Timequake

by Kurt Vonnegut

 

Vonnegut concludes. Dark humor, satire, he tries to kill us with too much to think about. Glorious.

 https://www.vonnegutlibrary.org/aiovg_videos/kurt-vonneguts-timequake/

Black Sun or a Novel wherein the plot, characters, setting and action is fully eclipsed.

Black Sun

Black Sun (Between Earth and Sky, #1)
by

Rebecca Roanhorse

 

A review, in short intervals.  

 

 

Longest short story I've ever read. 

Some notes;
Brutal, off putting 1st chapter. 

The time jumping is pointless. If this had been told in a linear fashion, maybe it would have felt like the characters actually did something in the story.

Characters; Serapio. His role is to be a kick the dog character (kick the god character). Goal: become a god. Obstacles: none. Mission Accomplished, more or less?

Xiala. Female Jack Sparrow. The only character I enjoyed. She's also a water-bender and mermaid. She is written as incompetent and fails at her 1 job. Too bad, because she was the only one having any fun. Goal: Captain a ship. Mission failed.

Naranpa. Sun Priest. Written as incompetent and fails at her 1 job. Goal: none. 

Okoa. Some guy. Goal: unknown. Has a big bird. 

The pace of this story is extremely slow. It is almost entirely exposition (repeatedly repeated). The setting is a very thin veneer of Aztec/Mayan fantasy over a standard backdrop (Dice games, whore houses, slimy merchants, temple intrigue, plagues, peasants, pirates)

.
And finally, I have no idea who I am rooting for in this story. Xiala, I suppose, but she doesn't have any goals of her own, so that makes it hard.