Currently Reading #14
Nov. 10th, 2013 03:57 am![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
littlerdog.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
thelittledogStarted Paolo Bacigalupi's The Windup Girl, which has apparently won both the Hugo and the Nebula. Maybe the fans/judges collectively fell asleep while reading and only dreamt it was a great book.
Okay, it's unfair to make that judgement after a few pages and based on the fact that I fell asleep. After all, falling asleep is one of the hazards of reading in bed. But to say the opening of the book did not grab me is a massive understatement. I was bored and a tad puzzled.
First, a great amount of wordage is attached to the significance of the main character, Anderson, walking through a market in Bangkok and running across a fruit he can't identify. (It's a lychee, dude.) This enables an infodump to inform the reader that genehacking is a thing in this future, and lots of plants are being brought back from extinction by the Thai scientists and this is A Concern for Anderson's employers, EvilCorp. Okay, they're not actually called EvilCorp, but you get the idea. And by the way, did I mention Anderson can't identify this fruit? Did I tell you that there's this fruit Anderson can't identify?
Secondly, the market is described in substantial (and sometimes repetitive) detail yet then we're told that none of this affects Anderson. Okay, so who's describing it? Is this book in omni? Hard to say. Omni and limited third can look like each other for quite a few pages. Then Anderson leaps into a rickshaw and we get the driver's backstory (why?) so I guess omni it is. Perhaps not the best viewpoint for trying to show us a character insulated from his surroundings.
We're still only a few pages in, remember, among the lychee and the red chickens, and then for no readily apparent reason we leap into flashback. Is it really vital for us to experience a conversation between Anderson and another character about the factory Anderson's just about to visit? The author seems to think it is. This reader thinks it isn't. This flashback is simply an opportunity for another infodump, in that the factory is merely a front for EvilCorp even though the other character (Yates) believes in his product--some kind of algae-coated spring for green electricity generation. No, sadly, the algae-derived coating isn't literally green. That would have at least been modestly funny.
It's a big thick book so maybe I should plough on and give it a chance. We're often invited to give books a chance, after all, and as writers we also hope someone will give our book a chance. Maybe even more than one. But sheesh.
IT'S A LYCHEE.
Okay, it's unfair to make that judgement after a few pages and based on the fact that I fell asleep. After all, falling asleep is one of the hazards of reading in bed. But to say the opening of the book did not grab me is a massive understatement. I was bored and a tad puzzled.
First, a great amount of wordage is attached to the significance of the main character, Anderson, walking through a market in Bangkok and running across a fruit he can't identify. (It's a lychee, dude.) This enables an infodump to inform the reader that genehacking is a thing in this future, and lots of plants are being brought back from extinction by the Thai scientists and this is A Concern for Anderson's employers, EvilCorp. Okay, they're not actually called EvilCorp, but you get the idea. And by the way, did I mention Anderson can't identify this fruit? Did I tell you that there's this fruit Anderson can't identify?
Secondly, the market is described in substantial (and sometimes repetitive) detail yet then we're told that none of this affects Anderson. Okay, so who's describing it? Is this book in omni? Hard to say. Omni and limited third can look like each other for quite a few pages. Then Anderson leaps into a rickshaw and we get the driver's backstory (why?) so I guess omni it is. Perhaps not the best viewpoint for trying to show us a character insulated from his surroundings.
We're still only a few pages in, remember, among the lychee and the red chickens, and then for no readily apparent reason we leap into flashback. Is it really vital for us to experience a conversation between Anderson and another character about the factory Anderson's just about to visit? The author seems to think it is. This reader thinks it isn't. This flashback is simply an opportunity for another infodump, in that the factory is merely a front for EvilCorp even though the other character (Yates) believes in his product--some kind of algae-coated spring for green electricity generation. No, sadly, the algae-derived coating isn't literally green. That would have at least been modestly funny.
It's a big thick book so maybe I should plough on and give it a chance. We're often invited to give books a chance, after all, and as writers we also hope someone will give our book a chance. Maybe even more than one. But sheesh.
IT'S A LYCHEE.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2013-11-10 04:21 am (UTC)I get this feeling with current WIP. It has footprints like a very big dog, but it's not a dog. It is killing sheep, but it's not a dog. It is the size of a big dog, but it's not a dog. Gah.
no subject
Date: 2013-11-10 05:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-11-10 05:22 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-11-10 05:36 pm (UTC)