Book reviews: More DNFs edition
Oct. 19th, 2025 10:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rainwatersparkThe Ashfire King by Chelsea Abdullah
Genre: Adult, fantasy
Possible DNF around 34%; I'll see how much farther I get into it.
I enjoyed The Stardust Thief, even though it had some issues that normally don't work for me. The Ashfire King, I feel, magnifies those issues without the strengths of the first book to make up for them.
TST had a somewhat meandering plot, the kind of plot that often loses me quickly, but I could accept it in the first book in a series that was also establishing the characters and world. It's also a common trope in epic fantasy for multiple characters to start off separate and then meet up. TAK, however, breaks up our cast of main characters, and this is the part that's really losing me.
I don't want to say the characters are dull individually, but after seeing them separated, I do think they were more interesting in a group where they could play off each other. Without Qadir or Mazen, I find myself not that interested in what Loulie is doing. Without Loulie or his brothers, I find it hard to care about Mazen. Instead of spending more time with our core cast, the leads are split up and a whole host of new characters introduced instead.
Maybe people who are diehard epic fantasy fans won't have an issue with this. For me, these narrative choices slow down the pace until I'm tempted to drop the book for others that are competing for my attention. I found a Goodreads review that claimed the entire book felt like an unnecessary sidequest, and yeah, that's not playing into its favor for me.
Warrior Princess Assassin by Brigid Kemmerer
Genre: Adult, romantasy
DNF 54%. I was actually enjoying this quite a bit until the relationship between Asher and Ky started to develop, and that really bums me out.
I haven't read this author before, but I know that she's written hetero romances previously. So it's frankly baffling to me that she decided to write a relationship between two men where the tension comes from one having to be the "submissive" bottom and the other being the "dominant" top. Not in a BDSM context, but just in the context of vanilla sex. I know this author wouldn't dare to say a woman is inherently "submissive" in a hetero relationship, so what gives?? It makes it feel like the M/M relationship in this book is written for the purpose of titillating a straight audience.
The way this book combines that with the way Asher’s trauma from his history of sexual abuse is described makes it particularly uncomfortable to me to read, too, since it's not like Asher is described as a survivor of sexual abuse who finds empowerment in being a sub. In fact, the implication is quite the opposite. While the portrayal of a male survivor of sexual assault isn't quite as abysmal as that of Heavenly Tyrant by Xiran Jay Zhao (an admittedly extremely low bar), it's still...not the best. It still makes me feel like the backstory is there for, again, titillation, or maybe just the author believing a grimdark fantasy world needs rape and she'd rather have a male character be raped than the female lead. Yuck.
Another thing: The Ky/Asher relationship, at least where I left off, was reminding me of Captive Prince, and I mean that in a negative way. I know the whole point is that Ky is critical of the slave—I mean, “indenture”—system, but the scene felt a bit like having your cake and eating it, too. Like Asher was feeling attraction because Ky was acting like a “good master,” even if Ky was only being forced to act like his master. I don’t know, it gave me the ick.
The Hong Kong Widow by Kristen Loesch
Genre: Adult, historical, speculative
Not really a book for me. The premise, which seemed fascinating—trying to discover the truth behind a massacre at a remote Hong Kong mansion where six spirit mediums were invited to perform séances—sounded much more commercial than the book actually was. So it was a strange reading experience in that the events felt suited to a commercial novel (whether gothic, suspense, or thriller), while the execution of the book was very literary, and so the events largely lacked urgency. (The audiobook narrator's calm and even narration didn't really help in that regard.)
I also thought balancing three timelines was a bit too much. I ended up skipping the earliest timeline because I just felt like it dragged the pacing down too much. Maybe I'll try to return to it before my library hold is returned, but I don't know.
Genre: Adult, fantasy
Possible DNF around 34%; I'll see how much farther I get into it.
I enjoyed The Stardust Thief, even though it had some issues that normally don't work for me. The Ashfire King, I feel, magnifies those issues without the strengths of the first book to make up for them.
TST had a somewhat meandering plot, the kind of plot that often loses me quickly, but I could accept it in the first book in a series that was also establishing the characters and world. It's also a common trope in epic fantasy for multiple characters to start off separate and then meet up. TAK, however, breaks up our cast of main characters, and this is the part that's really losing me.
I don't want to say the characters are dull individually, but after seeing them separated, I do think they were more interesting in a group where they could play off each other. Without Qadir or Mazen, I find myself not that interested in what Loulie is doing. Without Loulie or his brothers, I find it hard to care about Mazen. Instead of spending more time with our core cast, the leads are split up and a whole host of new characters introduced instead.
Maybe people who are diehard epic fantasy fans won't have an issue with this. For me, these narrative choices slow down the pace until I'm tempted to drop the book for others that are competing for my attention. I found a Goodreads review that claimed the entire book felt like an unnecessary sidequest, and yeah, that's not playing into its favor for me.
Warrior Princess Assassin by Brigid Kemmerer
Genre: Adult, romantasy
DNF 54%. I was actually enjoying this quite a bit until the relationship between Asher and Ky started to develop, and that really bums me out.
I haven't read this author before, but I know that she's written hetero romances previously. So it's frankly baffling to me that she decided to write a relationship between two men where the tension comes from one having to be the "submissive" bottom and the other being the "dominant" top. Not in a BDSM context, but just in the context of vanilla sex. I know this author wouldn't dare to say a woman is inherently "submissive" in a hetero relationship, so what gives?? It makes it feel like the M/M relationship in this book is written for the purpose of titillating a straight audience.
The way this book combines that with the way Asher’s trauma from his history of sexual abuse is described makes it particularly uncomfortable to me to read, too, since it's not like Asher is described as a survivor of sexual abuse who finds empowerment in being a sub. In fact, the implication is quite the opposite. While the portrayal of a male survivor of sexual assault isn't quite as abysmal as that of Heavenly Tyrant by Xiran Jay Zhao (an admittedly extremely low bar), it's still...not the best. It still makes me feel like the backstory is there for, again, titillation, or maybe just the author believing a grimdark fantasy world needs rape and she'd rather have a male character be raped than the female lead. Yuck.
Another thing: The Ky/Asher relationship, at least where I left off, was reminding me of Captive Prince, and I mean that in a negative way. I know the whole point is that Ky is critical of the slave—I mean, “indenture”—system, but the scene felt a bit like having your cake and eating it, too. Like Asher was feeling attraction because Ky was acting like a “good master,” even if Ky was only being forced to act like his master. I don’t know, it gave me the ick.
The Hong Kong Widow by Kristen Loesch
Genre: Adult, historical, speculative
Not really a book for me. The premise, which seemed fascinating—trying to discover the truth behind a massacre at a remote Hong Kong mansion where six spirit mediums were invited to perform séances—sounded much more commercial than the book actually was. So it was a strange reading experience in that the events felt suited to a commercial novel (whether gothic, suspense, or thriller), while the execution of the book was very literary, and so the events largely lacked urgency. (The audiobook narrator's calm and even narration didn't really help in that regard.)
I also thought balancing three timelines was a bit too much. I ended up skipping the earliest timeline because I just felt like it dragged the pacing down too much. Maybe I'll try to return to it before my library hold is returned, but I don't know.
