Ray
In many ways breaks some rules I expect. Characters only known by their role serving some common purpose which beyond exploration they barely know. Difficult to see beyond their roles make connections but then they are not meant to either. Team in enemy or hostile territory but nothoing about them speaks of a team other than some purpose that if they dont know neither do you as reader. So as reader you are walking with the protagonists. Viewpoint of the Biologist. Her understanding, her knowledge she distrusts even the landscape around her and the little she does know from previous expeditions unclear how given that she knows few have returned and this is the 12th expedition.
A difficult read. Little to attract the reader to other characters and not much to sympathize with the Biologist. But it is a mystery. Shades of Lovecraft and his narrators.
Unsatisfactory ending. I and the Biologist know more or have experienced more but have no more significant understanding than perhaps how survival may be possible. So i immediately start the second in the series and am irritated early in that it seems I could have started reading here. But it drags me on. I want answers . What is Area X or rather the Why of it.
Definitely worth reading.
In many ways breaks some rules I expect. Characters only known by their role serving some common purpose which beyond exploration they barely know. Difficult to see beyond their roles make connections but then they are not meant to either. Team in enemy or hostile territory but nothoing about them speaks of a team other than some purpose that if they dont know neither do you as reader. So as reader you are walking with the protagonists. Viewpoint of the Biologist. Her understanding, her knowledge she distrusts even the landscape around her and the little she does know from previous expeditions unclear how given that she knows few have returned and this is the 12th expedition.
A difficult read. Little to attract the reader to other characters and not much to sympathize with the Biologist. But it is a mystery. Shades of Lovecraft and his narrators.
Unsatisfactory ending. I and the Biologist know more or have experienced more but have no more significant understanding than perhaps how survival may be possible. So i immediately start the second in the series and am irritated early in that it seems I could have started reading here. But it drags me on. I want answers . What is Area X or rather the Why of it.
Definitely worth reading.
I put this book down after struggling with the first quarter. Don't like doing that as generally find Stephenson a hard but ok read. But simply neither the plot nor the characters engaged me. Havent picked it back up.... so that's my review
I put this book down after struggling with the first quarter. Don't like doing that as generally find Stephenson a hard but ok read. But simply neither the plot nor the characters engaged me. Havent picked it back up.... so that's my review
I found the TV series entertaining and assumed I would enjoy the book. Sadly disappointed. In fact, I only read the first part up to Q's leaving the school. Basically, I got bored. The characters felt one-dimensional or their only features were psychological or social hangups. I normally enjoy books with magic and some form of explanation or consistent system of magic. Sanderson is an example of a writer who creates a world and magic as an integral part of it. Grossman just keeps writing about magic, layers, and layers of it. I just got bogged down in it. Waded through its syrupy form till I realized it had no real nutritional value. No art; no craft, just the loneliness of the long-distance runner paying in blood, sweat and tears, with little joy. Magic for masochists. Couldn't shake the feeling that all the characters if not for their magic were nihilists. In fact, Alice says to Q he's the only one who does believe in magic. Maybe that's the underlying theme and is something that is a factor in the TV series but I couldn't stomach it on the written page. I lost any empathy with the book characters; got bored and stopped early. Whereas I'm looking forward to watching the final TV season.
I found the TV series entertaining and assumed I would enjoy the book. Sadly disappointed. In fact, I only read the first part up to Q's leaving the school. Basically, I got bored. The characters felt one-dimensional or their only features were psychological or social hangups. I normally enjoy books with magic and some form of explanation or consistent system of magic. Sanderson is an example of a writer who creates a world and magic as an integral part of it. Grossman just keeps writing about magic, layers, and layers of it. I just got bogged down in it. Waded through its syrupy form till I realized it had no real nutritional value. No art; no craft, just the loneliness of the long-distance runner paying in blood, sweat and tears, with little joy. Magic for masochists. Couldn't shake the feeling that all the characters if not for their magic were nihilists. In fact, Alice says to Q he's the only one who does believe in magic. Maybe that's the underlying theme and is something that is a factor in the TV series but I couldn't stomach it on the written page. I lost any empathy with the book characters; got bored and stopped early. Whereas I'm looking forward to watching the final TV season.