Andrew
I was enthusiastic for the first third of the book, by half way through however, it started to feel heavy. It seemed to dwell more in the older time period, and much of that was a sappy romance between Mireille and Tallyrand. There is adventure here, but also a lot of fantasy, romance. It did not hold as much mystery or suspense for me. The secret contained in the Montglane service felt forced and over the top.
The Repairman Jack character is a cross between Indiana Jones and Robert McCall (from the 1980 television “The Equalizer” with Edward Woodward). I enjoyed the first three quarters of this book. It had good pace, adventure, and plot development that crossed generations going back to the British colonies in India. However, I was very disappointed how the last quarter turned into a bad scary monster story.
45% though I still didn't feel like I really knew either of the 2 main characters beyond a minimal level.
Loved the series, great characters and good humor. Book 3 was a good conclusion, but it a bit short. Really only 200 pages of new material here, rather lengthy intro of 50 pages was largely a review of the first two books. Would have liked more than one chapter with the two (kind of) AI's Jiyi and Chenevert getting to know each other.
Does Kiva Lagos remind anyone else of Ro Laren from STTNG a little?
Shorter novella unlike her other books that were each very good. Read 33% and this wasn't giving much focus to a plot or the characters.
Gave up after chap 19. Mystery crime novels can be good, but enough with the abducted woman story line.
Stopped after Ch 4, 20% was bored.
I didn't find any of the characters interesting and feel like I should by 20%.
Several unexpected things happening but no real mystery or tension.
They way this company plans and runs the expedition often left me asking why? Kind of like decisions from the higher ups at my day job.
I enjoyed this quite a bit. There was extensive character development, and the story moves along (most of the time). I would classify it as more of a fantasy with strong romance tones. I more of a mystery buff and this had some of that, and the conclusion was satisfying, but left a number of unanswered questions.
I haven't read any Murakami before. I was cautious about embarking upon this due to it's length, but overall it didn't bother me in this case.
The setup was interesting enough. Building that was enough for a while. But after that was established, there's not much character development going on here. The sentient spiders on the new world are more interesting than the humans. Lots of conflict & fighting with both the humans and the spiders. Started wondering if this was worth sticking with at 20%, gave up at 33%.
I like the style of writing but couldn't tolerate the slow pace. A third of the way through this I just couldn't continue.
I got half way through this, and for most of that enjoyed it. But as I approached half way, it just became so boring and repetitive. Soooo much of the story is fluff that is repeated too often and does not develop the story.
Every few paragraphs talks about one or more of the following:
1. Which cocktail they're drinking
2. What the dog is doing
3. Current setting of Tesla's DBPS device (deep brain pain suppressor)
Extremely rare for me to bail that far into the book.
This was the weakest of the 3 books, but in the end there was a mind bending payoff.
Other than the first few chapters setting the stage, the rest of the first half was disappointing and hard to read. What a slog to read a text version of Jurassic park. Finally that ended and we returned to learn about more about the grid. I read the first part of the reveal one evening, and was troubled to make sense of it. Feared it was going to be one of those sci-fi stories that pushed too far and had a ridiculous ending. I had to make a few notes and think about what I had read and was finally able to get an understanding of it. Was able to start the next read with optimism for the finish. What a whirlwind. Amazing trio of books. I will read more of AG again some day, but need a breather after this with something less intense.
The extended epilogue online seemed over the top. Don't bother, wish I would have skipped that.
I had forgotten I tried to read this until I stumbled across Lori's review, which was identical with my experience
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6050831
Ch 7
Getting bored for a few chapters now. Beginning to wonder if I will finish this. Lots of detail (too much) about who is in Hazel's family and small details about their person. Who cares? Is there a story here? Will ONE of these boring details turn into foreshadow of an important plot twist? We finally learned about the hidden clue in the letter, but then that also fizzled out. Ch 10 stopped
I really like a couple of Reverte's earlier novels (Flanders/Dumas). However POB moved so very slowly I just couldn't get into it. He does still paint such intricate & detailed scenes like few other authors can, but and I gave up about half way through.
This sounded so promising! Sadly, I found it to be a meandering pretentious mess with some impressively irritating characters and endless atmospheric scenes that went nowhere.
Had read book #1 some time ago. Enjoyed this quite a bit. Was a little disappointed in how quickly and cleanly the story ended, but will certainly read more about the commissario.
The first half was a good detective story. But the later was a far fetched conspiracy. Was unsatisfied at the finish. Conspiracy needed better development, or at least more indicators earlier in the story so I could have bailed before getting invested.
Liked the tvmovie. Got about 100 pages into this, but it just moved very slow. Yes, the tvmovie was slow too, but...
