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language: English
country: USA
year: 2022
form: novel
genre(s): science fiction, fantasy
dates read: 31.12.22
Bendi Barrett’s Empire of the Feast marks my hundredth book for the year. I might do one more today if I can find something short, but if not, this was quite a ride to conclude the Gregorian year with! I have some reservations, but on the whole it rules (no pun intended).
the reincarnated space emperor who must maintain some ritual sex magic in order to contain a hungry, all-consuming entity known as “the Rapacious” is a man for the first time in thirty-two iterations, and he doesn’t have his predecessors’ memories, for some reason, leaving him adrift at the heart of the evil space empire he’s supposed to be the iron-fisted ruler of, on the eve of rebellion(s). concept: impeccable. if I were going to compare it to other books, I would (tentatively) say: if Yoon Ha Lee wrote The Locked Tomb. but that doesn’t at all do it justice.
my biggest reservation is that the conclusion ends up defusing the revolutionary energy of parts of the plot — it becomes reformist rather than revolutionary. at the same time, though, the reforms in question are radical, and it’s entirely possible that something more thoroughly revolutionary will come of them. perhaps we’ll find out, if Barrett writes a sequel.
I also wish it had been about…fifty pages longer. the climax (no pun intended) felt a bit rushed, and I think it would have helped to give the characters and the narrative a bit more breathing room. the whole story, less the epilogue, takes place over a single day. there’s a lot going on, and it sets a pretty breathless pace.
otherwise, my only complaint is — as always — copyediting. there are enough punctuation mishaps (mostly commas but also at least one misplaced quotation mark) that it caught my attention, some malapropisms, and also it does the thing where people are referred to by a descriptor (“the other swordsman”), which was mostly fine but occasionally grated.
anyway, really good book.
moods: horny, tense