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3.92 AVERAGE
3.92 AVERAGE
I enjoyed this. It was very 1950/60's science fiction in tone; I mean that as praise, being a fan of that particular era of SF. I won't attempt to summarise the plot here as it was very complicated indeed, involving as it did multiple time-periods and a degree of circularity of timelines. If you've read any of Pears' other novels (this one bears strong similarity, at least in my head, to "A Dream of Scipio") you'll know his fondness for narrative quirks of this sort. If you enjoyed those previous works, you're pretty much guaranteed to enjoy this one.
challenging
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
hopeful
mysterious
slow-paced
One of the worst books I've ever read. I should have stopped after the first few chapters but stupid me thought it might get better. It only got worse. I had to physically keep myself from throwing the book against a wall or set it on fire.
The characters are uninteresting at best, the storyline only makes you wonder how high the author was when he came up with it and the technology and stupidity of the people who come up with it are so far from what I could even begin to consider believable and clever that I can only wish I could get the time back I wasted on reading about them.
The characters are uninteresting at best, the storyline only makes you wonder how high the author was when he came up with it and the technology and stupidity of the people who come up with it are so far from what I could even begin to consider believable and clever that I can only wish I could get the time back I wasted on reading about them.
Marvelous!! Only my self-imposed rule against give 5 stars to books I have read at least twice prevents me from giving this a higher rating. So I'm putting it on my planning-to-re-read shelf.
I especially like the concept around which the novel is written, which, for want of a better term, I will call "narrative cosmology". But as interesting as that concept is, it is the multi-textured plot and engaging characters that make the story so wonderful.
I especially like the concept around which the novel is written, which, for want of a better term, I will call "narrative cosmology". But as interesting as that concept is, it is the multi-textured plot and engaging characters that make the story so wonderful.
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Not necessarily a bad book probably, but there is next to no worth I took out of it. Cliché most of the time, boring at others, and mostly an idea that could have been a nice 150 page book stretched out into too many pages.
This is the first book I've read in a while that had me staying up irresponsibly late to finish it! I have wanted to read Arcadia for ages, and it did not disappoint. I have loved every Iain Pears book I've ever read, and this one just became one of my favorites.
Mind-bending fun. Great characters. A little confusing time/universe travel.
Several separate stories that come together to form a single complex whole. This story was complicated and engrossing.