Phoenix Extravagant
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Phoenix Extravagant
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Narrated by:
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Emily Woo Zeller
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By:
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Yoon Ha Lee
About this listen
The new blockbuster original fantasy work from Nebula, Hugo, and Clarke award nominated author Yoon Ha Lee!
“An arresting tale of loyalty, identity, and the power of art... Lee’s masterful storytelling is sure to wow.” (Publishers Weekly, starred review)
Gyen Jebi isn’t a fighter or a subversive. They just want to paint. One day they’re jobless and desperate; the next, Jebi finds themself recruited by the Ministry of Armor to paint the mystical sigils that animate the occupying government’s automaton soldiers.
But when Jebi discovers the depths of the Razanei government’s horrifying crimes - and the awful source of the magical pigments they use - they find they can no longer stay out of politics.
What they can do is steal Arazi, the ministry’s mighty dragon automaton, and find a way to fight....
©2020 Yoon Ha Lee (P)2020 Recorded BooksListeners also enjoyed...
What listeners say about Phoenix Extravagant
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 17-01-24
Wonderful story, but not without it's issues
I really enjoyed Yoon Ha Lee's Phoenix Extravagant and their ability to build such a compelling and complete world in the space of a such a comparatively short novel is laudable as well as being wonderfully narrated by Emily Woo Zeller. I would absolutely recommend it; however, it was not without some issues.
As another reviewer has pointed out, the first act seems to meander its way toward the actual story. I found myself wondering when we were going to arrive at the filling of the sandwich. It's not that it isn't well-written or boring, just that I struggled to see where the story were headed based on the crumbs being laid out before me.
The main character's non-gender-specific identity and pronouns also caught me out repeatedly with the introduction of Vei in the second act (apologies if I have mangled the spelling of this). Repeated uses of the main character's "they" pronoun and the "Vei" character's name in the same sentence made many passages following her introduction tricky to follow unless you are avidly following every word. To be absolutely clear to those who would doubtless decry these comments, I have nothing against the inclusion of such characters, but a name change would have banished this confusion entirely especially as the characters' names and gender identities didn't seem to have any overall bearing or impact on the story itself.
I don't want to say too much about the ending as I am loath to spoil it, but it had all the hallmarks of a death fantasy rather than a credible account of the conclusion of the story arcs of the various characters. Again, to be clear, well-written and enjoyable, but with some whimsical outcomes ultimately too fantastical even for a book about magical paint and enchanted automata.
That all being said, I would definitely read another book set in this world and am keen to explore the author's other work.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Suoid
- 30-01-21
fantastic
Yoon Ha Lee never fails to amaze me with their skill in worldbuilding. Though this is mentioned as stand-alone I would love more
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Leks Drakos
- 16-02-24
I don't know what to say
It's like someone overheard a conversation about RF Kuang's novels on a busy train and tried to write the same thing without having ever written anything before. Not even a grocery list.
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