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La Memoire de Babel, Christelle Dabos. This is the third book of the Passe-Miroir (Mirror Visitor) quartet. The English translation doesn't come out until May, so I'll keep this review spoiler-free. (I'll also try to avoid spoilers for the first two books.)
The worldbuilding continues to be delightful: as the title suggests, the book is mostly set in Babel, which is more cosmopolitan and technologically advanced than the settings of the first two books. Where by "technologically advanced" I mean Escher-style gravity-defying architecture, rolling-chair taxis of dubious utility, automata also of dubious utility, winged trains, and a cutting-edge punch card computer library catalogue! (Yep, Babel has a library, as expected.) The setting makes the social commentary of the book feel more topical: rather than "dysfunctional hereditary aristocracy has issues".
The supporting cast of the first two books is mostly sidelined in favor of new characters, though fortunately there are interludes where you get to check in with them. I have a soft spot for Elizabeth, who is trying to make a place for herself in the world without any magical powers by being really really good with databases! So far just by recataloguing the library, I don't know if the series is going to go into the ethical issues of Big Data -- anyhow Elizabeth was underused by the plot. I'm also still waiting for Roseline's document restoration powers to be plot-relevant -- she would have been useful had she come along to Babel. Other new characters are well-drawn, with the main exception of the one Asian-coded character, whose physical appearance is described in very stereotyped terms and who barely gets any characterization. Hopefully the next book will do better with them!
The author continues to like to torture her protagonist more than is really necessary, but this is probably not so bad if one isn't slowed down by reading in a foreign language. The romance plot continues, of course, but Thorn has reverted to being a bit more of a generic prickly (dare I say thorny?) love interest. The series continues to have untapped femslash potential. There's a gay couple, but they're currently estranged due to plot stuff, and are never seen in the same place at the same time.
The worldbuilding continues to be delightful: as the title suggests, the book is mostly set in Babel, which is more cosmopolitan and technologically advanced than the settings of the first two books. Where by "technologically advanced" I mean Escher-style gravity-defying architecture, rolling-chair taxis of dubious utility, automata also of dubious utility, winged trains, and a cutting-edge punch card computer library catalogue! (Yep, Babel has a library, as expected.) The setting makes the social commentary of the book feel more topical: rather than "dysfunctional hereditary aristocracy has issues".
The supporting cast of the first two books is mostly sidelined in favor of new characters, though fortunately there are interludes where you get to check in with them. I have a soft spot for Elizabeth, who is trying to make a place for herself in the world without any magical powers by being really really good with databases! So far just by recataloguing the library, I don't know if the series is going to go into the ethical issues of Big Data -- anyhow Elizabeth was underused by the plot. I'm also still waiting for Roseline's document restoration powers to be plot-relevant -- she would have been useful had she come along to Babel. Other new characters are well-drawn, with the main exception of the one Asian-coded character, whose physical appearance is described in very stereotyped terms and who barely gets any characterization. Hopefully the next book will do better with them!
The author continues to like to torture her protagonist more than is really necessary, but this is probably not so bad if one isn't slowed down by reading in a foreign language. The romance plot continues, of course, but Thorn has reverted to being a bit more of a generic prickly (dare I say thorny?) love interest. The series continues to have untapped femslash potential. There's a gay couple, but they're currently estranged due to plot stuff, and are never seen in the same place at the same time.
There are some interesting worldbuilding revelations, but still some important questions left unresolved. I'll have to go back through these books looking for clues, and am curious to see if Dabos will manage to stick the landing in La Tempête des échos, which is supposedly coming out November 28. It's not yet on Amazon, but at least has a listing on fnac.com.
(I've also been reading the new Alex Verus, but I'll save that for next time.)
