Review: All the Windwracked Stars

Title: All the Windwracked Stars (Edda of Burdens, Book 1)
Author: Elizabeth Bear (matociquala; ElizabethBear.com)
Genre: Fantasy
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Tor


Reviewer's Note: I think it should be stated that while I have tried to review the book alone on it's own merits, I am very certainly reading and thinking through the lens of RaceFail and some of the distasteful things this particular author said. I make no claims to neutrality or even any great amount of objectivity. But I did try to judge the book rather than the author in this review, or at least judge the author on her literary choices rather than her social and public ones. I think it should also be said that I came to this book hesitant to begin with because of the things that were said during RaceFail, and I've be hesitating as to whether to post a review. But reading a book and recording and posting your thoughts about it, positive or negative, is certainly not an endorsement of the author or other things the author does.

Let me be clear. I do not agree with the things this author said during RaceFail, I found them absolutely hurtful and moreover, wrong. I am reviewing this book because it had been sitting on my shelf since last year and I picked it up, read it cover to cover, and now want to post my thoughts about it. I am reviewing it because I find it helpful to me as both a reader and especially a writer to examine what succeeded and what failed in others' works, so I might incorporate that knowledge into my own writing. Whether I've succeeded in being intelligent, useful, objective, or fair in those thoughts is for you to judge.


( review: All the Windwracked Stars )