T. C. McCarthy

Quote:

"I'm not who I used to be." Maung paused. Even with all the data and processing power he had, trying to express feelings left him frustrated. "I'm not a killer anymore."

Review:
I unfortunately discontinued reading this at 75%. I tried really, really hard, but I found that I just couldn't get past core aspects of the book. And those were making me dread getting back to reading the book every time I put it down.

The biggest problem I had was that Tyger Burning was very racist against the Chinese and Burmese. And they aren't so great against other Asians, either. I made all sorts of excuses throughout. "It makes sense in the context of the book!", "They just lost a war, this is the same generation that lost their lives!" and more. However, it was just way above what was needed to get the point across. It was constant, every couple pages, and it just never got any better. Maybe it got better at the end, I just couldn't make it there.

Then all of this racism took time away from the actual plot. So much time is spent on the racism that wasn't spent on developing the plot or the world. So I felt barely anything happened. There were so many ideas that got introduced and then discarded in order to shit on the main character's nationality some more in the next page. It was so frustrating.

The main character, Muang, was another source of frustration for me. This feels like it is nitpicking, but I just couldn't get over it the entire book. Muang is supposed to be stupid. The Chinese took part of his brain and replaced it with computer stuff. When the computer is off, which is when he isn't in danger, he is supposed to be stupid since he is literally missing part of his brain. Only he isn't. He is clumsy, but he isn't stupid in my opinion. Those aren't the same thing. I believe it is supposed to be shown through all the questions he asks, but that was basically just the bare minimum he needed to have asked to understand his situation he found himself in.

Also, I found the relationship distatestful. It develops in the middle of the book. It was clear very early on that she was going to be the love interest but it never truly develops. But the relationship goes from completely not interested, to separated and obsessed (how??) to "let's fuck". Hmm. And then Muang starts deciding things for the love interest without asking her. Major things.

That last thing, the main character making major life decisions for the love character without asking, all because he is obsessed with her? That is what decided my decision to discontinue reading this. I couldn't make excuses any longer. Especially when I sat down and very little interesting happened. Lots of interesting things were introduced, but they never seemed to stay around.

I received this book from Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to T.C. McCarthy, Baen, and Edelweiss for providing the opportunity to review this copy.… (meer)