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Red Dust, White Snow
Who is to say dreams are insubstantial when whole lives can be lived in their pursuit? When an office worker receives a mysterious device promising to transport her to a parallel universe, she assumes it is just another marketing stunt. That night, she visits a fantastical place in her dreams; on waking she returns to her normal life, only to return to the same dream the following night. At first she finds the ongoing dreams bizarre, but the more time she spends in the dream world, the less she wants to wake up. Yet as her fantasy begins to encroach on her waking life, dream and reality collide with drastic consequences. With sharp insight, wry humor and Black Mirror-esque themes, Red Dust, White Snow highlights the blurring of reality and fantasy in our increasingly virtual world.
191 pages, Paperback
Published August 17, 2023
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 68 reviews
July 27, 2023
Thank you to NetGalley and Fairlight Books for the ARC.
3.5 stars
This book was a psychedelic exploration of the diminishing gap between the real and digital worlds, reminiscent of Black Mirror, The Woman in the Purple Skirt (Natsuko Imamura) and An Absolutely Remarkable Thing (Hank Green).
I found the design of the dreamscape to be innovative and to effectively convey an ethereal atmosphere to contrast the intentional monotony of daily life. I honestly think that the concepts explored here are very interesting and the protagonist’s removed observations of the world around her seemed appropriate both for her character and for creating an atmosphere where it felt as though everything was bleeding into one.
However, the I found the writing to drag it down. It was charming, but difficult to get into due to its somewhat simple, stilted nature and randomly obscure vocabulary. This was particularly the case in the real world perspectives, as the dreamscape perspectives seemed to have a writing style that was more lucid and self aware. I also found it difficult to place the character in any location that was not her house or office, as there were rarely any orientational markers given (this could be intentional, but it didn’t really work for me).
Overall though, a quick and enjoyable read.
3.5 stars
This book was a psychedelic exploration of the diminishing gap between the real and digital worlds, reminiscent of Black Mirror, The Woman in the Purple Skirt (Natsuko Imamura) and An Absolutely Remarkable Thing (Hank Green).
I found the design of the dreamscape to be innovative and to effectively convey an ethereal atmosphere to contrast the intentional monotony of daily life. I honestly think that the concepts explored here are very interesting and the protagonist’s removed observations of the world around her seemed appropriate both for her character and for creating an atmosphere where it felt as though everything was bleeding into one.
However, the I found the writing to drag it down. It was charming, but difficult to get into due to its somewhat simple, stilted nature and randomly obscure vocabulary. This was particularly the case in the real world perspectives, as the dreamscape perspectives seemed to have a writing style that was more lucid and self aware. I also found it difficult to place the character in any location that was not her house or office, as there were rarely any orientational markers given (this could be intentional, but it didn’t really work for me).
Overall though, a quick and enjoyable read.
August 3, 2023
I was drawn to this book for the intriguing concept, with the promise of an overlap of reality and fantasy. For me, though, it didn’t deliver on the promise. Ultimately, the encroachment of fantasy on reality turned out to be quite pedestrian, albeit in a light fantasy/sci-fi context. The reveal that happens about three quarters of the way through the book is underwhelming and, while it had philosophical consequences, I didn’t find them engaging.
The style of the writing in many places got in the way of the story-telling: use of language was unnecessarily elaborate in places, and the brief explanations of the meanings (and mythical background) of some of the supporting characters and spirits was unnecessary and jarring. Overall I was left with the impression that the author was showing off with use of language and myth, which I found a little alienating rather than impressive.
The plot was split across two worlds - the reality and the fantasy - although very little actually happened in either world. There seemed little purpose to much of the plot, with rarely any conflict or jeopardy. The main protagonist had some interesting characteristics - notably the deliberate distancing from friends and colleagues. These characteristics supported her willingness to engage wholeheartedly in the fantasy world, but ultimately they were under-explored and unresolved, and I found her difficult to relate to.
An interesting concept, but the book was not for me.
Thank you #NetGalley and Fairlight Books for the free review copy of #RedDustWhiteSnow in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
The style of the writing in many places got in the way of the story-telling: use of language was unnecessarily elaborate in places, and the brief explanations of the meanings (and mythical background) of some of the supporting characters and spirits was unnecessary and jarring. Overall I was left with the impression that the author was showing off with use of language and myth, which I found a little alienating rather than impressive.
The plot was split across two worlds - the reality and the fantasy - although very little actually happened in either world. There seemed little purpose to much of the plot, with rarely any conflict or jeopardy. The main protagonist had some interesting characteristics - notably the deliberate distancing from friends and colleagues. These characteristics supported her willingness to engage wholeheartedly in the fantasy world, but ultimately they were under-explored and unresolved, and I found her difficult to relate to.
An interesting concept, but the book was not for me.
Thank you #NetGalley and Fairlight Books for the free review copy of #RedDustWhiteSnow in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
August 16, 2023
Red Dust, White Snow is a powerful and richly-imagined science-fiction debut set in a futuristic Singapore and follows an office receptionist in her late thirties who "disillusioned with her mundane reality, becomes increasingly obsessed with a fantasy world created especially for her". Our unnamed protagonist arises one morning and to her surprise discovers a hand-delivered parcel on her front porch. Wrapped in ordinary brown wrapping paper she wonders what it can be as she was not expecting anything and there are no markings or return address to indicate it had even been shipped. She opens it and sees the words "Levitation Technology" embossed onto the white cube before her. Suddenly it starts to glow and asks the startling question "Do you consent to enter into a parallel universe?" - not knowing what to think she quickly logs in to her Empirean social media account to check bus times and then leaves on her daily commute to work. She works at Verge, a 3D Modelling company that developed Aria, a virtual model, managed by virtual human agency. Knowing the often underhand tactics her company employs to engage users is what stops her from initially believing that the cube present she was unexpectedly delivered is anything more than a slick marketing scheme designed to lure you in.
However, feeling like she has nothing to lose, once home that evening, she cooks some ramen and sits down with the cube. It asks her the all-important question again, and this time she agrees. It then welcomes her to the parallel universe, but as far as she can tell nothing around her has changed even slightly. Having made a fool of herself as she thought she might, she heads to bed as normal and it is there the magic begins. Her dreams are vivid and all too real. Her nightly dreams become her second life and the story continues each night she falls asleep where she becomes a student at The Academy of Greatest Learning where she learns about the creation of summoning stones and how to summon elemental spirits under the expert guidance of Master Zeno. How will these increasingly different worlds play out together and what will it mean in terms of the protagonist's life? This is a compelling cross between real life, Black Mirror and Isekei anime featuring an unnamed central protagonist who feels so lonely, displaced, different and disenfranchised in terms of modern society she finds it helps her to cope if she disengages as much as possible from reality and slips away into her own vivid fantasyland whenever possible where she can be whoever she wants to be and do whatever she wants to do.
In her mind, the boundary between the physical and virtual worlds has become increasingly blurred as she comes to inhabit more and more of the escapist dreamworld and continues to wonder whether she will ever feel truly fulfilled by reality. The narrative moves back and forth creating a juxtaposition between the woman's mundane day to life, a dead-end job and her vacant expression caused by her uninspiring 9-5 job through to inhabiting an alternate reality replete with magic and adventure inspired by Chinese and Korean folklore. It's one of those stories that are fairly plotless and focuses on the characters and worldbuilding more than anything else, however, Huiting also explores, within the context of the narrative, important and relatable themes of alienation, capitalism, modernity, mental health and the exponential increase in the utilization of technology for everything (but particularly as a form of escapism). A key theme throughout is also the takeover of most aspects of life by technology and apps - Empirean and other service providers help with everything in life to the point where they have replaced genuine social interaction. A surreal, claustrophobic tale with much to say about the modern world in which we live and thought-provoking in the sense that this is what our future could indeed resemble.
