"They didn’t deserve to inherit the empire their ancestors had built."

Does anyone?

#FuriousHeaven #Books2023

This going after potential rivals, even if they're children, up to and including simply murdering them is giving me "A Song of Ice and Fire" vibes. With Kurash being like Ser Davos, drawing a hard line there: "we do not murder children".

We'll see if infanticide has dire consequences here as well. Or descending to assassinating rivals, period.

#FuriousHeaven #Books2023

"There is a reason, brash youth, that we in the Coalition rule by threes. The ancient one brings wisdom to the table of governance. The Matrone offers stability and sustenance. The Magava provides the fresh ideas and vigor of youth. Because youth is not meant to rule alone."

Ah, that kind of triumvirate. Feels a bit like the "Foundation" one...

Interesting: today, we're mostly ruled by old age, not youth. Even middle age's an exception.

#FuriousHeaven #Books2023

"From the galley, Petty Officer Thea James Alhonolulu gestures toward a cooling rack of ginger buns, sweet fried sesame buns, and compsognathus-tail buns. The smell is divine."

I don't eat meat, but... real dinosaur buns? 😋

(Will we actually get to see the dinosaurs?)

#FuriousHeaven #Books2023

"In Chaonia the high command met at an oval strategos table, a nod to the republic’s principle of equality of citizens."

Um. Of citizens, as opposed to the royal and governing houses, or what? It's so weird that the so-called republic feels in no way egalitarian, while the so-called empire came from trade unions and syndicates. I'm really not sure what to make of that. Is it just hypocrisy or what?

#FuriousHeaven #Books2023

So there are shipyards at Gdansk, eh?

#FuriousHeaven #Books2023

"Her, not it. The baby had been announced as a girl child, which seems premature to him, but they hold different customs here."

Awwww 💙

#FuriousHeaven #Books2023

"Feast this evening. Tomorrow, we launch.” I also see what you did /there/. It sure is a classic sentiment, although I'm never sure it is wise to indulge too much before a big fight...

#FuriousHeaven #Books2023

There, a character wonders if the privileged newbie might finally confide in the grizzled crew. And maybe that is a way: being open and making yourself vulnerable, talking about your background and your difficulties, acknowledgeding that you need to learn a lot, and only after some time come up with things you might add to the crew's abilities.

Having been bullied, I cynically think "they'd just use that against you". But I like that it works in the book.

(3/n, n=3)

#FuriousHeaven #Books2023

I've always asked myself what a good way to deal with these situations might be, if you find yourself in one (and even if I'm no longer young, I'm autistic and educated, so I'm read as arrogant and coldly distant a lot; it's not just a hypothetical for me!).

They do feel like there's no good way: try bring friendly and you're sucking up, try keeping to yourself and you're haughty. Lose-lose hopelessness!

"Furious Heaven" actually gave me a new idea for that.

(2/n)

#FuriousHeaven #Books2023

Because "Furious Heaven" has a bit with it, I'm thinking of the "privileged inexperienced kid gets sent to work amongst underclass old hands, doesn't fit in and is mercilessly mocked and pranked" trope.

Sometimes it's played such that we as readers root for the crew, sometimes for the youngster, but it's clear that it's not a great situation for everyone, even though everyone's reactions are somewhat understandabke if not particularly grown-up.

(1/n)

#FuriousHeaven #Books2023

"I enter the shop past a meter-tall gilded statue of She Who Repairs the Sky holding a wrench and an Antikythera mechanism"

💙

What a great image.

#FuriousHeaven #Books2023

And now "Shadowfax"! They do love their fast horses, don't they?

Horse ships and dinosaur proverbs, are they this series' Culture ship names? 🙃

#FuriousHeaven #Books2023

"but there was no point in mending the pen after the ankylosaurs were lost."

I do love the dinosaur-themed proverbs! And would love to see more of the dinosaurs themselves. Even though I think keeping ankylosaurs in a pen is... a bit difficult anyway.

(K1 would approve though, they like them)

#FuriousHeaven #Books2023

I also see what you did there, naming Sun's ship "Boukephalas" 😏

#FuriousHeaven #Books2023

I like the "recipes so citizens can make similar dishes for themselves" bit of the naming ceremony coverage. I wonder if that's something being done today with high-profile feasts? As I'm neither living in a monarchy nor a consumer of news about such events, I actually have no idea! I know there's always coverage of clothes and looks, so why not set a food trend as well?

#FuriousHeaven #Books2023

"... first Council, the Young Tailors of Anshan of cherished memory. Am I really required to remind you that in the wake of the fall of the Apsaras Convergence and the beacon collapse, it was they who began to stitch together an empire from the many scattered pattern pieces?"

I see what you did there with that metaphor 😏💙

#FuriousHeaven #Books2023

As I classify space empires by relative travel and communication speeds, the Riders seem to be really interesting. They have instantaneous communication between them, but unless you have a "Rider network" with nodes everywhere, they can only relay information at travel speeds. And the "nodes" are sentinent - it's a bit like the telegraph operators who could, in principle, alter the information they got, or give it away.

Only here, the full network would know...

#FuriousHeaven #Books2023

I have to say I like that empire backstory: formed by workers, unions and syndicates as a loose trading society; then, after a catastrophe weakened ties, becoming an empire.

Things like this happened (and I haven't forgotten the "Alexander in space" elevator pitch; they've happened in the Mediterranean!), but I'm not sure I've seen that trajectory this clearly in science fiction before. Nice!

#FuriousHeaven #Books2023

So, the Riders. Another Teixcalaan similarity with their shared consciousness. But also Yoon Ha Lee again.

The body modifications are something else, though.

#FuriousHeaven #Books2023