gambling house in the world. But the most powerful person in the city of Tal Verrar traps them into infiltrating the pirates of the Sea of Brass - and Locke and Jean have never sailed in their lives. Let’s see how they get themselves out of this one.

This book is by no means whatsoever a disappointment, though it is perhaps not as good as the previous installment - the Lies of Locke Lamora I went into not knowing anything about the series, so the twists were more thrilling because I didn’t know they were coming. I don’t think the heist of this book was quite as well-planned, either.

It makes up for it, though, with PIRATES. I love pirates, and these are pirates done fantastically - Lynch hits a really nice balance between being inventive and sticking to the conventions of the genre.

This book we meet Zamira Drakasha, a brown single mother in her forties and badass captain of a pirate ship. I love her - and her lieutenant, Ezri Delmastro - so much. There were not very many women last book so I didn’t know if Lynch could write them, but these two are a joy to read about.

Locke, Jean, and their friendship are as perfect as ever. They have this fantastic combination between hilarious banter, genuine frustration and annoyance, and being fully willing to die for each other. They call themselves best friends, but it feels a lot like siblings in a wonderful way.

Plot: the heist at its finest. I do think that Lynch is one of the best writers of heists in the genre, and this one was great as well - giving us all the pieces and finally putting it together in the last few pages. I got nervous when we were fifty pages from the end and the climax wasn’t half-done, but it got wrapped up nicely.

Characters: very very good. I thought I would miss Calo, Galdo, and Bug, but with Zamira and Ezri as stunning new characters I was more than content. Locke and Jean were great. I thought the romance progressed a little too quickly, but their interactions together were fantastic, so I’d say overall it was a success.

Setting: so much fun. Lynch has created such a stunning, original world - from the alien ruins lying everywhere to the clockwork and magical creations to the carefully thought-out food, architecture, and clothing. It doesn’t copy any particular real-world equivalent, and I loved seeing how it’s different than our own, as well as how most forms of prejudice have been carefully not included (there’s this moment when they’re picking their crew and their mentor insists upon having women, because they’re lucky and make good officers, that stands out to me personally).

Prose: A+ banter. Every single conversation Locke and Jean have makes reading the book worth it for that alone, even if the rest of it wasn’t as great as it is.

!!!! This was very very good!!!!!

Rin, a dark-skinned orphan shop-girl, wasn’t supposed to pass the test to get into Sinegrad Academy, the best school in the Nikan Empire. She especially wasn’t supposed to continue rising in the ranks and find out about her secret, dangerous aptitude for shamanism. But war is brewing and Nikan is going to be invaded, so she’ll need all the power she can get.

This book is very loosely based on Japan’s invasions of China. This means it has an equivalent of the rape of Nanking, and it doesn’t pull punches. 

In fact, this whole book is about not pulling punches - brutal, bloody, with a little maniac of a main character capable of anything she sets the sheer force of her stubbornness and rage to and a world built on death. I loved it.

It’s a book with a lot of plot and weight to it, and I thought it was all handled wonderfully - there’s so much information packed into a relatively small page count but none of it feels rushed or dense. 

I already mentioned I loved Rin, but, like. I love Rin. She’s absolutely dedicated to reaching her goals and accomplishing the impossible - this girl burned herself regularly so that she’d study harder for her exams - and it’s so entertaining to watch her attack the world and win. 

And Altan, who is SUCH an interesting and screwed-up character. He’s a tragedy given flesh and even thinking about him makes me sad right now.

Plot: very good. Pacing was excellent. I love a book with a little bit of weight to it, that covers a significant amount of time, and this did it. We start with her exams and proceed from there - I don’t want to mention much about what we proceed to because I walked into this more or less blind and really enjoyed it that way.

Characters: Rin and Altan shine. Side characters, such as Kitay, Nezha, and Jiang, are funny or fun to hate, but don’t have as much heft to them. In any other book I’d be impressed by them - I still am in this book, too - but they’re nothing compared to Rin and Altan. Seriously, I love Rin.

Setting: history meeting fantasy in so many interesting ways. It isn’t just Medieval Chinese history with some magic added in, which would be interesting but familiar. Kuang has taken events from the 20th century, hand-picked some of her favourite concepts from earlier times, and mashed them together to form something new and interesting. I especially appreciated the dedication to creating a pantheon and folklore and history, which really gives a world some weight. 

Prose: subtle and understated. It’s got a few knock-out moments, though: “Children ceased to be children when you put a sword in their hands. When you taught them to fight a war, then you armed them and put them on the front lines, they were not children anymore. They were soldiers.”

Do not have the energy to give this book a full review tonight so here are my short thoughts:

Frank Herbert can’t write women but it’s okay because he can’t write men either. Despite the fact that no one acts like a person I do love this series and the concept of deification and Paul’s legacy running away from him makes me go insane.