However, feeling like she has nothing to lose, once home that evening, she cooks some ramen and sits down with the cube. It asks her the all-important question again, and this time she agrees. It then welcomes her to the parallel universe, but as far as she can tell nothing around her has changed even slightly. Having made a fool of herself as she thought she might, she heads to bed as normal and it is there the magic begins. Her dreams are vivid and all too real. Her nightly dreams become her second life and the story continues each night she falls asleep where she becomes a student at The Academy of Greatest Learning where she learns about the creation of summoning stones and how to summon elemental spirits under the expert guidance of Master Zeno. How will these increasingly different worlds play out together and what will it mean in terms of the protagonist's life? This is a compelling cross between real life, Black Mirror and Isekei anime featuring an unnamed central protagonist who feels so lonely, displaced, different and disenfranchised in terms of modern society she finds it helps her to cope if she disengages as much as possible from reality and slips away into her own vivid fantasyland whenever possible where she can be whoever she wants to be and do whatever she wants to do.
In her mind, the boundary between the physical and virtual worlds has become increasingly blurred as she comes to inhabit more and more of the escapist dreamworld and continues to wonder whether she will ever feel truly fulfilled by reality. The narrative moves back and forth creating a juxtaposition between the woman's mundane day to life, a dead-end job and her vacant expression caused by her uninspiring 9-5 job through to inhabiting an alternate reality replete with magic and adventure inspired by Chinese and Korean folklore. It's one of those stories that are fairly plotless and focuses on the characters and worldbuilding more than anything else, however, Huiting also explores, within the context of the narrative, important and relatable themes of alienation, capitalism, modernity, mental health and the exponential increase in the utilization of technology for everything (but particularly as a form of escapism). A key theme throughout is also the takeover of most aspects of life by technology and apps - Empirean and other service providers help with everything in life to the point where they have replaced genuine social interaction. A surreal, claustrophobic tale with much to say about the modern world in which we live and thought-provoking in the sense that this is what our future could indeed resemble.
January 23, 2024
Where to even start with this train wreck?
Let’s get a couple things out of the way quickly.
First, this book is really hard to find. I had an eARC of it and was disappointed to find out it’s not even been made into an ebook that can be bought. But don’t worry you are missing out on nothing worth your time!
Second, I love a well written, engaging story. One that evokes a certain style or sense with its word choices. What I do not appreciate is a seemingly endless use of ridiculous words, chosen for some unknown reason, that require me to have my dictionary handy. And while yes my Kobo has a dictionary function that is not the point. Stumbling over terminology is no fun. For example some of the worst offenders were: eschatological, solipsism, verpertine, unctuousness, adumbrations, trophallaxis, vinaceous, furfuraceous, and diaphanous. When spell check thinks your words don’t exist then they are probably too archaic.
With those two mini-rants out of the way let’s get into the real depth of what doesn’t work in Red Dust, White Snow.
It was difficult to tell what the real goal was here. We are brought into a complex fantasy world, via an odd device our leading gal uses. Inside this world the descriptions and sense of self is huge. Yet we suspect it’s not quite real early on. I mean it takes a device to generate this world in your dreams. Obviously not a natural phenom.
Yet later on in the story we are treated to the type of ‘twist’ and moral that is most common in short stories. It cheapens the experience and made me wonder why bother with generating all the details and plot of the fantasy world if you planned to unravel most of it anyways? It makes no sense.
It’s as though the author couldn’t decide between writing an impactful, twisted, moral giving short story and an epic fantasy. These two things are so different, and they don’t work when put together. I wished to be reading each of the different types of books as the plot itself is interesting enough (albeit not as original as I might have hoped for). Instead we get this mixture of story that is unsatisfying as it can’t meet the needs of either story format. A huge let down in the end.
There is some brilliance to be pulled from this for a future attempt at writing. But someone needs to sit the author down and really talk about the overall goal. Select what kind of story it is before launching into writing it. If it’s an epic fantasy or sci-folk then it needs more of the linking scenes (otherwise it feels like an outline with only the most important scenes written out so far; leaving the reader to feel disconnected); or if it’s a short story with a distinct moral and lesson then all the superfluous details and extended plot of the fantasy world need to be stripped out. Either way there could be something to be made of here. As it stands right now it’s an amateur debut that needed some serious guidance so it didn’t feel like someone’s first crack at a story they hadn’t decided on the goal of in the first place.
Unfortunately this hot mess is not worth reading, in my opinion. Unless you are an editor or publisher that wants to reach out and help refine it (a lot) into something that has purpose and a clear goal for the reader.
Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.
Let’s get a couple things out of the way quickly.
First, this book is really hard to find. I had an eARC of it and was disappointed to find out it’s not even been made into an ebook that can be bought. But don’t worry you are missing out on nothing worth your time!
Second, I love a well written, engaging story. One that evokes a certain style or sense with its word choices. What I do not appreciate is a seemingly endless use of ridiculous words, chosen for some unknown reason, that require me to have my dictionary handy. And while yes my Kobo has a dictionary function that is not the point. Stumbling over terminology is no fun. For example some of the worst offenders were: eschatological, solipsism, verpertine, unctuousness, adumbrations, trophallaxis, vinaceous, furfuraceous, and diaphanous. When spell check thinks your words don’t exist then they are probably too archaic.
With those two mini-rants out of the way let’s get into the real depth of what doesn’t work in Red Dust, White Snow.
It was difficult to tell what the real goal was here. We are brought into a complex fantasy world, via an odd device our leading gal uses. Inside this world the descriptions and sense of self is huge. Yet we suspect it’s not quite real early on. I mean it takes a device to generate this world in your dreams. Obviously not a natural phenom.
Yet later on in the story we are treated to the type of ‘twist’ and moral that is most common in short stories. It cheapens the experience and made me wonder why bother with generating all the details and plot of the fantasy world if you planned to unravel most of it anyways? It makes no sense.
It’s as though the author couldn’t decide between writing an impactful, twisted, moral giving short story and an epic fantasy. These two things are so different, and they don’t work when put together. I wished to be reading each of the different types of books as the plot itself is interesting enough (albeit not as original as I might have hoped for). Instead we get this mixture of story that is unsatisfying as it can’t meet the needs of either story format. A huge let down in the end.
There is some brilliance to be pulled from this for a future attempt at writing. But someone needs to sit the author down and really talk about the overall goal. Select what kind of story it is before launching into writing it. If it’s an epic fantasy or sci-folk then it needs more of the linking scenes (otherwise it feels like an outline with only the most important scenes written out so far; leaving the reader to feel disconnected); or if it’s a short story with a distinct moral and lesson then all the superfluous details and extended plot of the fantasy world need to be stripped out. Either way there could be something to be made of here. As it stands right now it’s an amateur debut that needed some serious guidance so it didn’t feel like someone’s first crack at a story they hadn’t decided on the goal of in the first place.
Unfortunately this hot mess is not worth reading, in my opinion. Unless you are an editor or publisher that wants to reach out and help refine it (a lot) into something that has purpose and a clear goal for the reader.
Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.
January 21, 2024
Red Dust, White Snow is a brief and bleak novel that asks: what if capitalism found a way to commodify transmigration into a xianxia universe? The protagonist lives in the very near future, working in a boring admin job at a 3D modelling company and spending her free time scrolling social media and watching TV dramas. Her life appears isolated and monotonous, until she receives a parcel with a mysterious device claiming to transport her to a parallel universe. Unwisely, she does not read the terms and conditions before trying it out. Her dreams gain a narrative akin to xianxia fiction, which of course proves more involving than daily life.
Red Dust, White Snow is elegantly written but depressing. It depicts the crushing tedium and inescapability of surveillance capitalism - or technofeudalism, if you prefer. I was reminded of a nonfiction book I read in 2016, 24/7: Late Capitalism and the Ends of Sleep, specifically this:
Pan Huitang proposes an alarmingly plausible scenario for this changing. It's more dreary than Inception or Sweet Dreams, with no catharsis at all at the end.
