This was so fucking weird. Gorgeous mind-screw. There is no way to really understand unless you walk the fine edge between paying close attention and just letting it flow. I can't even give a proper summary without diving into spoiler territory.

Dream-like and powerful in imagery, heavy on symbol, it draws a lot on traditional narrative devices and gives stark, analytical spins to them, (sometimes to such a violent degree, it becomes surprising or disquieting, and I've done my fair amount of research on the psychology of myth and fairy-tales; that's Valente for you). Monomyth is a concept that comes up a lot. Turing test too, to an ironic (bittersweet, vindictive, awesome) final mention.

It's a slow piece, patchwork style and complex. It demands you to think, about what you are reading and about things like the definition of feelings, of love, of being and self, of likeness and difference, of knowledge against imitation, and where the line is drawn. I had to reassess many of them in my mind as I read, and that's really something.

I'm technically finished with this, but I have no idea how to rate it and no time to write a full review. I think I'll wait until after my vacation and then reread it, so I have time to think about it and unpack it a bit more.

I originally bought this (or tried to buy it) so that I could have it as a quick read for my flight. Um, bad idea. This may be relatively short, but it's not a quick read. The writing is lyrical and dense, which is something that usually goes over very badly with me but mostly worked for me here. There are some things I still don't understand, but I'm hoping that my planned reread will help.

Finished with part 2.

I...don't know. I have a feeling this is going to be very difficult to review. There are portions where I understand what's going on, portions where I don't, and very lovely AI-infused fairy tale retellings (Snow White, Sleeping Beauty - the Sleeping Beauty one was particularly nice). I really do need to read this in print form, and maybe sit down and draw a family tree or something.

Finished with part 1. This story is lovely. Also, I'm pretty sure that I've misunderstood a lot so far. About what's happening in the physical world and what isn't, and about who/what the various characters are.