city of others
so i just read finish city of others and boy do i have some Thoughts (spoilers ahead):
i've been on a workplace novel reading kick, i'm especially curious about books that take place in singapore's public service. i like reading other people's take on bureaucracy and work/labour. city of others fulfills those curiosities, with the book written by a former civil servant and it sounds like he was in civil service for a long time. i would rate the book 3.5 out of 5 stars, i like the plot, world building, and there's a queer romance! but i find the characters... hmm how to put it nicely, i think too much of what happens is far too convenient. i remember reading a goodreads review that says the author doesn't want truly bad things to happen to the characters and i agree with them. everytime the story sets up this serious problem, somehow the characters get through it unscathed. there aren't any real consequences which after awhile takes me out of the story, i had to pause reading the book so many times. if you look at my libby timeline you would see me borrowing and returning the book like 5 times (because it was a skip the line copy that lets me keep the audiobook for 7 days) and i finally completed the book this week (i skipped 1-2 chapters that i'll get back to someday, the main character just did something so frustrating in chapter 23-24 that i had to nope out of it).
talking about the main character, benjamin toh. he's such a typical singaporean chinese man... grits my teeth. hes like no!! you cannot sacrifice yourself, you're too important. let me sacrifice myself. it doesn't help that the narrative keeps “rewarding” his behaviour, he gets his hand broken and learns he has magic healing abilities. he gets blinded by a magic stone and his colleague gives him a potion that restores his sight. he knows he is stubborn!! that what he's doing is probably not the best option but he doesn't want others to take on the risk he so willingly throws himself into. honestly reading about his gardener power just makes me feel the guy is a self insert mary sue character, why is he so overpowered?? the male ego is so tedious. at the end of the book he does admit to his mistakes and apologises to his team, so that's some character growth? this is the first book of a series, so i'm hoping that as time goes on the writing gets better.
my favourite parts of the book is honestly the description of nonsense that government employees have to do. the acroynms, protocols/SOPs, and the many layers of reporting. how long everything takes that by the time you get the necessary approvals the problem you're trying to solve would be obsolete. the random sports day that was organised to improve staff morale, while the DEUS team is trying to save the world. then they have to figure out a way to play that won't let them win cause then they need to do more work, but they can't lose too obviously otherwise their boss would come after them. how a lot of times they work overtime to clear emails... emails that your boss tells you is urgent, but what is truly urgent when the world is ending? the passive aggression and having to read between the lines, so everyone becomes a middle manager - managing expectations from the top and bottom. no wonder people are burnt out! cause so much effort goes into maintaining the system and navigating these uncertain relationship dynamics rather than actually doing their job. i'm glad that the author managed to quit and pursue writing! i'm always supportive of people pursuing their dreams and making art!!