Kalpa Imperial: The Greatest Empire That Never Was

Poke through the ruins
don't rely on protocol
all has not been said.

DNF at ~29%. It's... fine. It's not my jam: I feel bored and alienated by these sorts of faux myth “now I'm going to tell you what I'll tell you, there once was an evil king” blah blah stuff. Some other review mentioned Tolkien's Silmarillion. Yeah, it's that kinda writing. Also, the constant restarting of every chapter - as they exist as semi-independent short stories, all centered around this mythical empire - is another hard sell for me. (I have loved the style - nay, ADORED it - once: Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles.)

So. I'm sad I didn't really connect with this book. I actually think I could quite like it in another, less busy, less tired, less Darwinian season of my life. But right now, I was like, “hmmmmmm NOPE cutting u off!!” The DNF trigger fires easily these days.