Jonathan

I found this book rather dull. I suspect I missed the point of it and, if I'd understood what it was about I could have enjoyed it more. But I didn't, so I didn't.

The central character is the author of romantic fiction who, ironically, is unable to find any romance herself. She's trapped in an affair with a married man, ends up being effectively exiled to this hotel on the lake by friends because of an event (spoilers - you'll find out), meets another man (he hardly figures at all really) and then something else happens... And then it's over.

It's probably a very, very clever book. It won the Booker Prize in 1984 or something. But it just went over my head, I'm afraid. However, given the number of glowing reviews it's one of those that you should probably try yourself. Maybe you'll love it. I'm glad I read it and gave it a go. But it's not quite my cup of tea.

On the whole I enjoyed this but as others have said, it suffers from too much happening - and nothing happening - and far too many characters who I can't name, can't remember, and don't care enough about that when (spoilers) one of them dies, it really doesn't matter to me.
The opening chapters are quite exciting, but then the pace drops significantly. It picks up at the end with a space battle but again, characters are named, then killed or promoted or saved and I don't know who's who.
This is the fate of a novel that's supposed to start a series but it needn't be like that - I remember when the original Thrawn trilogy came out. One ‘bad guy' there versus several here.
So, not badly written, just badly conceived.

I not know why I like these books. They're not particularly well written, overly complex, and none of the characters are that likeable. They rely heavily on exposition with two characters telling each other major bits of backstory, often second hand so it's not even the character concerned who's revealing something of importance. Often I found myself wondering how someone knew such detail about events they didn't even witness.
The author writes similarly to Larsson but manages to avoid some of his more irritating traits - no long passages describing which processor powers anyone's laptop here. There are some oddities: our main character is told to ditch his iPhone for an Android phone to avoid NSA hacking it - the book came out just as Apple were fighting the FBI over the right to prevent them having a back door and I can't help feeling Larsson would have devoted a few thousand words to a topic like that. Instead it feels like the author did a quick read of Wikipedia and grabbed some terms he doesn't entirely understand. There is a long exposition on autism which does read like a first year undergraduate literature review and the child's savant status is worryingly convenient.
As with the other books I found it difficult to keep track of who was who, or indeed to care who was who - there's an old Jewish detective who's lost his faith but finds love at the end (not really a spoiler) and it's difficult to care.
The story is a lot simpler than other books and maybe too simple. I was surprised that the whole thing seemed to end with a lot of book still to go - I was expecting a third act that didn't happen.
But in the end, and I think this is why I like these books (even if I don't love them), it was a good distraction and an interlude between ‘heavier' books.

I'm not familiar with the St Mary's books (you don't have to be but I suspect it would help) so o came to this with no expectations.
I enjoyed it but was often frustrated by aspects such as its length (there's a lot of editing potential here) and the sudden change in plot direction that wasn't particularly well foreshadowed.
There's a lot of confusion here - characters are referred to by their forename and surname interchangeably which meant I missed a few important details, particularly if the author assumed you'd read previous books.
The author's use of imperial measurements is also irritating. We've been metric for 50 years - is the suggestion that the UK reverts to feet and inches in the future?
There's also a significant plot hole in that time travel is ignored at important points. For example, why do the time police arrive after the crime has been committed instead of before it? Wouldn't that be more useful?
At times I felt I was reading substandard Douglas Adams or Terry Pratchett. That said, overall it was enjoyable and I'm tempted to read the next books or delve in to St Mary's.

God, what a depressing book. None of the characters are likeable, I couldn't find myself caring about anyone and the end was just... nothing.
I really can't see why this has been the hit it has been - maybe I'm missing something?
The central character isn't redeemed, her flaws aren't overcome, she doesn't make a discovery through intelligence, just by, well, I don't want to give it away.
It's dull. That's the best I can say about it.

Very funny book - highly recommended. Also educational - the things I learned about loft insulation and the motorway network in the south East of England, as well as Alan's ratings of the several London airports, will stay with me for a long time.

Contains spoilers for the movie Alpha Papa though, so watch that first. It's also very funny.

Excellent insight in to life growing up in South Africa before and after Apartheid. Moving and funny at the same time - well written with a self-deprecating manner. Loved reading this.

I really didn't enjoy this, which is why it took so long for me to finish - nowhere near as good as The City of Death, it tries to hard to be funny and falls far short. The last quarter of the book is better than the rest, but it's a low bar.
The end of the book contains some interesting information about the Douglas Adams archive in Cambridge, though, and the bits that weren't in the TV version show Adams's creative process in an interesting light.