fruitcakes

Liesmith: Book 1 of The Wyrd

Liesmith: Book 1 of The Wyrd - Alis Franklin I liked this, a lot.

The author mentioned that this isn't a romance, it's sci-fi horror, and I don't know that I agree with that totally (the romance is kinda pivitol to the plot) it's not the kind of romance where the HEA fixes everything.

I think I mentioned on twitter that this reminds me of what I wanted out of Eight Days of Luke fanfiction, but with non-white & queer people and set in Australia, with some added techy horror. Basically, I love some good "how the gods adapted and changed to the modern world" stories. I liked the emphasis on The Narrative, and how humans are the ones who can change that narrative. I liked the characters-- Sigmund and his friends felt like friends, who like each other for reasons and have some foibles that they sigh over in each other. I liked Lain, and the attraction between him and Sigmund felt very real beyond the "you're the kinda reincarnation of my dead wife" bit.

I did feel like the romance parts of the book and the horror parts of the book were a little seperated, rather than entirely emulsified. I could have used a little more character build out of Wayne and Em-- they felt like very full characters that the author loves and has built out a lot in their head, but I didn't feel like we got a ton of that build out in this book. There's more of it in the next book, but it does end up feeling a bit out of left field because of the lack in this book.

I loved the way that Sigyn got her story built out. The final twist was both deeply satisfying and kinda "eh???", in an odd way. Satisfying in the way that it developed Sigyn's narrative, "eh???" in how it affects Lain's characterization. Unreliable narrator yay, but I needed a little more ground to plant myself on.

These tech nerds felt very much like my tech nerds. Overall the tech nerd felt very organic and not Pasted On Yay.

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