Okay, finally tried some Becky Chambers, in the form of Monk and Robot, and I was willing to go along with it until the robot showed up and now I know why some of my friends hate her writing.
Writing utopias is difficult because they are very revealing of your personal politics, and something about this particular book also feels very patronizing.
@the_wanlorn i loathed the book so so much when i got to the end of it.
i had avoided her because i thought i would be amongst the haters, but some of my friends adored some of her stuff and i figured i should give it a chance.
alas, my first instinct was right.
@the_wanlorn oooh, do tell. i definitely avoided that one because (a) full novel and (b) lots of people who dislike her writing disliked that one specifically.
i was wondering if her later ones had gotten better and it was just a fluke, but now i want to know if your dislike of it lines up with my dislike of this one and it's just that it's a thread through all of her writing.
@thedeadparrot So I don't like seek out reivews or anything so I don't know if this is something other people have talked about, but the thing that bothered me the most is there is Racist Guy in the main cast. And at the end of the book Racist Guy Gets What's Coming To Him. And like. I feel like it was supposed to be cathartic or whatever, but it just made me go oh this tells me all I need to know about your politics and no thank you.
Also it was very... idk tumblr utopia everyone in the main cast is queer and gets along nothing truly bad every happens etc? Which, tbh, I love when the cast can carry it, but uh. lmao.
@the_wanlorn i don't think it's even the fact that everyone gets along and nothing bad happens! i think it's the preachiness really. the lack of space for genuine nuance and ambiguity, lol.
i felt like i was getting lectured to by a robot who didn't even have the decency to have an interesting culture or society they'd developed away from humans.
@thedeadparrot God yes. Everything is either Good or Bad in the planet book and I'm like .........
Honestly, though, I read the book so long ago that I remember nothing about it other than the broad strokes of what I hated about it and how mad I was lmao
thedeadparrot
The Wanlorn
Luo Binghe baculum truther
Em (Serenade)