Book Reviews by Eitan

I received an ARC of this book from Orbit in exchange for an honest review. The following will contain spoilers for the previous three entries in The Books of Babel , but not for The Fall of Babel itself. Ever since Senlin Ascends, Josiah Bancroft has carefully been building a puzzle. As Senlin climbs into the Tower's upper reaches, we've been allowed to fill in the edges, gradually learning more about the major players and their plans. However, the puzzle's center has remained elusive, with the Sphinx refusing to share what the Bricklayer is hiding (if she even knows) and the author choosing to cut away as soon as Adam meets the inhabitants of the Tower's top. Finally, though, the puzzle is filled in; by the end of the book's first section, clever readers will know what's coming, though they will be no less in the dark about who will make it out alive and what state they will be in. In a move that recalls Robert Jackson Bennet's Foundryside , Bancroft mel...

I received an ARC of this book from Orbit in exchange for an honest review. Over time, this series has grown on me. I think it took a book and a half to realize that Lee intended for us to follow these characters through the entire arc of their lives (however long or short that arc may be), and to tell a tale of honor, loyalty, tradition, and family that reaches across decades and through generations. Jade Legacy delivers a fitting conclusion to the story of Kaul Hilo and the No Peak/Mountain feud without making it seem like that is all there is in Lee's world. While there are still loose ends, as there must be in any city as messy and rich as Janloon, Lee delivers fitting conclusions for our main cast--not just the Kauls (Hilo, Shae, and Anden, as well as the next generation, who really come into their own as the book develops) but also Bero and his frustrating struggle for relevance, Ayt Mada, and the Kauls' contacts in Espenia. As in the previous two books, Lee is more than ...

I had been looking forward to this book since coming across the blurb early in the year, and I must say it did not disappoint. Aoki tells a rich and moving story with compelling characters, excellent use of flashbacks, and a mix of interesting concepts. She pays careful attention to the motivations and experiences of each, and creates believable reasons for the dilemmas they face. The idea of selling one's soul feels like a heartrending choice rather than melodrama or stereotype, and each person who comes to that Faustian bargaining table arrives with a unique reason for being there. At times the science fiction aspects of the book feel slightly out of place--while Lan is clearly a key part of the story, and her relationship with Shizuka is as much a fulcrum of change as Shizuka's with Katrina, making Lan truly alien sometimes feels like adding too much to a book already loaded with intense descriptive passages and layers of symbolism. I found that my emotional investment in th...