Red Dust, White Snow is elegantly written but depressing. It depicts the crushing tedium and inescapability of surveillance capitalism - or technofeudalism, if you prefer. I was reminded of a nonfiction book I read in 2016, 24/7: Late Capitalism and the Ends of Sleep, specifically this:
The huge proportion of our lives that we spend asleep, freed from a morass of simulated needs, subsists as one of the great human affronts to the voraciousness of contemporary capitalism. Sleep is an uncompromising interruption of the theft of time from us by capitalism. Most of the seemingly irreducible necessities of human life - hunger, thirst, sexual desire, and recently the need for friendship - have been remade into commodified or financialised forms. Sleep poses the idea of a human need and interval of time that cannot be colonised and harnessed to the massive engine of profitability. [...] The stunning, inconceivable reality is that nothing of value can be extracted from it.
Pan Huitang proposes an alarmingly plausible scenario for this changing. It's more dreary than Inception or Sweet Dreams, with no catharsis at all at the end.
August 22, 2023
Achtung, ich spoilere wirklich den plot twist, um meine Enttäuschung über das letzte Drittel kundzutun. Wenn du eine allgemeinere Besprechung willst, empfehle ich, bei meiner Besprechung auf youtube vorbeizuschauen, sobald sie online st.
With "Red Dust, White Snow" Pan Huiting wrote a SFF story with an compelling setting. After reading the book the title is even better than before experiencing this novel.
Unfortunately my feelings on this novel are conflicted. A long time I thought this could be a highlight for me because I loved how Huiting describes the two different lives of the protagonist and how they intertwined more and more.
Huiting creates an interesting parallel world with the spirit summoner academy. I loved the lore surrounding the academy and what our protagonist learned, how she learned and how she was able to experience friendship for the first time. The development of the story is compelling and I am able to understand why the protagonist wanted to flee into this other universe in her sleep.
But why, why was ist neccessary to dissolve everything into a game and why was it neccessary that she killed every personal connection with the world of the game? It really broke my heart to read this turn of events. After she stopped logging into the game the narration became dry and - for me - lost its uniqueness.
Our protagonist wasn't a step further in her development than in the beginning. And even though I know that traditional asian narratives don't include the "heroes journey" like western storytelling it was frustrating for me. Because the protagonist had chances to connect to the reality and she chose to ignore them.
So in the end I was dissapointed. But because I loved the feeling of this novel through two quarters of the book I probably will recommend this novel.
With "Red Dust, White Snow" Pan Huiting wrote a SFF story with an compelling setting. After reading the book the title is even better than before experiencing this novel.
Unfortunately my feelings on this novel are conflicted. A long time I thought this could be a highlight for me because I loved how Huiting describes the two different lives of the protagonist and how they intertwined more and more.
Huiting creates an interesting parallel world with the spirit summoner academy. I loved the lore surrounding the academy and what our protagonist learned, how she learned and how she was able to experience friendship for the first time. The development of the story is compelling and I am able to understand why the protagonist wanted to flee into this other universe in her sleep.
But why, why was ist neccessary to dissolve everything into a game and why was it neccessary that she killed every personal connection with the world of the game? It really broke my heart to read this turn of events. After she stopped logging into the game the narration became dry and - for me - lost its uniqueness.
Our protagonist wasn't a step further in her development than in the beginning. And even though I know that traditional asian narratives don't include the "heroes journey" like western storytelling it was frustrating for me. Because the protagonist had chances to connect to the reality and she chose to ignore them.
So in the end I was dissapointed. But because I loved the feeling of this novel through two quarters of the book I probably will recommend this novel.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 3, 2023
DNF @ 35%. At a different time in my life, I might have been more into this. The concept is amazing, but the execution was boring mem to tears. I found myself skimming much of the parallel universe stuff despite loving the idea of it. Also, a lot of the real-world commentary was a bit TOO on the nose for me — it bordered on being a bit corny as a result. I wanted this to work so much but at the moment, it's just not.
March 27, 2023
I really enjoyed this to a point, the mystery and magic of this other world were really intriguing. I didn't like what it turned out to be, which might be more a matter of taste than anything else, but my main problem was that the end felt very unsatisfying. Again, that might be the point, but it didn't work for me.
August 27, 2023
basically a Black Mirror episode set in Singapore. very readable, though I think it could've benefited from being a little longer
November 19, 2023
The cover grabbed my eyes, but then the content didn't grab my mind.
An enjoyable read for a debut novel, but not much more with a not so good execution of the idea behind.
An enjoyable read for a debut novel, but not much more with a not so good execution of the idea behind.
August 16, 2023
This book really reminded me of Black Mirror, it's set in a dystopian future in Singapore that is fascinating and scary and yet so familiar. Our nameless main character receives a mysterious package containing a device that asks if she consents to enter an alternate universe. She says yes, and that night she has an incredibly vivid, memorable, and bizarre dream in a beautiful mythological setting all about an academy, spirits, and conjuring. When she goes to sleep the next night and the following nights, the dream continues. She gets more and more involved in her dream world as time goes on, she makes friends, grows attached, and begins to prioritise this world more than her real life.
The story is told in the third person POV, in a mixture of present and past tense. It’s a short book and one that I read in just a few sittings. I really enjoyed reading about the dreamworlds and her real life - the chapters are so different. In the chapters about her real life, they are all about her job, her difficulties making friends, and descriptions of the super-app and company which has dominated all digital activities (controlling social media, banking, shopping, and news…). In the dream chapters, it is like reading a high fantasy book about mythology, full of action and very vivid and beautiful.
The story is told in the third person POV, in a mixture of present and past tense. It’s a short book and one that I read in just a few sittings. I really enjoyed reading about the dreamworlds and her real life - the chapters are so different. In the chapters about her real life, they are all about her job, her difficulties making friends, and descriptions of the super-app and company which has dominated all digital activities (controlling social media, banking, shopping, and news…). In the dream chapters, it is like reading a high fantasy book about mythology, full of action and very vivid and beautiful.
August 26, 2023
This debut novel is a relatively slight affair about an administrator in an unnamed Singapore drifting into a parallel world while asleep. It is more interested in the philosophical aspects of its setup than the narrative and practical ones and has an issue while ping-ponging between waken and dream life in as much as the former one is set up to be extremely isolated and boring. The point is that her second life (hint) is much more interesting, but that means the daytime "Red Dust" (Chinese synonym for mundane) life ends up reading that way. Huiting fills the daytime segments with philosophical musings about the role of immersive social media channels, ongoing soap-style dramas, and the lead's lack of human contact. The fantastical world set in a magical college where fantastical creatures are summoned seems more interesting, but I think its design tips the wink of what is really going on far earlier than the narrative would like.
Red Dust, White Snow follows in the grand tradition of non-sci-Fi books using rather common and old-hat sci-fi tropes and trying to be profound about it. And it's not terrible at that, its talk of immersive worlds, and social media does resonate, though its fictional mega-corp doesn't quite have an analog, and the item and method in which our heroine is thrust into her parallel life would clearly be actionable. As ever though with things like this, it's the design of the parallel world that is initially beguiling and then you discover what it really is and you wonder if it really is that compelling. The book does however capture a generational malaise, not for nothing the closest analogue I have to it is My Year Of Rest And Relaxation, another book about longing to be asleep but in a very different context.
Red Dust, White Snow follows in the grand tradition of non-sci-Fi books using rather common and old-hat sci-fi tropes and trying to be profound about it. And it's not terrible at that, its talk of immersive worlds, and social media does resonate, though its fictional mega-corp doesn't quite have an analog, and the item and method in which our heroine is thrust into her parallel life would clearly be actionable. As ever though with things like this, it's the design of the parallel world that is initially beguiling and then you discover what it really is and you wonder if it really is that compelling. The book does however capture a generational malaise, not for nothing the closest analogue I have to it is My Year Of Rest And Relaxation, another book about longing to be asleep but in a very different context.
