Kyle
All our Wrong Todays is an excellent start for Mastai's future; It has wonderful characters, an interesting plot, and some very unique time travel mechanics. He needs to work on his writing style, especially his chapter organization. Two or three page chapters lead to a very choppy reading experience, like riding with someone who is learning how to drive, constantly slamming the gas or the breaks. Nevertheless, I would highly recommend Mastai's debut novel, and look forward to what he writes next.
Also, this review has been lowered one star because of the books intentionally frayed edges. Fuck those.
All our Wrong Todays is an excellent start for Mastai's future; It has wonderful characters, an interesting plot, and some very unique time travel mechanics. He needs to work on his writing style, especially his chapter organization. Two or three page chapters lead to a very choppy reading experience, like riding with someone who is learning how to drive, constantly slamming the gas or the breaks. Nevertheless, I would highly recommend Mastai's debut novel, and look forward to what he writes next.
Also, this review has been lowered one star because of the books intentionally frayed edges. Fuck those.
This book has some good things going for it, but fails in a few major regards. First of all, Aaronovitch needs to work on his characters a bit, especially their relationships. I still cannot tell you what the relationship between Peter and Leslie is; are they dating, are they friends, but he wants it to be something more; are they friends who have sex every now and then. This particular lack of characterization kills the very interesting plot in my opinion because when (SPOILERS) Leslie is possessed and her face starts to melt, it evokes almost no emotion for me because I have no idea how she relates to the main character. On top of that, the lore is fairly ill-defined, although it feels like that might get fleshed out more in future novels.
This book has some good things going for it, but fails in a few major regards. First of all, Aaronovitch needs to work on his characters a bit, especially their relationships. I still cannot tell you what the relationship between Peter and Leslie is; are they dating, are they friends, but he wants it to be something more; are they friends who have sex every now and then. This particular lack of characterization kills the very interesting plot in my opinion because when (SPOILERS) Leslie is possessed and her face starts to melt, it evokes almost no emotion for me because I have no idea how she relates to the main character. On top of that, the lore is fairly ill-defined, although it feels like that might get fleshed out more in future novels.
In my review of the last book in this series, I said that Phillip Reeve was running out of ideas. With this book, he proved be wrong. A Darkling Plain is the excellent conclusion to the Hungry City Chronicles, bringing each of the many characters story arcs to a satisfying conclusion.
In my review of the last book in this series, I said that Phillip Reeve was running out of ideas. With this book, he proved be wrong. A Darkling Plain is the excellent conclusion to the Hungry City Chronicles, bringing each of the many characters story arcs to a satisfying conclusion.
