2006-07-23
Without Remorse
Author: Tom Clancy
I started reading EDA-51 and was so turned off by a couple factors that I searched for something that would make it look good by comparison. I had some Clancy on the shelf that I picked up for free so I figured that would do it. Boy, oh boy, can Clancy make anyone else look like a genius. His 700 pg. novels condense into good movies without leaving anything out, which is not a good thing in literary terms. And if the movies get repetitive, the novels are more so. Predictability soars to new heights when Tom Clancy sits down to write. The book is nauseating, but I kept finding myself with it and nothing else and I finished it. No, there's no reward at the end for sticking with it. If your tastes run with mine, stay far away from this man unless it's to fall asleep watching a movie.
On EDA-51 (The Adventuress of Henrietta Street): the first turn-off is the publishing requirement that every EDA be the same length. So what happens when they get a 110,000 word manuscript instead of the 80,000 they want? They just print it in a microscopic typeface and keep the page length the same! I have good close-up vision and work with tiny type on the computer, but this was so small as to be a turnoff. I would have lived with it if the story was engaging, but the writing style didn't work for me either. It's a pseudo-documentary format that only leads to awkward phrases and distances the reader from the action. Add in the fact that by page 80 the Doctor and friends had almost no part in the story, and I decided to give up.
Unfortunately, reading the reviews at Timelash, it looks like I might be missing some continuity points. OTOH I'm not alone in getting a headache from trying to make my way through this aberration. (See Mike McGovern's take if you need to pick only one.) I suppose I'll have to come back and speed-read it when I hit the point where the events matter in the future, unless I can find a good summary. Either way, Adventuress is not a book to sit down and enjoy.
I started reading EDA-51 and was so turned off by a couple factors that I searched for something that would make it look good by comparison. I had some Clancy on the shelf that I picked up for free so I figured that would do it. Boy, oh boy, can Clancy make anyone else look like a genius. His 700 pg. novels condense into good movies without leaving anything out, which is not a good thing in literary terms. And if the movies get repetitive, the novels are more so. Predictability soars to new heights when Tom Clancy sits down to write. The book is nauseating, but I kept finding myself with it and nothing else and I finished it. No, there's no reward at the end for sticking with it. If your tastes run with mine, stay far away from this man unless it's to fall asleep watching a movie.
On EDA-51 (The Adventuress of Henrietta Street): the first turn-off is the publishing requirement that every EDA be the same length. So what happens when they get a 110,000 word manuscript instead of the 80,000 they want? They just print it in a microscopic typeface and keep the page length the same! I have good close-up vision and work with tiny type on the computer, but this was so small as to be a turnoff. I would have lived with it if the story was engaging, but the writing style didn't work for me either. It's a pseudo-documentary format that only leads to awkward phrases and distances the reader from the action. Add in the fact that by page 80 the Doctor and friends had almost no part in the story, and I decided to give up.
Unfortunately, reading the reviews at Timelash, it looks like I might be missing some continuity points. OTOH I'm not alone in getting a headache from trying to make my way through this aberration. (See Mike McGovern's take if you need to pick only one.) I suppose I'll have to come back and speed-read it when I hit the point where the events matter in the future, unless I can find a good summary. Either way, Adventuress is not a book to sit down and enjoy.
Grimm Reality
Author: Simon Bucher-Jones and Kelly Hale
EDA-50 w/Eigth Doctor, Fitz, Anji
The incorporation of characters from a deep-space exploration ship keeps this story of a world where fairy tales come to life firmly planted in the science fiction realm. Recommended.
(This is catchup. I finished this book in June, before vacation.)
EDA-50 w/Eigth Doctor, Fitz, Anji
The incorporation of characters from a deep-space exploration ship keeps this story of a world where fairy tales come to life firmly planted in the science fiction realm. Recommended.
(This is catchup. I finished this book in June, before vacation.)