August 24, 2023
A genre-bending high fantasy, sci-fi and horror story with a unique premise but the experimental execution didn't land.
What happens in a world where technology can influence our dreams? Our nameless main character leads a solitary life which rotates around going to work and being home watching TV, eating take out. When a mysterious piece of technology arrives at her door, she finds that her dreams become a high-fantasy adventure with dragons and magic.
A majority of the book flips between our main characters days and dreaming nights as share progresses through her adventure with no real goal or answer to what this technology is. The character isn't interesting or likeable, even in her magical dreamland, which made the story drag.
Around the 80% mark the book reveals what the technology is and why it was created. I won't spoil it, but the last 20% was my favourite and I wish the reveal had happened much earlier, because it's so interesting. I wish the author had spent more time here, as the implications of this technology and it's impact on the world brings up really interesting questions I wish they had explored more.
Thank you to NetGalley and Fairlight Books for this advanced reader copy.
This book is best read at night, right before you fall asleep, but be sure to unplug all of your technology, because it's definitely watching you.
What happens in a world where technology can influence our dreams? Our nameless main character leads a solitary life which rotates around going to work and being home watching TV, eating take out. When a mysterious piece of technology arrives at her door, she finds that her dreams become a high-fantasy adventure with dragons and magic.
A majority of the book flips between our main characters days and dreaming nights as share progresses through her adventure with no real goal or answer to what this technology is. The character isn't interesting or likeable, even in her magical dreamland, which made the story drag.
Around the 80% mark the book reveals what the technology is and why it was created. I won't spoil it, but the last 20% was my favourite and I wish the reveal had happened much earlier, because it's so interesting. I wish the author had spent more time here, as the implications of this technology and it's impact on the world brings up really interesting questions I wish they had explored more.
Thank you to NetGalley and Fairlight Books for this advanced reader copy.
This book is best read at night, right before you fall asleep, but be sure to unplug all of your technology, because it's definitely watching you.
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July 22, 2023Thank you to NetGalley and Fairlight Books for the ARC of this book.
I had a difficult time getting into this one. The writing style was detached but also completely embedded within the main character’s mind. The first few chapters were a bit of a challenge, but once I got used to the flow and the two alternating storylines, it became more interesting.
The takeover of technology in the real world was really interesting to read, and the way that the main character seemed to be living life on a conveyor belt and just being pulled along was both sad and intriguing. Through her, we learn about the way things work and how people have become completely dependent on Empi. I enjoyed the parallel world presented at the Academy of Greatest Learning, but I also feel like I didn’t understand any of it. That being said, this was the storyline that I was most invested in.
This book certainly has a fascinating plot, but the writing style was hard to follow. There were a lot of grossly fascinating descriptions of things, which sometimes pulled me out a little bit. I enjoyed the story but not so much the writing, and I would probably read another book in this world. 3⭐️
I had a difficult time getting into this one. The writing style was detached but also completely embedded within the main character’s mind. The first few chapters were a bit of a challenge, but once I got used to the flow and the two alternating storylines, it became more interesting.
The takeover of technology in the real world was really interesting to read, and the way that the main character seemed to be living life on a conveyor belt and just being pulled along was both sad and intriguing. Through her, we learn about the way things work and how people have become completely dependent on Empi. I enjoyed the parallel world presented at the Academy of Greatest Learning, but I also feel like I didn’t understand any of it. That being said, this was the storyline that I was most invested in.
This book certainly has a fascinating plot, but the writing style was hard to follow. There were a lot of grossly fascinating descriptions of things, which sometimes pulled me out a little bit. I enjoyed the story but not so much the writing, and I would probably read another book in this world. 3⭐️
July 9, 2023
Red Dust, White Snow was a fun, quick read that I finished in a single sitting. The premise was interesting with its blend of isekai fantasy and commentary on the increasing digitalisation of our lives, and I found myself swept up in the story right from the start. I enjoyed the narrative style and the inclusion of folklore and myth references that were already familiar to me from Korean and Chinese fantasy dramas. The only negative for me was that the ending felt mildly unsatisfying, but that aside this was an enjoyable 1 hour-read that was both entertaining and thought provoking, and I am giving it 4.5 stars.
I received this book as a free eBook ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I received this book as a free eBook ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
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May 21, 2024Gave up on this at slightly more than halfway.
Very pretty, in language and imagery both. Trippy and dreamlike, felt almost like a slightly blurry, watercolour painting. Sadly, though, was so meanderingly vague I didn’t have a fucking clue what was actually going on, or if there was any point to the story. Where is the character going? Why? What do they want and why should I care about them getting it?
Answer to all of the above: not a clue. On principle, I won’t give a rating to a book I didn’t finish, but I normally love portal fantasy and this was a real disappointment
Very pretty, in language and imagery both. Trippy and dreamlike, felt almost like a slightly blurry, watercolour painting. Sadly, though, was so meanderingly vague I didn’t have a fucking clue what was actually going on, or if there was any point to the story. Where is the character going? Why? What do they want and why should I care about them getting it?
Answer to all of the above: not a clue. On principle, I won’t give a rating to a book I didn’t finish, but I normally love portal fantasy and this was a real disappointment
March 14, 2023
Just a bit weird.
July 7, 2023
This book tackles a LOT and so kind of falls short. The dream world and the real world were very distinct and the writing made it seem like two entirely different books happening at once, with little of each bleeding into the other until the end. The prose in general was disappointing, poorly structured and spending too much time on random descriptions of things that never mattered or hinting at things it never came back to. There were also a lot of ridiculously complex words that seemed to be included more for vanity purposes than to properly serve the prose, including “suet, “vinaceous,” “furfuraceous” (all in the same paragraph about brushing teeth) and “postprandial somnolence” about indigestion. The sci-fi is interesting and there are definitely insights to be delivered, but the author kind of flits between ideas in a way that makes nothing really stick out as the main theme of the book besides “corporation bad.” As a result of the extremely complex dual storyline and the various “messages,” none of the characters and relationships felt adequately developed. The ending really pulled the story together and was the most cohesive part, but the relationship that was meant to anchor the emotion of the ending had been very poorly developed, so I didn’t really care that much.
July 31, 2025
Red Dust, White Snow is a short but ambitious novel that blends technology with the rich tapestry of Chinese mythology. The main character, is crafted with impressive depth and development for such a short book, making her journey both relatable and engaging. Despite the brevity of the book, her evolution feels authentic as she navigates the challenges brought forth by her dual existence in both the fantastical and the modern technological world.
However, the consistent infusion of Chinese mythology often left me grappling with the descriptions of locations and individuals. This aspect of the storytelling, while undoubtedly rich and immersive for those familiar with the mythos, sometimes felt overwhelming. I found myself lost in the cultural references and unable to fully appreciate the vibrant world the author was attempting to create. As someone unfamiliar with these mythos. I often turned to Alexa for clarification on terminology and context, which disrupted my reading flow.
Additionally, the language employed throughout the book posed its own challenges. The author’s choice of vocabulary sometimes veered into the obscure, making it a struggle to fully grasp the narrative without pausing to decipher meanings. This choice may have elevated the text for some, but for me, it often took me out of the moment and added a layer of difficulty that could have been avoided with more accessible language.
Despite these hurdles, I found the concept of intertwining fantasy and reality through technology to be genuinely compelling. The narrative explores how digital innovation can bridge the gap between the modern world and ancient lore, a theme that resonates in today’s technologically-driven society. The thought-provoking premise kept me intrigued throughout, even if I sometimes felt lost in the execution.
However, the consistent infusion of Chinese mythology often left me grappling with the descriptions of locations and individuals. This aspect of the storytelling, while undoubtedly rich and immersive for those familiar with the mythos, sometimes felt overwhelming. I found myself lost in the cultural references and unable to fully appreciate the vibrant world the author was attempting to create. As someone unfamiliar with these mythos. I often turned to Alexa for clarification on terminology and context, which disrupted my reading flow.
