Impressions:

* I did not think I was going to enjoy this as much as I did, and now I'm off to read Seraphina immediately. Thank fuck overdrive has it.

* I am SO BORED of fantasy that takes place in generic medieval europe, maybe with a different map, because that's where fantasy books Must Happen. TotR is, astonishingly, set in a medieval europe analogue that has a real sense of place and culture. Serfs and hedgerows, monasteries, natural philosophers and their societies, repressive religion with weird pagan roots, and even the clothes (I Wikipedia'd them). Plus dragons and quigutl, with interesting alien cultures of their own.

* Quigutl grammar is Absolutely Yes. The way different languages are represented in the text is super interesting, and outside the usual literary conventions (the bee/beet/beer scene for instance). Given all that, the decision to italicize the pronoun ko and use he/she/it for quigutl when the proper pronoun is RIGHT THERE is really strange.

* Quigutl culture as a whole is really weird and I love it, I love a good alien culture. The way they waver back and forth between person and animal status is... uncomfortable. I don't know how much credit to give Hartman around this, but the cultural discrimination was brushing up against real-world racialized discrimination, and of course quigutl aren't human, so that starts to go some weird places? Maybe I just get twitchy about greedy anarchic lizard-people stereotypes, idk.

* Tess is quite straight, all crossdressing aside, but I love her anyway.

* Are they really just... Not... going to address who Lord M is? It's sort of obvious, and wow that's a tough place to set up the presumptive next book in the series. ( )

Funny, smart, and with emotional depth and intelligence that kept surprising me. ( )

Got this as part of the 2019 Hugo Awards packet. I ran out of time to read it for the voting, but have finally read it. Let’s just say I wouldn’t have rated it for an award.

It’s mid-series, and frankly it shows. I also found the world-building somewhat suspect; the local religions seem to be old-style Irish Catholicism with the serial numbers filed off with added dragons and draconoids. It’s also too much of a YA misery memoir; it’s supposed to be uplifting but frankly the ending doesn’t make up for the rest of the story.

Not something I want to continue with.

DNF 16%

After reading a bit of this book, I decided to read a couple of reviews so I would know what I was getting myself into. And yeah, I'm gonna have to pass. This sounds like a slog of self-hatred that's only going to make me feel bad. ( )

Ever read a book where you cry the entire time? Every chapter is filled with love and guilt and shame and joy? When you empathize so completely with the narrator?

This book. It really resonated with me. Your mileage may vary. ( )