Interesting but ultimately disappointing.
My first impression was bad (a glossary… the next worse thing is a freaking map), but it livened up once I got used the author’s rhythmn. One character in particular kept in interested (Horvil, happy-go-lucky geek, a laugh a minute), while others where a tiny bit one-dimensional.
But, the story just fails to deliver. Plots fall over, a major plot is obviously a device left for the sequel, and the entire book reads as if the author simply ran out of space (or the editor said “enough!” and it was all bumped into another novel).
Single word review – Average.
26 November, 2009 at 8:38 pm
Things actually happen in the 2nd book. Worth persevering with. Not the best SF/F book I’ve read this year (that would be Finch by Jeff Vandermeer) by any means, but good fun.
27 November, 2009 at 5:48 am
that was my worry, that’d just ploughed through 350 pages of prologue.