Additionally, the language employed throughout the book posed its own challenges. The author’s choice of vocabulary sometimes veered into the obscure, making it a struggle to fully grasp the narrative without pausing to decipher meanings. This choice may have elevated the text for some, but for me, it often took me out of the moment and added a layer of difficulty that could have been avoided with more accessible language.
Despite these hurdles, I found the concept of intertwining fantasy and reality through technology to be genuinely compelling. The narrative explores how digital innovation can bridge the gap between the modern world and ancient lore, a theme that resonates in today’s technologically-driven society. The thought-provoking premise kept me intrigued throughout, even if I sometimes felt lost in the execution.
February 26, 2024
Black mirror goes to Singapore and meets ancient Chinese spirits and myths.
Red dust, white snow follows an unnamed office worker somewhere in an alternate, but near future in Singapore. She's bored and disillusioned with life and spends most of her time on her phone, watching streams and chatting with strangers online (couldn't be me). Then one day, a mysterious device arrives on her doorstep, promising to take her to an alternate reality. That night, as she sleeps, she visits the Academy of Greatest Learning somewhere in a beautiful mountain landscape, where she begins being taught how to summon spirits.
The book tackles a lot of questions about loneliness, technology, capitalism and our grasp on reality. I l o v e d the exploration of the alternate world and I do wish that had been a bit longer - I think that would have benefited the feeling of the ending of the book as well.
Red dust, white snow follows an unnamed office worker somewhere in an alternate, but near future in Singapore. She's bored and disillusioned with life and spends most of her time on her phone, watching streams and chatting with strangers online (couldn't be me). Then one day, a mysterious device arrives on her doorstep, promising to take her to an alternate reality. That night, as she sleeps, she visits the Academy of Greatest Learning somewhere in a beautiful mountain landscape, where she begins being taught how to summon spirits.
The book tackles a lot of questions about loneliness, technology, capitalism and our grasp on reality. I l o v e d the exploration of the alternate world and I do wish that had been a bit longer - I think that would have benefited the feeling of the ending of the book as well.
August 24, 2023
I received this book via NetGalley from the publisher for my honest review.
What would you do if an unmarked, unassuming package was at your doorstep one evening? Would you open it? Would you take a chance on adventure to get away from your stable, no frills, no surprises life as an admin at a technology company? Would you look up from your constant swiping, liking, purchasing in the online world to take a chance on the unknown?
Our nameless female main character chooses just that, to open the package and explore the contents inside that whisk her away to a completely different world than she's ever known to lead a life bigger and louder than her own.
I really loved the description of this book and the premise, so was very excited to read it. If I'm completely honest I HATED the first 25% of this book, and I'm still not entirely sure if I like this book or not. There are a lot of things about it that just grated on me and perhaps that simply means it isn't for me which is, of course, always possible. Every book isn't for every person! I took extensive notes as I was reading along and it's funny because you can see the exact moment I became wrapped up and invested because the notes stop.
Before I get into what I did not care for about this book, I want to mention the things that I did. As I've already pointed out, the premise was fantastic. New and Avant Garde? Of course not, but in a modern society where our entire lives truly can be managed from our phone, this novel explores what if we abandoned that and went back to a lifestyle where we relied on our hands and mysticism to survive the day to day. The depictions of the parallel universe were mesmerizing and enticing for me as a reader and at points reminded me a lot of Manga and Anime scenes like Inuyasha (which I'm a big fan of). The cultural references here all made sense and taught me a lot as a reader and I was googling a lot to better understand the context I was being given which only added to the ambience of the universe.
Another really interesting and positive aspect of this novel for me was that reflection on the influence and hold social media (the online world as a whole) has on our day to day lives. Our main character barely looks up from the Empi world and what a well named world it is, an empire indeed. We briefly see her grow brazen enough to engage with the world of influencers and try her hand at having a voice, only to back quickly out of that when she begins to feel too odd about it.
What didn't I like and what caused this to be a 3 star read for me? There's a few things that can be lumped together I believe: the writing, the random references and the feeling I was prepping for the SAT. The writing came across cold, stilted and very staccato in that first 25% of the book which was a lot of my issue with it. It somehow came across incredibly dramatic and pick me (see the FIRST page) and yet completely disassociated. Perhaps this was an intentional choice to parallel our office worker going thru the motions and wearing her mask. The random references in the first half ish of the book most notably were around Western Pop Culture that was very niche, or the casual Italian sentence, or hyper specific and graphic anatomy descriptions. The most jarring of these though was the SAT word prep or $5 dollar words scattered throughout the novel. If you have a teen prepping for the SAT or PSAT, this is the book for them. Perhaps the high brow, literary vibe was the intention for the author but having to stop to google these words to understand the context alongside all the cultural words (which I did not mind in the least) made reading the book take a lot longer. I'm not a dumb person, but I'm also certainly not the smartest person and if the goal of this novel was to appeal broadly, I think these aspects I've pointed out will halt that. The irony of the protagonist calling a writer in the story desultory was not lost on me, perhaps again intentional to align with our main characters life at the beginning of the novel.
TLDR; How do I feel about this book? I have no idea! I need to continue to sit with it and ponder. Will I recommend it to you reader or your friends, my friends? Absolutely.
What would you do if an unmarked, unassuming package was at your doorstep one evening? Would you open it? Would you take a chance on adventure to get away from your stable, no frills, no surprises life as an admin at a technology company? Would you look up from your constant swiping, liking, purchasing in the online world to take a chance on the unknown?
Our nameless female main character chooses just that, to open the package and explore the contents inside that whisk her away to a completely different world than she's ever known to lead a life bigger and louder than her own.
I really loved the description of this book and the premise, so was very excited to read it. If I'm completely honest I HATED the first 25% of this book, and I'm still not entirely sure if I like this book or not. There are a lot of things about it that just grated on me and perhaps that simply means it isn't for me which is, of course, always possible. Every book isn't for every person! I took extensive notes as I was reading along and it's funny because you can see the exact moment I became wrapped up and invested because the notes stop.
Before I get into what I did not care for about this book, I want to mention the things that I did. As I've already pointed out, the premise was fantastic. New and Avant Garde? Of course not, but in a modern society where our entire lives truly can be managed from our phone, this novel explores what if we abandoned that and went back to a lifestyle where we relied on our hands and mysticism to survive the day to day. The depictions of the parallel universe were mesmerizing and enticing for me as a reader and at points reminded me a lot of Manga and Anime scenes like Inuyasha (which I'm a big fan of). The cultural references here all made sense and taught me a lot as a reader and I was googling a lot to better understand the context I was being given which only added to the ambience of the universe.
Another really interesting and positive aspect of this novel for me was that reflection on the influence and hold social media (the online world as a whole) has on our day to day lives. Our main character barely looks up from the Empi world and what a well named world it is, an empire indeed. We briefly see her grow brazen enough to engage with the world of influencers and try her hand at having a voice, only to back quickly out of that when she begins to feel too odd about it.
What didn't I like and what caused this to be a 3 star read for me? There's a few things that can be lumped together I believe: the writing, the random references and the feeling I was prepping for the SAT. The writing came across cold, stilted and very staccato in that first 25% of the book which was a lot of my issue with it. It somehow came across incredibly dramatic and pick me (see the FIRST page) and yet completely disassociated. Perhaps this was an intentional choice to parallel our office worker going thru the motions and wearing her mask. The random references in the first half ish of the book most notably were around Western Pop Culture that was very niche, or the casual Italian sentence, or hyper specific and graphic anatomy descriptions. The most jarring of these though was the SAT word prep or $5 dollar words scattered throughout the novel. If you have a teen prepping for the SAT or PSAT, this is the book for them. Perhaps the high brow, literary vibe was the intention for the author but having to stop to google these words to understand the context alongside all the cultural words (which I did not mind in the least) made reading the book take a lot longer. I'm not a dumb person, but I'm also certainly not the smartest person and if the goal of this novel was to appeal broadly, I think these aspects I've pointed out will halt that. The irony of the protagonist calling a writer in the story desultory was not lost on me, perhaps again intentional to align with our main characters life at the beginning of the novel.
