Michael Best
Possibly a 2.5.
Though I generally love Dickens, I did find this overlong for the actual tale, and very heavy handed - very ‘black and white' characters.
Much as with Hard Times, he seemed to cudgel me with his opinions.
DNF - At 65% I concluded that life is too short to waste on a writer's failed experiment.
I need to learn to arrive at these conclusions sooner.
The story started off so well but, for me, increasingly lost impact as Chilli became Mr Nice Guy.
An unexplained happening means a sleepless end for most of humanity, a blissful dream for some and, perhaps, a new generation of mute pacifists.
A people hating, word-loving etymologist in a failing relationship becomes a kind of prophet, but he is not a prophet just a very naughty boy.
Codswallop!
This is a DNF for me. I have to give up on it because there is no point in having a current read which one is finding any old reason to avoid picking up to read.
The concept seemed interesting, but after several hundred pages I am entirely uninvolved. That it has taken me over a week to read just a few hundred pages says it all. Clearly, it is not for me.
More a collection of short stories than a novel. Having no nautical knowledge, I had to seek out a decent online diagram of a 3 masted frigate in order to gain some understanding of the many terms used.
Gosh, I do wish I could read in Japanese because this seemed like quite an American translation. Despite that, I thoroughly enjoyed this story of the production of a dictionary and so much more.
I think 2.5 would be more accurate. The island tale was interesting. The violent turn felt wrong. The ending - too drawn out and certainly detracted from my earlier enjoyment of the book.
My first and, quite possibly, my last Crichton book.
Despite it being a story of almost non stop peril - the central characters going from one life threatening scene to the next - I found the book incredibly boring and far too long.
A somewhat frustrating read. Parts of this really grabbed but, when I finished, I felt a sense of disappointment. I don't think the pseudo “Canterbury Tales”, 6 individual tales structure was entirely successful, with a mix of quality between the various tales.
For a relatively short book, progress through it seemed to take a long time.
Much of the book I liked but it left me feeling a little disappointed.
The 1930's Nazi Germany setting is interesting, the Chandleresque dialogue a bit overdone for my taste.
An enjoyable, easy, though quite long read.
The book is 150 years old, so I have to live with Trollope's prejudices if I wish to enjoy his writing.
I did feel the conclusions to the George and Burgo storylines were a little awkward.
Probably a 3.5. It is a short book. I enjoyed it, though I already knew the tale. Something in the telling held me back from really loving the book. Certainly, I have read more engrossing telling of historical events.
I know so many regard this as Hardy's best novel, but not for me. It is not the bleakness, which I rather revel in, but the increasingly strained twists in the plot which rather annoyed me. (His superficial consideration of how Elizabeth-Jane is affected by all the deceit surprised me).
I was hoping for something well written and thought provoking, however this just reads like an average YAF book but with sex scenes and swearing. I really did not enjoy it.
I loved the writing but the story left me unmoved, unconcerned and, perhaps, even uninterested.
Too long? Perhaps. However, a thoroughly enjoyable read with a tremendous sense of the air of fear and persecution at the end of Henry VIII's reign.
An adventure/thriller where the pace builds slowly to a break-neck finish. I will forgive him the ending.
It seemed desperate to make the story credible but, as a consequence, became bogged down in Martian geography and geology at times. The pacing was very uneven.
2.5 really.
The unsettling tension created in the first 1/3 of the book rather dissipated thereafter, for me, and the end was relief from a touch of boredom not suspense.
Perhaps it is the passage of time, perhaps that I am not American but this book failed to draw me in. I enjoyed reading it, but I felt a little removed from everything.