Radiance

Executive Summary: This book just wasn't for me, but then I don't like literary fiction. The parts I enjoyed were just too infrequent.

Full Review
This book wasn't on my radar at all. Ms. Valente was on the Sword & Laser podcast late last year, but I apparently forgot all about it. That should have been my first warning.

I'm a big fan of movies. I'm a pretty big fan of science-fiction. This should have been a happy marriage for me, but it wasn't. I've seen hundreds of films. I've read hundreds of books. I do both for fun. I don't enjoy to study either. I don't find having to work for what the story is about. This book was a lot of work. In the end it wasn't worth it for me. I'm still not sure what exactly I read.

This whole book seemed more like an exercise in clever writing than it was about telling a story. Maybe I'm just not smart enough for this book. I suspect this is more a case of not my kind of smarts. I imagine many people would feel just as uncomfortable reading books on computers as I did during parts of this. I don't like books that make me feel dumb.

I think I'd have been less frustrated with this book if I simply didn't like it. The underlying mystery of Severin and the world building were intriguing. I particularly enjoyed the chapters with Erasmo and Cynthia and Mary Pellam's diary entries. Unfortunately that was it. If the whole book had been written like those chapters, I'd have been a lot happier.

I found the chapters for Percival's final movie extremely confusing and often nonsensical. Most of the other chapters were unmemorable or equally confusing. It just feels like I was always missing something. I'd reread passages and whole pages and came away just as confused.

The book seemed to have 2 endings. Much like the book, I found the first one confusing and frustrating. However I was surprised to find I liked the second. It kind of sums things up nicely for me. Confused and frustrated most of the time, with some parts I was surprised to like. Maybe you'll have a better experience with it than I did.