The Unbroken: 2/5
I was so excited to read this with my sapphic book club (Sapph-Lit, which is always accepting new members!!), but it, unfortunately, lost me.
In spite of that, I have a great respect for whoever is capable of writing about the atrocities of colonialism and other historical violences in fantasy. It’s a hard task, and although I can hardly know, I imagine it is so in an emotional way, as well. I wouldn’t dream of putting that effort down: it takes courage, a lot of determination and a heart full of a lot of will to write a good story. Sometimes, though, I think stuff gets lost in the crossfire, between the good intentions and the need to represent these evils as blatantly as possible.
This, I think, is where The Unbroken went wrong the most. There was also the issue of characters comically flip-flopping loyalties in an almost ridiculously predictable way, as well as stunted character development which didn’t allow for this - and many other manoeuvers - to turn out like I think the author intended it to. But the main point is this: there has to be something more than just telling us that colonialism is bad. I think that’s an uncontested point amongst a reasonable audience, and I doubt the book’s intentions were to argue this point to the type of person who would disagree with this statement. The Unbroken writes itself into a knot when it only permits itself to advocate for this. It does not branch out. It repeats itself constantly, on a loop, imploring us to agree with a point that the targeted audience is already in agreement with.
When it does try to explore some nuance -- some French, ops, sorry, Balladarians, who might be favorable to the emacipation movement of the colonized, for example -- the effort falls flat. The characters are not given space to grow, not developed, held down by mediocre dialogue, -- with a ridiculous amount of swearing -- telling-not-showing and their aforementioned flip-flopping.
I know this book means a great deal to a good chunk of people, and I think that’s fair enough. Again, I don’t mean to say that it’s intentions don’t come from an honorable place, but just that it’s execution lost me. There was very little to see, here, except a depiction of the French imperialism of North Africa/the Middle East through a fantasy lens -- which, amounts to basically having the parties have different names, as a matter of fact. But, honestly, I hope it continues to mean so much to so many people, and that the universe it’s in continues to expand. Why not? Maybe some day it’ll be to my tastes, too.
And, since you’re here, have you seen the cover for the next one? Yeah, Luca looks damn fucking hot.
Reminded me of...
The Poppy War: discussion of 19th century imperialism through a fantasy lens, military-focused BUT I think this one does it better
Babel: discussion of 19th century imperialism through a fantasy lens, character-driven, action BUT I also think this one is better
(my point being: read R. F. Kuang!!!)
