Lessons in Birdwatching
- Brand: Unbranded
Description
It took me a few days to write this review because I was still mulling this book over. Watson is a skilled writer with a vivid imagination, but ultimately this one didn’t work for me. Lessons in Birdwatching follows a group of students from the Crysthian Empire during their time on Apech, a planet that wants to join the empire and whose culture and customs are almost totally incomprehensible to the Crysthians. The citizens of Apech are afflicted with an illness that can affect their perception of time and sometimes leaves people as tama, nearly mindless shells of their former selves who do menial tasks and are treated with contempt. One morning, they wake to find an impaled corpse dangling from their research base. They uncover collusion and conspiracy in their own diplomatic corps, and are caught in the middle of a bloody civil war. Meanwhile, a fanatic encourages the threat of a forgotten god and its virus. Researchers haven’t drawn a direct connection between using honey on your face and lightening dark spots.
The way they treated the tama was bad-bad. And look, I get that it is supposed to be bad, and I have read some downright horrifying things in my day, but usually there is some kind of... retribution? Consequence? But no, here it is just fine to assault the feeble-minded, use them for whatever, and then get rid of them. I just wanted some justice, any justice, but alas. I generally did not enjoy Lessons in Birdwatching, though I don’t think enjoyment is its goal. The book seems intended to provoke strong emotion, largely negative. The principal character, Ming, is manipulative, sadistic, owner hungry, and evil. Other viewpoint characters are merely generally dislikable, though all but Peter remained pretty opaque. The setting is a bizarre and distasteful world plagued by disease and quirky “magic” which makes most of the residents come off as remote and alien, or in the case of the diseased Tama, as helpless victims. Though sometimes the natives act in very comprehensible fashion, which seemed inconsistent. Ultimately, the violene, gore, and sadism was too much for me. The focus is on rigorous testing and scientific data about the honey the company produces since much of Watson & Son’s production goes towards medical grade manuka honey for pharmaceutical and therapeutic products. It’s vital that the honey you use still contains its healthy bacteria to be effective. This will activate your immune system and help with inflammation and redness, as well as heal blemishes. We’re thrilled to share the cover of Honey Watson’s Lessons in Birdwatching, a darkly comic, politically charged novel set in a post-earth future, where beings—human and otherwise—careen towards annihilation in service of zealotry and nihilism alike. Available August 8, 2023 from Angry Robot Books.Amidst the chaos and uncertainty, Wilhelmina and her peers must confront their deepest fears and insecurities. Their bonds of friendship and trust are put to the test as they navigate the treacherous landscape, seeking the truth and striving to stop the impending catastrophe. The synopsis claimed it was comic but... I just didn't get too much in the way of comedy, frankly. They nailed the dark bit at least. At no point did I think it was dark humor, though, just... bleak darkness. And that is a very different thing. Applying honey to your face is fairly simple, though there are different ways to do it. Honey for face acne, psoriasis, and eczema Overall, I think this is a book best enjoyed twice — once as a hapless passenger, and once again with an appreciation for the characters’ agendas. I liked it on first read and LOVED it on second read. I did quite enjoy some of the secondary characters and was invested in their fates. Now, I did not feel the same about the "main" character (I use that loosely since there are quite a few characters' viewpoints that are offered, which is good because if you're anything like me, you don't want to hang out in Ming's head the whole book), but the secondary characters were more... tolerable? Multifaceted? Sure let's go with that. Also, they were kind of funny at times, which helped.
There were a few other things that were really dealbreakers for me. Spoilers ahead. One of the things that really bothered me was Ming’s interactions with the tama. We understand that the tama have the mental capacity of someone with an intellectual disability or a very small child, and watching Ming torture and have sex with the tama was disturbing and also pretty unnecessary. There is also a scene where she cannibalizes a diseased tama while he is still (mostly) alive, and that was also just too much gore for me (or should I say, too much vore?). I know Ming is evil—I didn’t want to read about her sexual torture or cannibalism in that much detail. The book’s final scenes also contain a scene between Ming and a male character where she seems to be especially degraded. Thematically, it felt out of place to me at the novel’s ending and it muddied some of the themes of the ending to the point that I wasn’t sure what we are supposed to feel at the end. Is Ming triumphant or not? The quality control process for this 10+ manuka honey is very stringent too because Watson & Son are a major producer of manuka honey for both general consumption and of medical grade manuka honey for use by pharmaceutical companies that are producing an increasing number of medical products for wound and burn products. A smart sci-fi epic interwoven with political intrigue; set on a dystopian world ravaged by a time-plague where a brutal murder will start a civil war. For the better part of the Twentieth century, the Canadian government forcibly removed Indigenous children from their homes and sent them to boarding schools to be assimilated into "southern culture." Lessons in Birdwatching take you on an exhilarating journey to the planet Apech, where a time-distorting illness has wreaked havoc. Among the visitors are Wilhelmina Ming and her four elite peers from the Crysthian Empire. However, their research post turns into a nightmare as they bear witness to horrifying acts of brutality that defy all logic. Struggling to cope with the trauma, they turn to unconventional means of escape, resorting to psychedelic antidepressants and group activities.This certified 10+ (MGS rating) manuka honey from Watson & Son is a genuine manuka honey with all the amazing qualities that have the world clamouring for more. Five post-graduate students from the core of the Crysthian empire serve out their posting on the violent, unpredictable planet Apech. The Apechi's unnerving drive to join the empire has resulted in a carnival mirror of a capital city, replete with skewed replicas of Crysthian buildings and practices. It is the distance between these students' feelings of imperial invulnerability and the dangerous forces imperfectly hidden by the Apechi that creates the space for the novel's propulsion, strangeness, and for its humor. As they begin to grasp the outline of this planet's secrets, the students' grapple with their true position - some recognizing responsibility and vulnerability, others deeply-unsettling opportunity. The characters are a mix of clueless grad students and power-hungry sociopaths - there's a horror aesthetic about this, with most of the primary characters focused on drugs and sex while increasingly grotesque, logic-defying violence keeps occurring. There is a battle scene in the novel that is excellent, though I would have cared more about the outcome if I’d understood what everyone was fighting for (I mean, I do understand, but more at the micro level, not in general).
Lessons in Birdwatching is the debut novel of Honey Watson, a sort of sci-fi book which, to be fair, lands in the wtf territory, a really brave and interesting proposal that won't let you indifferent. A mysterious sci-fi world poisoned by an unknown disease is the setting which we will explore through the eyes of some elite students from another planet in the Chrystian Empire.
This is a book that rewards careful reading. Watson’s worldbuilding is layered and very detailed, and she frequently plays with the gap between her omniscient narrator’s knowledge and the knowledge of the characters. I really enjoyed how immersive the world building was and how slow Watson was to reveal what was going on. There are no infodumps here. The plot is heavy on intrigue, deception, and Imperial politics. The political maneuvering was well done and there were several reveals of information that surprised me.
- Fruugo ID: 258392218-563234582
- EAN: 764486781913
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