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hsienhsien27's review
4.0
So here's a book that I discovered through the blog TNBBC. I don't really read too many self-published books, not because I don't like any of them, but because I just don't really know a lot of them or they don't catch my interest. I also think that a lot of self published authors that don't have much art or photoshop skills should keep the cover minamalistic or with a nice simple design, depending on the genre. There's way too many ugly covers and I know that sounds shallow but I don't want to read a book with a picture of a muscular man in love with a horse woman, okay? okay. I don't think my explanation of the plot in this story would be explained well with my words. So here it is:
"During an oil crisis-induced war in South America, Findesferas tells the story of Juan and his twin brother Matias as they fight to stay alive in the hopes of returning to their home, and normality. Juan is a poet, but since the death of his wife, he can’t seem to recapture the same creativity he used to pour into his work. Carrying a dark secret that threatens to ruin his life, can he forgive himself and make it out alive, or will his inability to escape the past destroy him? Matías' wife Octavia is in a civilian holding in Paraguay’s capital, Asunción, trying to forge a new life with her son. When the Pombero, a malevolent spirit, comes to visit them, her brief period of calm is brought abruptly to an end, and she must make a difficult decision: offer the Pombero a live sacrifice, or let him take the twins instead. Findesferas considers the lengths we will go to in order to protect our loved ones, find new energy sources or change the past."
Anyway, this novel is freaking wonderful. I LOVE magical realism, I don't know why. Historical fiction is also another big favorite of mine and it's pulled off quite well. There's a good amount of historical and scientific facts or information, so not only are you reading a fantastical novel, you are learning a lot of history and science associated with oil and the War of the Triple Alliance. I also loved the bilingual stuff, it kind of made the novel more realistic because obviously not everyone speaks English.
The characters are pretty developed and they do change and regret their decisions (that's pretty much character development right?). They all have their own little unique thing and they all have their conflicts. That was pretty much most of the novel, fighting against their conflict and their human flaws. Unfortunately one of them had a pretty terrible fate (is that a spoiler?). Of course there are likeable characters and dislikable characters. I feel like every time I like a book a lot, it's really hard to review, what's up with that?
Like a lot of magical realist novels I have read, it has a really dreamy atmosphere, which you would expect and the tense feeling of a family that is slowly being torn apart. The relationship between the brothers are real and sad, because you know it's not going to last long and the war raging through Paraguay destroys the relationships between the family and the people who live on the land.
There seems to be a whole political or social message going on in this novel, in my opinion. This thing with fighting over oil has been happening for a few years. I don't always pay attention to the news and when the war was happening, I was still not paying attention. I could be horribly wrong, but the war between the U.S. and Iraq was apparently over oil? We human beings are so darn selfish and greedy, that we fight over oil. However, without oil, we won't have electricity, plastic, and a lot of other things that you wouldn't expect needed oil.
Then there's some romance, but a very fragmented and dysfunctional love relationship. Love wears away, people start to ignore each other and forget they exist. They change and the former self remains in our heads, the one that we refuse to delete regardless if it's good or bad.
Then there's a part, the science fiction part, where it's all futuristic and spacey. I don't want to spoil it, this probably is a spoiler, but the ending of the Findesferas section of the book made me want to yell "OIL IS PEOPLE!" (Soylent Green movie reference, "SOYLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE!").
The writing is great, descriptive but without overdoing. It flows nicely, it's pretty good for his debut novel. It doesn't even feel like a debut novel, it feels like his second or his third. Maybe he obsessive compulsively writes his drafts over and over?
My review will probably not give this justice, but it was an enjoyable novel, thought provoking, and entertaining novel. I don't think I felt bored reading it because the chapters were so short. It has everything I love history, drama, science, magical realism or fantasy. There were some parts that left me confused, like the beginning, I still don't know why the marshal ended up in maybe a glass tube thing. Some sort of weird purgatory? Maybe that was the point, because magical realism, there's no logical explanation for the strange things. Maybe I missed it? So yeah, fun read.
