Aleks
Maybe my number one pet peeve is a writer who refuses to let you put two and two together, and overexplains even the most obvious plot points. This book has an instance of that within the first like 25 pages. Instant DNF. Life's too short. My two brain cells deserve respect.
Maybe my number one pet peeve is a writer who refuses to let you put two and two together, and overexplains even the most obvious plot points. This book has an instance of that within the first like 25 pages. Instant DNF. Life's too short. My two brain cells deserve respect.
This is my second time trying to read this. I am a Gene Wolfe STAN but this one, I just cannot. My eyes slide off the page. I don't know what it is. I'll probably try again because I do really want to push through and finish Long Sun... but good lord.
This is my second time trying to read this. I am a Gene Wolfe STAN but this one, I just cannot. My eyes slide off the page. I don't know what it is. I'll probably try again because I do really want to push through and finish Long Sun... but good lord.
A lush, enthralling world; gorgeous prose; all kinda wasted in service of two pretty bland and uninteresting main characters. That being said, Barker is so good that I would still rather read something like this than most other fantasies. Struck throughout by how queer this narrative is and how good it feels to read something that's this striking and different in that way. Will have to check out some of Barker's other books.
A lush, enthralling world; gorgeous prose; all kinda wasted in service of two pretty bland and uninteresting main characters. That being said, Barker is so good that I would still rather read something like this than most other fantasies. Struck throughout by how queer this narrative is and how good it feels to read something that's this striking and different in that way. Will have to check out some of Barker's other books.
Maybe a perfect book? Love the way the narrative voice both enhances our understanding of the chilly, detached protagonist and contrasts the insane world she's in. Love the narrative restraint-- a tight 200 pages, we're in and out. Not a sentence wasted. Judicious!!
Maybe a perfect book? Love the way the narrative voice both enhances our understanding of the chilly, detached protagonist and contrasts the insane world she's in. Love the narrative restraint-- a tight 200 pages, we're in and out. Not a sentence wasted. Judicious!!
This has a ton of fantastic moments (Control yelling at the Voice on the phone!), but overall is dragged down by a flop and annoying protagonist, and a lot of time wasted rehashing things from the first book. Once it gets going, it REALLY gets going, but it's frustrating to spend so much time waiting for Control to catch up to everything we knew on page 1.
This has a ton of fantastic moments (Control yelling at the Voice on the phone!), but overall is dragged down by a flop and annoying protagonist, and a lot of time wasted rehashing things from the first book. Once it gets going, it REALLY gets going, but it's frustrating to spend so much time waiting for Control to catch up to everything we knew on page 1.
Annihilation was such an excellent little jewel of a book, and each successive book in the series let the air out of the balloon a little more. I really just don't feel like this added anything that really needed to be added.
Annihilation was such an excellent little jewel of a book, and each successive book in the series let the air out of the balloon a little more. I really just don't feel like this added anything that really needed to be added.
I did like a few things about it, i.e. the brevity and the implied gay sex. But for the most part I feel like my opinion can be summed up by the fact that I spent like 100 pages waiting for the "actual" story to start before realizing that this was it. Just something, idk, missing for me. Gene Wolfe broke me, probably. The romance feels unearned, the odd modern lingo and references are really immersion-breaking (referring to drunkenly flying a hovercraft as "drunk driving"??) Charming at times, but I left feeling 0 interest in this world or these characters.
I did like a few things about it, i.e. the brevity and the implied gay sex. But for the most part I feel like my opinion can be summed up by the fact that I spent like 100 pages waiting for the "actual" story to start before realizing that this was it. Just something, idk, missing for me. Gene Wolfe broke me, probably. The romance feels unearned, the odd modern lingo and references are really immersion-breaking (referring to drunkenly flying a hovercraft as "drunk driving"??) Charming at times, but I left feeling 0 interest in this world or these characters.
Potent images drowning in unbelievably tedious prose. (Tell me one more goddamn time how many food tablets you took today.) Cloying, sexist, and generally irritating... yet at the same time a completely singular vision like nothing else I've read.
I cannot believe this version I've read is the condensed one-- still way too goddamn long.
Potent images drowning in unbelievably tedious prose. (Tell me one more goddamn time how many food tablets you took today.) Cloying, sexist, and generally irritating... yet at the same time a completely singular vision like nothing else I've read.
I cannot believe this version I've read is the condensed one-- still way too goddamn long.