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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
An unfortunate denouement to a popular series., 8 May 2005
I dont imagine that anything anyone writes here will put off a potential reader from getting ahold of this book. If youve gone through the first five then youre going to read this one right?As a standalone book Id probably have given this one 3 stars, but as an ending to the entire series I can only offer a measly 2. Why? Well, even the most avid Tilley fan would probably admit that this author is never going to win any awards for beautifully scripted flowing prose and narrative. Earth Thunder is no different but unfortunately the bright shockingly vivid imagination woven around a tight compellingly unpredicatble sci fi tour de force storyline that kept this reader coming back for more and more is sadly absent. Too much of this book seems laboured and uninspired to be really enjoyable to read, and as the action only really begins to pick up in the last third the authors rough and ready style of writing becomes an unwelcome travel companion as the formulaic scene setting narrative, character setting narrative, descriptive prose triumverate starts to grate without a strong storyline to paper the cracks. In fact youll be twiddling your thumbs until the final third of the book as little happens to build on any of the preceding books in the first third. The second third is taken up by an interminable and infuriatingly predictable plodding courtly intrigue storyline set in Ne-Issan which is all too redolent of mashed up and warmed over James Clavell. So how about that ending that everyone complains about then? This book does pick up in the last 100 pages or so and that Tilley magic takes over your imagination and somehow makes the characters and world of the plainfolk spring to living breathing life in ones imagination, so at least it ended on a high. But this isnt the crescendo of action and event that the last five books have been working towards, nor is it the finale that Tilley fans deserve for faithfully following Steve Brickman and co throughout a 6 book series. There is an opening for a 7th book though one cant help feeling that Tilley was long gone sick of writing this series and only left it hanging in case of times of financial hardship ahead, which is a pity because it robbed fans of the ending they expected and left a rather limp end to an inventive and exciting series.
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by Patrick Tilley
by Patrick Tilley
by Patrick Tilley
by Patrick Tilley
by Brian Herbert
