Killian
I started out really enjoying BNW, but the longer it went on the more my love for it waned until I was left counting the pages till the end, which is never a good sign.
I found some of the worldbuilding in BNW to be delightfully unnerving, in particular when a character proudly explains some messed up mechanism of control adopted by the world state. Some things really did not land with me though worldbuilding-wise: the society's obsession with Ford was a bit hard to suspend disbelief over, it's especially eye-rolling when they explain how crucifixes had their tops chopped off to form a 'T' shape (after Ford's Model-T) instead of a cross to show reverence to Ford... c'mon man.
I also have to admit that I found it very hard to push through the middle 50% of the book, after John becomes part of the story. At first I found John interesting because he came from outside the "civilized" world, but I don't think he should have taken the spotlight away from Bernard, who I was enjoying a lot more (and whose development I was a lot more invested in). A lot of the the themes become extremely repetitive around this time too and the prose is just all over the place (it's obnoxious how John just decides to speak Shakespearean English when he likes). It does pick up again in the final act however during the meeting with Mustapha Mond, but the actual ending is rather flat in my opinion.
I started out really enjoying BNW, but the longer it went on the more my love for it waned until I was left counting the pages till the end, which is never a good sign.
I found some of the worldbuilding in BNW to be delightfully unnerving, in particular when a character proudly explains some messed up mechanism of control adopted by the world state. Some things really did not land with me though worldbuilding-wise: the society's obsession with Ford was a bit hard to suspend disbelief over, it's especially eye-rolling when they explain how crucifixes had their tops chopped off to form a 'T' shape (after Ford's Model-T) instead of a cross to show reverence to Ford... c'mon man.
I also have to admit that I found it very hard to push through the middle 50% of the book, after John becomes part of the story. At first I found John interesting because he came from outside the "civilized" world, but I don't think he should have taken the spotlight away from Bernard, who I was enjoying a lot more (and whose development I was a lot more invested in). A lot of the the themes become extremely repetitive around this time too and the prose is just all over the place (it's obnoxious how John just decides to speak Shakespearean English when he likes). It does pick up again in the final act however during the meeting with Mustapha Mond, but the actual ending is rather flat in my opinion.