ladybusiness | (Reply)

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Cold Magic seems to be a novel that either really works for you, or really doesn't. I'm in the latter group, having gritted my teeth through the first 10% before abandoning it.

It was recent ~~free~~ discounted Kindle download, which I snapped up with glee because I loved the author's Jaran SF novels (although I bailed on her Crown of Stars fantasy series halfway through when I realized I didn't give a damn about what happened to any of its characters).

All I knew about Cold Magic before I began reading it was that it was an alternate history by Kate Elliott and people seemed to love it. However, I discovered the hard way that it is a perfect storm of things I hate in a novel: YA, steampunk, and first-person narration — especially YA first-person narration — whatever tolerance I ever had for that was permanently depleted by enduring three books' worth of Katniss Everdeen.

I disliked almost all of the characters and didn't care for the worldbuilding. As I was reading, I kept thinking of Mary Gentle's completely awesome Ash: A Secret History series, which was also Carthage-related alternate history, and wishing I were rereading that instead.

Not sure I could be convinced to pick it up again.