The Summer Prince

Beautiful setting. Good world building. Predictable plot. http://pussreboots.com/blog/2017/comm...

I've just finished reading The Summer Prince for the second time. It's so good. If somebody asked me what book to recommend for cyberpunk, it would have been Altered Carbon a few months ago, now I'm not so sure. It's almost the opposite of Altered Carbon, where the language is very aggressive and it drives to the heart of conflicts, prose, and themes with a clinical or cold outlook. The Summer Prince is just as elegant but with warmth. Right from the get go it assume a lot about a futuristic world that is very inspiring. Women rule Palmares Tres, pansexual citizens are the norm, not the minority. And those relationships are portrayed in the most organic, beautiful and loving ways that anything different would be so strange. I've read reviews that really don't like the aspects of Brazilian culture in the book but it's cyberpunk, we are extrapolating now and adding a few variables and imagining what we get here, the religion demanding a sacrifice of a king is barbaric. But way less so than most cyberpunk fiction, it's also elegant and beautiful in its own way and mirrors an internal monologue of the main character, June. The world is very well realized and I don't think I've ever read a book where I was able to realize the main character so well, the emotions and thoughts of June as she searched for meaning in her tragedy, as the city and its people also under went a character arc, was just captivating. The use of technology through the authors eyes was more cyberpunk than most cyberpunk novels I've read as well. The introduction and the exploration of it and what it does and means to the people in the world was really, really great use of sci-fi elements coupled with the human condition. The whole story feels alive and vibrant and warm despite some pretty dark thematic elements being explored. I know I'll be re-reading it yet again shortly, it's that good!

I felt like there was too much going on in this book to fully grasp the plot. The author used vocabulary that you had to learn the meaning of while reading, which meant that you weren't paying attention to the actual story. The romance didn't seem believable to me, between either Gil and Enki or June and Enki. Overall this book was just meh for me.

Did not finish. I tried to like the world building, being futuristic Brazil and all, but I just couldn't stomach yet another YA novel written in the 1st person pov of a female teenage character.