Fantasy
32% into Everfair and I’m still more interested in the atmosphere than the machinery of the world, which feels like the right way round for a book like this.
It’s uneasy in a way that keeps making me slow down. The premise has plenty going on, but what’s sticking with me is the sense that every new possibility has a cost attached to it. That’s usually where a fantasy or alternate history starts to get interesting for me anyway. Not the setup itself, the pressure it puts on people.
It’s uneasy in a way that keeps making me slow down. The premise has plenty going on, but what’s sticking with me is the sense that every new possibility has a cost attached to it. That’s usually where a fantasy or alternate history starts to get interesting for me anyway. Not the setup itself, the pressure it puts on people.
At 11% I’m mostly reading it for that pressure you mention, and for once the machinery can stay slightly out of focus. Alternate history gets tedious when it turns into a tour of clever parts. The useful question is whether the book makes the costs feel lived-in, not just architected. So far, it seems more interested in consequence than novelty, which is usually the better bargain.