I really enjoyed this book more than I thought I was going to, it looks like it's going to be a bit of a marmite tome as my wife didn't like it at all. There are two main characters, Vikram and Adelaide and the whole narrative is told through their point of view, in other words, the first person technique of telling a story, a technique I've always been rather partial to.
In many ways it's a case of extreme opposites with the two main characters, he comes from and lives in the water slums of their world knowing only severe hardship, whereas she is the aristocracy of the same world, in other words born with a silver spoon in her mouth.
The characters themselves are really secondary to the, quite frankly, fascinating world that the all inhabit. The environment that they live in is all water based, no land whatsoever and one gets the feeling that they've all forgotten that land even existed in the first place. The author really does a great 'world building' job of describing the environment and it comes to life brilliantly and is very easy to imagine.
The narrative does contain jump cuts as it were with chapters ending at one point and the next beginning some time later, but there's no telling just how much time has past, the author leaves it vague and I suspect it's deliberate and may pay off in any future volumes.
The ending also seems geared towards the possibility of further books as it ends abruptly with the notion that the overall story is going to go on.
On the whole, it gives us interesting characters and narrative, but the structure could have been tightened up a bit.
The reason I've gave it five stars is for the brilliant description of the environment in which the book is set, I really felt as if I'd actually been there, it's that good. Because of that I found it difficult to put the book down.
I hope there's more to come and if there is I'll be the first in the queue for it.
Absolutely recommended as a good and fascinating read.
Overall, however, I gave this book such a high rating because I couldn't put it down. Once I got past the first chapter or so, I really fell into the world and when it was over my thoughts lingered over the events. I am looking forward the next one
