Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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13 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
It's a shame to see talent wasted, 14 Aug 2006
So many things about this book promised a wonderful read: interesting futuristic ideas, an unusual writing style, finely detailed settings, wonderful descriptions and some quirky characters. Unfortunately, the parts failed to add up to a coherent and rewarding whole. The plot is incoherent, the characters inconsistent, the writing at some moments breathtaking and at other times self-indulgent. The book suffers from many of the flaws I see in the work of talented young writers in my post-graduate creative writing programme. They write a first draft, and because word processing makes it so easy to fill in the gaps and tidy up the plot, they think there's no reason to redraft. The very idea -- retyping every word they've written whilst constantly asking themselves if they could do better -- appals them, because they live in a culture that glorifies instant gratification. If their prose is flashy enough, as this author's seems to be, their efforts will be lauded. But what has been created is not a coherent and carefully crafted novel. Whilst reading it one does not have the feeling of trust that a careful writer bestows. The work is therefore ultimately unsatisfying, like eating a meal that consists of nothing but meringues.
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5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
It's a shame to see such talent wasted, 4 Aug 2006
So many things about this book promised a wonderful read: interesting futuristic ideas, an unusual writing style, finely detailed settings, wonderful descriptions and some quirky characters. Unfortunately, the parts failed to add up to a coherent and rewarding whole. The plot is incoherent, the characters inconsistent, the writing at some moments breathtaking and at other times self-indulgent. The book suffers from many of the flaws I see in the work of talented young writers in my post-graduate creative writing programme. They write a first draft, and because word processing makes it so easy to fill in the gaps and tidy up the plot, they think there's no reason to redraft. The very idea -- retyping every word they've written whilst constantly asking themselves if they could do better -- appals them, because they live in a culture that glorifies instant gratification. If their prose is flashy enough, as this author's seems to be, their efforts will be lauded. But what has been created is not a coherent and carefully crafted novel. Whilst reading it one does not have the feeling of trust that a careful writer bestows. The work is therefore ultimately unsatisfying, like eating a meal that consists of nothing but meringues.
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5 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
Un-put-downable brilliance..., 14 Feb 2006
Anyone who has read and loved ‘Natural History’ is potentially in for a real treat with this follow on. It is imaginative, intelligent, filled with lively characters, wild circumstances – and philosophical juggling which ranges from the colourful and obtuse to breathtaking lucidity. This is not as easy to read as its predecessor, not as traditional a narrative, fluent or conventional – indeed many aspects come across as highly experimental. But I found that persistence with the less clear parts of the book, particularly in the first one hundred pages, are more than rewarded when the whole begins to fall into place. Forgive me, but it becomes un-put-downable brilliance. It is not perfect, but the positives so outweigh the negatives for me that the idea of picking holes would be a petty-minded anathema; critique for the sake of hearing my own clever voice. Credit belongs where credit is due, and in short – this is an ambitious, hugely imaginative, clever, brave, brilliant and entertaining novel, which I loved, I suspect some people will hate, and ultimately I don’t care what they think – as long as Justina Robson doesn’t care as well and continues to produce work as exceptional as this for years to come.
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