Nebula
Contains spoilers
The Logos is now available in spray can form! Buy quickly and use as directed before the demiurge or the time-warping psychic turns it into vaseline.
Left me heartbroken. 10/10 would recommend.
Also I think it's so fascinating seeing the way the author has taken twentieth-century Chinese history from the Second Sino-Japanese War through the rise of Mao Zedong, added gods and shamanism, and changed some names to craft a compelling story with this trilogy. Even though I knew the general direction things would go in, the particulars of the story are done in such a way that kept me glued to the books. Plus it explores issues surrounding war and its fallout, colonialism, power, and trauma. The magic system is also very interesting, incorporating psychedelics and a pantheon of gods who each embody a different primordial drive/instinct. If you're looking for fantasy grounded in history and informed by the Daoist tradition, definitely give this series a try.
R. F. Kuang, man....as soon as you start to get a little comfortable she pulls out the rug from under you and sucker punches you in the gut. Riveting
This is the sort of book you can read at a jazz bar while sipping on a dirty martini to cosplay as a pretentious asshole. It's also the sort of book that will blow your mind with ideas and thinkers both real and fabricated (doesn't quite feel like it actually matters either way though) and have you kicking your feet at puns like "chiropraxis" (the author literally lists a "pun consultant" in the acknowledgements). Not sure how I feel about the antinatalist turn at the very end, but for the most part I really enjoyed this. I understood Iain Hamilton Grant's introduction only marginally better (as in, like, slightly more than almost not at all) after finishing the book.
I came for the rigorous, mathematically-informed hard sci-fi that came up with a solution to unify quantum mechanics and general relativity and also invented an entirely new system of physics. I stayed for the surprisingly human musings on what it means to be YOU in a world where you can live (and change) forever, and also the optimistic speculations about the future of humanity (or what we might become).
