Xinyun Huang
amazing satire, i couldn't tell if the author was sincere until the last chapter. written believably from the perspective of a christian mom.
what a dystopian utopia. one of the main characters david is an incel, and lars is the kind of person incels thinks f*ckboys are like. there's just a lot of... incel mentality presented uncritically, which is basically what you'll expect of a brony fanfic.
like a more intellectual dan brown - not for everyone. his political satire is cutting, modern and absolutely BASED.
like brave new world and 1984, it presents a disturbing sci fi dystopian feels surreal and realistic at the same time; but unlike these classics, it's vision has yet to become outdated or deteriorate into cliche. it's an intriguing vision of a true anarcho-capitalist technocratic non-state and how its inner workings might look like. then again, someone probably sees it as a utopia to aspire towards, just like some inevitably argue brave new world is a utopia.
It's getting really formulaic. So, for every single book in every single series written by Rick Riodan, it goes roughly the same way. A threat that could result in the destruction of human civilisation. Then a new, bigger quest is hinted at and we learn of an EVER BIGGER THREAT TO HUMAN CIVILISATION FJDJSJDJDHAHSHSHALDKS, rinse and repeat.
After the first couple times being told that my darling protagonists are bravely facing the most dangerous danger, introducing an even bigger threat just... loses it's impact. My emotions get worn out, danger loses meaning. Riodan is trying to make the Triusomething sound significant it hopes that us readers will care about the story, but sorry, it might work the first five times but not now.
I was eagerly awaiting the climax of the book, when I looked at the pages and realised I'm already 90% through. There was some pacing issues, but I'm a poor writer myself and find it hard to identify the problem.
I wish Riodan wrote his books in Percy's universe in a way more similar to how Orson Scott Card wrote his books in Ender's world. At least for Ender's series, different books and different series have different challenges: some big some small, unique, but still relevant to the bigger picture. It doesn't have to be bigger threat after bigger threat. This isn't a damn d*ck size contest.