Dysmorphia reviewed Cryoburn by Lois McMaster Bujold
Review of 'Cryoburn' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
CryoBurn continues the fun trend of Miles-solves-a-mystery storylines that started with Memory. With some of the story told from the point of view of other characters observing Miles, we get a distressing outside perspective of his physical deterioration after everything he's been through. Jin, the runaway kid who keeps a menagerie of animals is a particularly fun point of view character. If you've read this far in the series, you know what Miles is like, but seeing him from Jin's point of view, you get to see afresh just how intense and disruptive he is to others. The book suffers a bit from that typical one planet, one culture trope. In this case, somewhat uncomfortably, it seems like a planet of people descended from Japanese colonists and therefore still using Japanese honorifics and other small signs they're supposed to be Japanese-descended. I say uncomfortably because it seems a bit of …
CryoBurn continues the fun trend of Miles-solves-a-mystery storylines that started with Memory. With some of the story told from the point of view of other characters observing Miles, we get a distressing outside perspective of his physical deterioration after everything he's been through. Jin, the runaway kid who keeps a menagerie of animals is a particularly fun point of view character. If you've read this far in the series, you know what Miles is like, but seeing him from Jin's point of view, you get to see afresh just how intense and disruptive he is to others. The book suffers a bit from that typical one planet, one culture trope. In this case, somewhat uncomfortably, it seems like a planet of people descended from Japanese colonists and therefore still using Japanese honorifics and other small signs they're supposed to be Japanese-descended. I say uncomfortably because it seems a bit of a shallow veneer, and I'm not sure it really works. It's not terrible or super cringe, but I think the book would have been better with either a more grounded tie into it, or just a completely imaginary culture instead.