#scathing

i encourage you to read the whole thing, but here are my favorite bits:

"But then much of the centrist manosphere’s rhetoric is predicated on refusing to see half of what’s in front of you."

"What these pundits are nudging us to do, ever so politely, is accept that women, in the main, are accustomed to being a little degraded, a little underpaid and ignored and dampened in their ambitions, in ways that men are not and never will be. The “female-coded” person [...] may feel overwhelmed by child-care costs, ashamed that she can’t acquire a mortgage, or hollowed out by long hours as an I.C.U. nurse, but such feelings do not disturb the order of the universe. This person’s duties to protect, provide, and procreate are real, but they do not take the capital “P.” This person’s opinions matter, but not decisively."

I was hoping to avoid it but here's my brief thoughts in no particular order: It felt like an incredibly cliched mashup of a bunch of different genres. The characters felt flat, the plot was incredibly predictable. The world building felt shoved in place. The science was bad. The author’s understanding of Roman history was not great. It suffers from that thing that can happen where the main character is so intelligent that they start to just be an annoying ass. Plot points and scenes are deliberately hidden again and again from the reader so that later events can be surprising Etc…

Look if it’s the first time you’ve ever read space opera then I can see how you might enjoy it. But I grew up reading sci-fi and have already read this same kind of story again and again by more talented authors. It had some interesting elements, some of the tech was neat, some cool imagery here and there. I’ve read worse things. But it was massively overshadowed by an incredibly predictable plot, incredibly thick foreshadowing, and overdone tropes that managed to suck out almost all enjoyment.