The Night Masquerade (Binti, #3)

A somewhat sprawling conclusion to an unusual trilogy. I liked the novelty of the writing, the unusual characters, the odd plot structure, the SF universe that feels different from so many other SF universes. But also these stories seemed awfully unruly, particularly this last one, not quite tamed into a shape that made for a solid and compelling story. That may just be me though, and it's sort of a weird criticism. But I found myself getting impatient at times in this third book as the author kept bringing in ideas. Also guilty of a very annoying author sin, dead characters that come back to life. Doing that robs the writing of meaning and consequences. At most you get to do it once. It was OK for me with Binti since it's part of her apotheosis, but killing and then bringing her family back was too much of an indulgence.. Also strange how the University was treated as such an important setting, then completely forgotten, then brought back in the end. Still the writing is fresh and interesting and I liked the development of Binti's character.

(I feel like I should clarify my scores are generally 1 star lower than anyone else's. The tooltip says 3 stars is "I liked it"; 4 is "really liked it". For me it's a 3.)