TLDR; How do I feel about this book? I have no idea! I need to continue to sit with it and ponder. Will I recommend it to you reader or your friends, my friends? Absolutely.
July 13, 2023
Red Dust, White Snow seeks to tackle the diminishing gap between digital reality and physical reality and the ways that we all but seek out that escape ourselves, and for the most part, it succeeds marvelously. By day, the protagonist is just another office worker, putting more effort into her virtual presence, represented by the all-encompassing Empirean family of apps, seamlessly connecting and offering any convenience a person could want. It's very near-futuristic, with comments of cycles of pandemics, of interconnected social media apps, AI models and CG-created actors. It's all too easy to see how we could get from here to there.
Our protagonist (who does go unnamed, a choice that does heighten the parable-like feeling of the book, but also can be a little jarring as you try to remember if she /has/ a name in the first place) all but eschews making real-life connections in favor of sinking into the stream of digital consciousness. It's less lonely that way, she believes, a theme that comes up against and against as she fails to connect with her co-workers or former classmates, always trying to be an amalgamation of likeable traits instead of a true personality.
In her dreams, however, she begins to travel to another dimension, one full of xianxia tropes and potential she finally feels a chance of fulfilling. As she moves between the two and tries to make sense of her place, the book fills in the background with thoughts on the parasocial relationships between experiences in the digital realm, the shrinking gap between curated experiences and expectations and reality, the unattainability of digital perfection, and what might lie beneath our constant desire to escape into these digital realms. A lot of it made me think of the migration of social spaces into MMORPGs during pandemic lockdown, how many social events had digital parallels and all of the consequences and benefits that came with that.
Thank you to Fairlight Books for an eARC in exchange for an honest review
Our protagonist (who does go unnamed, a choice that does heighten the parable-like feeling of the book, but also can be a little jarring as you try to remember if she /has/ a name in the first place) all but eschews making real-life connections in favor of sinking into the stream of digital consciousness. It's less lonely that way, she believes, a theme that comes up against and against as she fails to connect with her co-workers or former classmates, always trying to be an amalgamation of likeable traits instead of a true personality.
In her dreams, however, she begins to travel to another dimension, one full of xianxia tropes and potential she finally feels a chance of fulfilling. As she moves between the two and tries to make sense of her place, the book fills in the background with thoughts on the parasocial relationships between experiences in the digital realm, the shrinking gap between curated experiences and expectations and reality, the unattainability of digital perfection, and what might lie beneath our constant desire to escape into these digital realms. A lot of it made me think of the migration of social spaces into MMORPGs during pandemic lockdown, how many social events had digital parallels and all of the consequences and benefits that came with that.
Thank you to Fairlight Books for an eARC in exchange for an honest review
July 19, 2023
For a book with such an intriguing premise, Red Dust, White Snow ended up promising more than it gave. While what was there was good, at the end of it all the story felt unconcluded and left me wanting a second act from a story which I doubt will ever give it to me
Featuring:
☆ Anti-capitalism messaging
☆ a xianxia fantasy world
☆ alternate universessssssss
☆ and an open ended story
Red Dust, White Snow, did a lot of things I really enjoyed. For one, I love xianxia, which this story more than delivers upon. The writing style is fresh and compelling, and the author is clearly aware of what genre(s) they’re writing to, balancing the descriptive and fantastical with the mundane and clean. Our main protagonist is fun to read about and utterly relatable, and both worlds we see are different enough from our own that they leave you intrigued and wanting to read more. I enjoyed the anti-capitalist messaging throughout the story, and think Pan did a fantastic job of writing it. And the authors pacing was incredibly well done.
However, while I really enjoyed the story and plot and pacing, the ending of the story and it’s conclusion left much to be wanted. To not spoil much, you find out things at the end of the novel, and instead of concluding any feelings or anything, instead the main character makes a quick decision and we, the reader, have to just read along as she does so. The story somewhat explores the fallout from that, but doesn’t really. Instead just telling us a handful of things and how the MC’s life doesn’t really change. In the end this left me unsatisfied, as the story came to a close and no real emotional or meaningful resolution was came to. The anti-capitalist messaging, while the focus, didn’t have anything summarisation, no declarations of authorial intent were made. The story simply just… ended. And in the end, it left the story feeling meaningless, with the MC ending the same place as she began.
Final Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆☆☆ (7/10)
Featuring:
☆ Anti-capitalism messaging
☆ a xianxia fantasy world
☆ alternate universessssssss
☆ and an open ended story
Red Dust, White Snow, did a lot of things I really enjoyed. For one, I love xianxia, which this story more than delivers upon. The writing style is fresh and compelling, and the author is clearly aware of what genre(s) they’re writing to, balancing the descriptive and fantastical with the mundane and clean. Our main protagonist is fun to read about and utterly relatable, and both worlds we see are different enough from our own that they leave you intrigued and wanting to read more. I enjoyed the anti-capitalist messaging throughout the story, and think Pan did a fantastic job of writing it. And the authors pacing was incredibly well done.
However, while I really enjoyed the story and plot and pacing, the ending of the story and it’s conclusion left much to be wanted. To not spoil much, you find out things at the end of the novel, and instead of concluding any feelings or anything, instead the main character makes a quick decision and we, the reader, have to just read along as she does so. The story somewhat explores the fallout from that, but doesn’t really. Instead just telling us a handful of things and how the MC’s life doesn’t really change. In the end this left me unsatisfied, as the story came to a close and no real emotional or meaningful resolution was came to. The anti-capitalist messaging, while the focus, didn’t have anything summarisation, no declarations of authorial intent were made. The story simply just… ended. And in the end, it left the story feeling meaningless, with the MC ending the same place as she began.
Final Rating: ☆☆☆☆☆☆☆ (7/10)
August 4, 2023
Red Dust, White Snow by Pan Huiting is a book that gently ensnared me and held me in its grip until the very last word. My entrance into its world was as unexpected as the protagonist's voyage into her dream universe, and I found myself wholly absorbed from the start.
it felt like watching the early days of Black Mirror, before the show went... anyway. This book paints a vivid picture of a very near future that's both enthralling and unsettling. Located in Singapore (I might not have enough context clues to be sure) it offers a universe where a mega app holds sway over daily life. Through the fascinating blend of (I believe isekai?) fantasy and a keen observation on our increasingly digitized existence, I felt a connection to the story and its themes.
The portrayal of loneliness struck me as particularly poignant. The main character's life seems to be on an unchangeable track, a continuous loop with no exits. The mundane reality and the isolation she experiences at work were rendered with such clarity that it was hard not to empathize with her longing for something more. She is what really drew me into the novel: I just wanted to be her friend. Her nightly escapes to a magical mountaintop school, filled with friendships and the thrill of summoning spirits, became a place of refuge, not only for her but also for me as a reader.
What remains with me the most, though, is the ending. Without revealing too much, the emotional punch it delivered was unique and lingering. It wasn't the sudden shock of a tragedy but a gradual realization, akin to the slow fading of a once-vibrant friendship. A chill that descends slowly but is felt long after.
Red Dust, White Snow is more than just a read; it's an experience. It's a quiet contemplation on what we seek, of what connection is in the digital age. How can we be lonely when we're constantly bombarded with social interactions? If you allow yourself to be drawn into its world, it might just stay with you, as it has with me, for a long time to come.
it felt like watching the early days of Black Mirror, before the show went... anyway. This book paints a vivid picture of a very near future that's both enthralling and unsettling. Located in Singapore (I might not have enough context clues to be sure) it offers a universe where a mega app holds sway over daily life. Through the fascinating blend of (I believe isekai?) fantasy and a keen observation on our increasingly digitized existence, I felt a connection to the story and its themes.
