Octavio Cordova Cordova itibaren 2641 Greis, Avusturya
I kept getting ugly looks every time I re-checked Reamde from the library. "I am going to finish it, I swear". She would give me weird looks, pointing out I was reading a book with the awkward misspelling of Read Me. I normally would have stuck it out. I really like Neal Stephenson's novels, but lately I find that they just go on and on and on (like the Baroque Cycle). This one held a lot of promise for me, and I enjoyed the detail and background, the innovative ideas, and the multitudes of characters, but 500 pages into it, he just keeps throwing in new main characters, and rushing in to fill in their background, leaving the novel to weave and wander, building like a snow ball rolling aimlessly down a hill. While, I think if I had more time, and more staying power I would have finished the novel and likely given it a higher rating, maybe I just don't have the time to dedicate myself to long fictional books, like I use to, or maybe its that this book would have been stronger if it was not so long, and focused on a single idea or two to execute. I finally returned the book to the library, paid my late fees, and gave the library a shrug. I tried.
I cant get into it yet. However thats how it was when I started the Other Boleyn Girl so I have high hopes. After this I will read the Queens Fool which I have been told is awesome!
Huh. I read the advanced readers' copy, and am surprised to see that the love interest dude's name changed. Anyway. I have a major bone to pick with authors that protect their twist so much that they do not drop any meaningful hints until *bam* you are hit in the face with the twist. Then, in retrospect, you can say "ahhhh, I see what that sort of weird but not really thing from earlier was about" The first twist, I felt kind of cheated. The second twist I actually managed to see coming. It felt like for the first three quarters of this book nothing happened. And then when things started happening, they happened really quickly and got resolved much too neatly. In fact, I'm still not entirely sure why the action ended the way it did, it felt like the author was too close to a page number maximum and had to wrap things up super fast. I never really felt much chemistry from the two main characters, and in a book whose main plot is the supposed chemistry, that's probably not a good thing. Still, I think Claudia Gray shows some promise, and I wonder if she gets some more writing practice under her belt she may become quite good. She has a better ear for dialogue than many teen fiction writers I've read.
The sole piece of fiction adds an intriguing and vital piece to this collection of essays. It's a well written story and ties in well. The entire book was great!