Low Firepower
I haven't had the time to update my book blog with the last six months of reading, but I have to write this down. It concerns the single worst waste of my book funds this whole year.
Katherine Neville's latest book, The Fire, is the worst and most plotless piece of iridescent claptrap I've read. It has almost no character development (apart from unintended caricature), purports to be based in a chess framework where the opening move Nd4 can be made by white, and contains the most absurd mystical calabash (haha, O gourd!) that I've read for years including Dan Brown's stuff.
I have no idea why some reviewers said nice things about it. It's probably because they hadn't really read it but were enthused by the theme and the concept of the story, like I was. But what a cheat! The 'secret history' in this book lacks all conviction and ability to convince, except perhaps where it borrows from the usual conspiracy theories about how Washington DC was constructed and why Iraq was invaded.
It's total rubbish and it isn't even funny rubbish. It took me four nights to digest, when I can normally do a book in half the time. It is that boring. Actually, the one bit of amusement I got out of it was that some of the characters in it remind me of people I used to work with.
Stay away from The Fire. It would be like setting your money aflame.
Katherine Neville's latest book, The Fire, is the worst and most plotless piece of iridescent claptrap I've read. It has almost no character development (apart from unintended caricature), purports to be based in a chess framework where the opening move Nd4 can be made by white, and contains the most absurd mystical calabash (haha, O gourd!) that I've read for years including Dan Brown's stuff.
I have no idea why some reviewers said nice things about it. It's probably because they hadn't really read it but were enthused by the theme and the concept of the story, like I was. But what a cheat! The 'secret history' in this book lacks all conviction and ability to convince, except perhaps where it borrows from the usual conspiracy theories about how Washington DC was constructed and why Iraq was invaded.
It's total rubbish and it isn't even funny rubbish. It took me four nights to digest, when I can normally do a book in half the time. It is that boring. Actually, the one bit of amusement I got out of it was that some of the characters in it remind me of people I used to work with.
Stay away from The Fire. It would be like setting your money aflame.
Labels: Books, Katherine Neville, Rubbish
etched with acid at 3:15:00 pm
3 Comments:
on books, I've been reading NNT's The Black Swan. His writing / thinking style reminds me almost completely of you =P
Is that good or bad? *grin*
As an aside, Brad Meltzer's The Book of Lies is far better and I finished it in one evening. It's not fantastic, but it moves along well and doesn't overreach.
well, any avid reader is bound to have his share of bad purchases.... just have to acknowledge that it is all part of the experience...
and hey... at least you know that the book is junk and that is knowledge for you....
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