The portrayal of loneliness struck me as particularly poignant. The main character's life seems to be on an unchangeable track, a continuous loop with no exits. The mundane reality and the isolation she experiences at work were rendered with such clarity that it was hard not to empathize with her longing for something more. She is what really drew me into the novel: I just wanted to be her friend. Her nightly escapes to a magical mountaintop school, filled with friendships and the thrill of summoning spirits, became a place of refuge, not only for her but also for me as a reader.
What remains with me the most, though, is the ending. Without revealing too much, the emotional punch it delivered was unique and lingering. It wasn't the sudden shock of a tragedy but a gradual realization, akin to the slow fading of a once-vibrant friendship. A chill that descends slowly but is felt long after.
Red Dust, White Snow is more than just a read; it's an experience. It's a quiet contemplation on what we seek, of what connection is in the digital age. How can we be lonely when we're constantly bombarded with social interactions? If you allow yourself to be drawn into its world, it might just stay with you, as it has with me, for a long time to come.
July 8, 2023
I was really drawn to the description of this book, it had that Black Mirror style / Everything Everywhere all at Once feeling.
An office worker (we don't actually get to know her name) receives an unknown gift, signs an unknown contract and suddenly she has a dream that continues, night after night, like a story, or, as she felt, an alternate reality.
She lives in a time where a technology company seems to control more than just social media, it looks like they're controlling the banks, food, utilities and it seems they are just getting bigger and stronger.
I really enjoyed the book, the switching between reality and the dream world. I loved the way the reality felt claustrophobic, controlled and dirty and the dream world so spacious, clean and fresh.
I enjoyed the idea that the main protagonist was learning more from the alternate world and using that confidence in the real world. That felt like a good way to build her character.
This was quite a short book and I felt like there was room to develop more of the characters and I felt the story could have had a better ending, for me. I just didn't feel satisfied, especially as 75% of the book I really thought was going to go somewhere different.
The main protagonist was not a likeable person though - I didn't want her to necessarily win. I felt like she had many character flaws and I didn't really cheer her on. I think I have come to the conclusion I want my main character to win/succeed and I wasn't really bothered if she did or didn't.
All in all, for a debut novel, I thought this was good and I think that I would definitely read more by this author. I really enjoyed the world descriptions and I would definitely now consider reading more books that have that alternative reality / fantasy world in them.
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.
An office worker (we don't actually get to know her name) receives an unknown gift, signs an unknown contract and suddenly she has a dream that continues, night after night, like a story, or, as she felt, an alternate reality.
She lives in a time where a technology company seems to control more than just social media, it looks like they're controlling the banks, food, utilities and it seems they are just getting bigger and stronger.
I really enjoyed the book, the switching between reality and the dream world. I loved the way the reality felt claustrophobic, controlled and dirty and the dream world so spacious, clean and fresh.
I enjoyed the idea that the main protagonist was learning more from the alternate world and using that confidence in the real world. That felt like a good way to build her character.
This was quite a short book and I felt like there was room to develop more of the characters and I felt the story could have had a better ending, for me. I just didn't feel satisfied, especially as 75% of the book I really thought was going to go somewhere different.
The main protagonist was not a likeable person though - I didn't want her to necessarily win. I felt like she had many character flaws and I didn't really cheer her on. I think I have come to the conclusion I want my main character to win/succeed and I wasn't really bothered if she did or didn't.
All in all, for a debut novel, I thought this was good and I think that I would definitely read more by this author. I really enjoyed the world descriptions and I would definitely now consider reading more books that have that alternative reality / fantasy world in them.
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.
July 24, 2023
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me of an eARC of this book, however, all thoughts and opinions are my own.
I was initially attracted by the beautiful cover of this book, which then sucked me in with the description. I thought it would be an interesting and quirky short novel, which it is, but I was not expecting the writing. The writing makes me feel like the author was taking the GRE and decided that she needed to study the vocabulary and decided the best way to do that would be to use them in sentences to write a book. Then when finished, she went, "Hey, this isn't bad. I'll get this published." And that is how this book came to be. The concepts and the world-building are interesting, but I found the writing to be fairly insufferable. My dictionary on my kindle got a good workout. Postprandial somnolence? Oneiric? I'm all for learning new words, but having it be a somewhat constant thing really took me out of the reading experience and honestly, I don't feel like these words really provided the writing with any extra beauty, meaning, or flow.
I really wish I would have liked the writing more because I find the ideas in here so interesting. It talks about virtual worlds vs. reality, the evilness of capitalism, digitizing actors for use after their death. I don't disagree with a lot of the ideas in here. And I was really interested in the sort of isekai section, except for the part that they didn't have quotations marks for speech.
Overall, this was a disappointment for me. I learned some new words. The later ones that were rage inducing, because I was just tired of stopping at that point, will probably stick with me. So, thanks for that.
I was initially attracted by the beautiful cover of this book, which then sucked me in with the description. I thought it would be an interesting and quirky short novel, which it is, but I was not expecting the writing. The writing makes me feel like the author was taking the GRE and decided that she needed to study the vocabulary and decided the best way to do that would be to use them in sentences to write a book. Then when finished, she went, "Hey, this isn't bad. I'll get this published." And that is how this book came to be. The concepts and the world-building are interesting, but I found the writing to be fairly insufferable. My dictionary on my kindle got a good workout. Postprandial somnolence? Oneiric? I'm all for learning new words, but having it be a somewhat constant thing really took me out of the reading experience and honestly, I don't feel like these words really provided the writing with any extra beauty, meaning, or flow.
I really wish I would have liked the writing more because I find the ideas in here so interesting. It talks about virtual worlds vs. reality, the evilness of capitalism, digitizing actors for use after their death. I don't disagree with a lot of the ideas in here. And I was really interested in the sort of isekai section, except for the part that they didn't have quotations marks for speech.
Overall, this was a disappointment for me. I learned some new words. The later ones that were rage inducing, because I was just tired of stopping at that point, will probably stick with me. So, thanks for that.
Read
August 3, 2023Red Dust, White Snow sounds so interesting in theory—its themes current, its language occasionally beautiful—but its execution left much to be desired. It follows a woman in her late thirties who is given the chance to enter a parallel world, and then forced to reckon with the consequences of an increasingly collapsing boundary between the physical and the virtual spaces she inhabits.
The novel starts in media res, where action is the monotonous day to day of the protagonist’s life. The digital world she’s invited into (by means of a nondescript package) is meant to be a contrast to this, and while this seems compelling as a narrative technique, the language doesn’t seem to support contrast. There’s not enough of a shift to demarcate the worlds, given that the perspective—while in the third-person—seems firmly in the protagonist’s. When these lines are blurred, it’s almost anticlimactic.
In part, because the protagonist is already at a remove, she seemed more like a mouthpiece for an idea or an experience rather than a character. Or, when the story takes place in the parallel space, like she’s a playable character instead of one with any real agency. While this would have worked to the novel’s advantage if it were rendered more effectively, the way it plays out just enforces distance. Reading this felt like a chore as a result, despite my initial interest.
All in all, a very nice concept that felt underdeveloped. Star ratings don't benefit my reading process personally so I'd be doing it a disservice to submit my rating here, but if I did, three stars with one specifically for the language sans context, and its interrogation of what it means to be a woman in this milieu.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for a review copy!
The novel starts in media res, where action is the monotonous day to day of the protagonist’s life. The digital world she’s invited into (by means of a nondescript package) is meant to be a contrast to this, and while this seems compelling as a narrative technique, the language doesn’t seem to support contrast. There’s not enough of a shift to demarcate the worlds, given that the perspective—while in the third-person—seems firmly in the protagonist’s. When these lines are blurred, it’s almost anticlimactic.
