Jason
Fun read
This was my first foray into action/adventure. Love these type of movies but never tried it in book form.
I must admit that it took me a little to get into it, but once I did it was a fun little read. I enjoyed the biblical focus of this - reminding me very much of Indiana Jones Last Crusade.
I found this a light read and a good diversion.
Camp 80's horror
Go into this book knowing that it's a camp 80's style horror complete with sex (graphic) and gore, and you'll have a great time with it.
A little too much use of parentheses for my liking (including parentheses WITHIN parentheses), but if you leave your brain at the door, this is a lot of fun.
Just remember to pick your brain back up before you leave or it's likely to get eaten!
Great book
A well written, unsettling story. My first time reading Michael Bray and it won't be the last.
This was easy to read, flowed beautifully and had a well crafted relationship between the two main characters that ensured that I was invested in what happened to them.
Some truly unsettling moments here that had me hooked.
I know a good book when I find myself reading it in the loo!
Look forward to reading the next in the series.
Great book!
Well developed characters, fantastic pacing and thought provoking.
One of the first real page turners for me for some time.
I'm looking forward to seeing how this series progresses.
The only negative - and I agree with another reviewer - is the swapping from first name to last name for the same characters without the book introducing them with both names originally. This makes it confusing in some early parts.
Very enjoyable
I was ready to give up after about 50 pages, but am glad I continued. That first 50 felt cold and emotionless. Steeped in exposition that was of little interest to me.
Then all of a sudden the real story kicked in and it was masterful. The differing points of view all slowly converged together over the course of the book in shorter and shorter sections making it feel like the net was closing in on the jackal. Very clever and very effective.
This is not my genre at all, but I'm extremely happy I gave it a go. I'll certainly read more.
Wow
So at 43 years of age I decided to start taking reading seriously this year. After completing about 10 books that I mostly enjoyed, I decided to really put myself to the test and tackle this one.
At over 1000 pages, I didn't really think I'd get through it.
But now I understand. I understand why people fall in love with this medium. When you find an author that can make to you physically feel, smell and hear the story, then it all comes together.
It took me about 7 weeks to get through this, but only because I'm time limited. Not once did I actually want to put this down.
Now it's over, I feel a loss. I'll miss these characters. I never understood what people meant when they talked about books this way.
Mr King, thank you for finally showing me the power of storytelling.
sigh I really wanted to like this book. I enjoyed the human story very much but the spider chapters felt like they were written by a different person. Exposition, exposition, exposition. I just didn't care. It felt like I was reading a school text book instead of a story.
It all came together with a good climax, but by that point I was more happy about finishing the book than I was about enjoying the story.
Obviously a talented author, but this didn't do it for me.
There's been much discussion about the lack of quotation marks. To be honest it only takes a few pages to become accustomed to, and this with the writing style creates a beautiful fluidity in the dialogue. I'm really bummed that the final part has yet to be released as I just gobbled up the first two.
Good story, but over long
I'll start by admitting that I don't read a lot of books. Maybe that reflects in my review of this.
I found myself completely engrossed for about the first half of this book. After that it all just started dragging for me. Tim is undoubtedly a very talented writer, but I found this book getting too bogged down in overly descriptive text. There's only so many times you want to read about what a fog looks like. I feel this book could have trimmed a good 100 pages and would have been much more dramatic for it.
That said, I did very much enjoy the story and the character interaction.
Good story, but over long
I'll start by admitting that I don't read a lot of books. Maybe that reflects in my review of this.
I found myself completely engrossed for about the first half of this book. After that it all just started dragging for me. Tim is undoubtedly a very talented writer, but I found this book getting too bogged down in overly descriptive text. There's only so many times you want to read about what a fog looks like. I feel this book could have trimmed a good 100 pages and would have been much more dramatic for it.
That said, I did very much enjoy the story and the character interaction.