In part, because the protagonist is already at a remove, she seemed more like a mouthpiece for an idea or an experience rather than a character. Or, when the story takes place in the parallel space, like she’s a playable character instead of one with any real agency. While this would have worked to the novel’s advantage if it were rendered more effectively, the way it plays out just enforces distance. Reading this felt like a chore as a result, despite my initial interest.
All in all, a very nice concept that felt underdeveloped. Star ratings don't benefit my reading process personally so I'd be doing it a disservice to submit my rating here, but if I did, three stars with one specifically for the language sans context, and its interrogation of what it means to be a woman in this milieu.
Many thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for a review copy!
July 10, 2023
Thanks to NetGalley, Pan Huiting, and Fairlight books for an ARC!
Since Red Dust, White Snow was my first ARC ever from NetGalley, I was hoping to like it a lot more than I did. I absolutely loved the premise and the thought behind the world Huiting created. Unfortunately there were several problems with the book that I just couldn't get past. The author chose to not name the main character, and to refer to her simply as "she" throughout the book. In addition, the author chose to mostly (but not entirely) forgo the use of quotation marks. These two things combined made for a confusing reading experience, particularly when the main character was talking to any female character. I do appreciate what the author was trying to do- on her website she writes:
"My work is about the creation of an alternative viewing experience – one that is reconstructed viscerally, rather than understood in a detached, purely visual way. Traditional boundaries separating viewer and object are stripped away, allowing for a more intimate viewing experience that is felt directly in the viewer’s body."
Unfortunately Huiting's choices confused me, rather than immersing me in her world. I think I would have appreciated the choice to not name the main character had the book been in first person. Grammatically that would have been a lot clearer. This would have also allowed us to see the world more through the eyes of the main character, which would have helped the worldbuilding feel more like showing and less like telling.
Overall, though I appreciate the premise, I did not enjoy this book. I'm sure that there will be many people that like it, but it wasn't for me.
Since Red Dust, White Snow was my first ARC ever from NetGalley, I was hoping to like it a lot more than I did. I absolutely loved the premise and the thought behind the world Huiting created. Unfortunately there were several problems with the book that I just couldn't get past. The author chose to not name the main character, and to refer to her simply as "she" throughout the book. In addition, the author chose to mostly (but not entirely) forgo the use of quotation marks. These two things combined made for a confusing reading experience, particularly when the main character was talking to any female character. I do appreciate what the author was trying to do- on her website she writes:
"My work is about the creation of an alternative viewing experience – one that is reconstructed viscerally, rather than understood in a detached, purely visual way. Traditional boundaries separating viewer and object are stripped away, allowing for a more intimate viewing experience that is felt directly in the viewer’s body."
Unfortunately Huiting's choices confused me, rather than immersing me in her world. I think I would have appreciated the choice to not name the main character had the book been in first person. Grammatically that would have been a lot clearer. This would have also allowed us to see the world more through the eyes of the main character, which would have helped the worldbuilding feel more like showing and less like telling.
Overall, though I appreciate the premise, I did not enjoy this book. I'm sure that there will be many people that like it, but it wasn't for me.
didn-t-finish
September 24, 2023Thank you to Netgalley and to the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Unfortunately I had to DNF this at 40%. From the first page, the writing style was very stilted and unnatural while also including a lot of unusual words that required me to look up their definitions. It was almost like this book (set in Singapore) had been the victim of a bad translator, but I don’t see a translator credited so I assume that this is just how the author intended. Overall the writing is very impersonal, telling us what the unnamed main character is doing throughout her day without much dialogue. (When there is dialogue, it is without quotation marks.) I assume the writing style is supposed to be a reflection of the main character, because she is characterized as an outsider who lacks social skills.
There is a plot but the book seems to be more focused on exploring philosophical ideas posed by the main character’s situation. She is switching back and forth between her two “realities”, and obviously the reality set in ancient Japan is implied to be more interesting than her original reality. In the “real world” reality, an app called Empis has pervaded most aspects of daily life and people are so obsessed with a drama tv show that it’s known as a “pandemic”. It was kind of Black-Mirror-ish but it was too on the nose.
I did prefer to read the chapters set at the Japanese academy, but the over explanation of Japanese names (Why were the characters known as their names’ English translations?) and magical lore got to be boring.
Maybe there is someone out there who will like this, if they like philosophy and ancient Japanese culture/Japanese fantasy.
Unfortunately I had to DNF this at 40%. From the first page, the writing style was very stilted and unnatural while also including a lot of unusual words that required me to look up their definitions. It was almost like this book (set in Singapore) had been the victim of a bad translator, but I don’t see a translator credited so I assume that this is just how the author intended. Overall the writing is very impersonal, telling us what the unnamed main character is doing throughout her day without much dialogue. (When there is dialogue, it is without quotation marks.) I assume the writing style is supposed to be a reflection of the main character, because she is characterized as an outsider who lacks social skills.
There is a plot but the book seems to be more focused on exploring philosophical ideas posed by the main character’s situation. She is switching back and forth between her two “realities”, and obviously the reality set in ancient Japan is implied to be more interesting than her original reality. In the “real world” reality, an app called Empis has pervaded most aspects of daily life and people are so obsessed with a drama tv show that it’s known as a “pandemic”. It was kind of Black-Mirror-ish but it was too on the nose.
I did prefer to read the chapters set at the Japanese academy, but the over explanation of Japanese names (Why were the characters known as their names’ English translations?) and magical lore got to be boring.
Maybe there is someone out there who will like this, if they like philosophy and ancient Japanese culture/Japanese fantasy.
August 2, 2023
(2.5)
"Red Dust, White Snow" is an intriguing concept for a story. It serves as a critique of capitalism, data ownership, and exploitation. The storyline is very reminiscent of the TV series, Black Mirror. It had an haunting quality which was at times subtly satirical and left me questioning whether this satire was actually intentional or not.
The book revolves around a protagonist who receives a mystery box allowing her to travel to a parallel, fantasy-like world while she sleeps. It switches between her lonely experiences in her real life and her action-filled adventures in the hyper-real fantasy world. These two storylines run in parallel, with minimal cross-over for most of the book but a substantial amount of time was spent in the fantasy world, on quests. As a result, this book may appeal more to readers of high fantasy than science fiction.
I found the writing style very challenging to get into, making it difficult to fully immerse myself in what was foundationally a great story. The use of unusual language was overt, as if someone had relied heavily on a thesaurus to unnecessarily complicate simple points. This contrasted with some passages that felt a bit underwritten and unfinished. Nevertheless, there were moments in the book that truly hooked me to the page. Regrettably, these moments were few and far between. The author shows promise, but I hope their style will be refined in their next work.
Overall, I believe this is a solid concept, but the execution left me wanting more.
"Red Dust, White Snow" is an intriguing concept for a story. It serves as a critique of capitalism, data ownership, and exploitation. The storyline is very reminiscent of the TV series, Black Mirror. It had an haunting quality which was at times subtly satirical and left me questioning whether this satire was actually intentional or not.
The book revolves around a protagonist who receives a mystery box allowing her to travel to a parallel, fantasy-like world while she sleeps. It switches between her lonely experiences in her real life and her action-filled adventures in the hyper-real fantasy world. These two storylines run in parallel, with minimal cross-over for most of the book but a substantial amount of time was spent in the fantasy world, on quests. As a result, this book may appeal more to readers of high fantasy than science fiction.
I found the writing style very challenging to get into, making it difficult to fully immerse myself in what was foundationally a great story. The use of unusual language was overt, as if someone had relied heavily on a thesaurus to unnecessarily complicate simple points. This contrasted with some passages that felt a bit underwritten and unfinished. Nevertheless, there were moments in the book that truly hooked me to the page. Regrettably, these moments were few and far between. The author shows promise, but I hope their style will be refined in their next work.
Overall, I believe this is a solid concept, but the execution left me wanting more.
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