Rating: 4.5/5
http://wordsnotesandfiction.blogspot.com/2014/04/book-review-findesferas-by-leo-x.html
"During an oil crisis-induced war in South America, Findesferas tells the story of Juan and his twin brother Matias as they fight to stay alive in the hopes of returning to their home, and normality. Juan is a poet, but since the death of his wife, he can’t seem to recapture the same creativity he used to pour into his work. Carrying a dark secret that threatens to ruin his life, can he forgive himself and make it out alive, or will his inability to escape the past destroy him? Matías' wife Octavia is in a civilian holding in Paraguay’s capital, Asunción, trying to forge a new life with her son. When the Pombero, a malevolent spirit, comes to visit them, her brief period of calm is brought abruptly to an end, and she must make a difficult decision: offer the Pombero a live sacrifice, or let him take the twins instead. Findesferas considers the lengths we will go to in order to protect our loved ones, find new energy sources or change the past."
Anyway, this novel is freaking wonderful. I LOVE magical realism, I don't know why. Historical fiction is also another big favorite of mine and it's pulled off quite well. There's a good amount of historical and scientific facts or information, so not only are you reading a fantastical novel, you are learning a lot of history and science associated with oil and the War of the Triple Alliance. I also loved the bilingual stuff, it kind of made the novel more realistic because obviously not everyone speaks English.
The characters are pretty developed and they do change and regret their decisions (that's pretty much character development right?). They all have their own little unique thing and they all have their conflicts. That was pretty much most of the novel, fighting against their conflict and their human flaws. Unfortunately one of them had a pretty terrible fate (is that a spoiler?). Of course there are likeable characters and dislikable characters. I feel like every time I like a book a lot, it's really hard to review, what's up with that?
Like a lot of magical realist novels I have read, it has a really dreamy atmosphere, which you would expect and the tense feeling of a family that is slowly being torn apart. The relationship between the brothers are real and sad, because you know it's not going to last long and the war raging through Paraguay destroys the relationships between the family and the people who live on the land.
There seems to be a whole political or social message going on in this novel, in my opinion. This thing with fighting over oil has been happening for a few years. I don't always pay attention to the news and when the war was happening, I was still not paying attention. I could be horribly wrong, but the war between the U.S. and Iraq was apparently over oil? We human beings are so darn selfish and greedy, that we fight over oil. However, without oil, we won't have electricity, plastic, and a lot of other things that you wouldn't expect needed oil.
Then there's some romance, but a very fragmented and dysfunctional love relationship. Love wears away, people start to ignore each other and forget they exist. They change and the former self remains in our heads, the one that we refuse to delete regardless if it's good or bad.
Then there's a part, the science fiction part, where it's all futuristic and spacey. I don't want to spoil it, this probably is a spoiler, but the ending of the Findesferas section of the book made me want to yell "OIL IS PEOPLE!" (Soylent Green movie reference, "SOYLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE!").
The writing is great, descriptive but without overdoing. It flows nicely, it's pretty good for his debut novel. It doesn't even feel like a debut novel, it feels like his second or his third. Maybe he obsessive compulsively writes his drafts over and over?
My review will probably not give this justice, but it was an enjoyable novel, thought provoking, and entertaining novel. I don't think I felt bored reading it because the chapters were so short. It has everything I love history, drama, science, magical realism or fantasy. There were some parts that left me confused, like the beginning, I still don't know why the marshal ended up in maybe a glass tube thing. Some sort of weird purgatory? Maybe that was the point, because magical realism, there's no logical explanation for the strange things. Maybe I missed it? So yeah, fun read.
Rating: 4.5/5
http://wordsnotesandfiction.blogspot.com/2014/04/book-review-findesferas-by-leo-x.html
synkopenleben's review
4.0
Findesferas is ambitious - just the short blurb made me interested what this was actually about. While it is certainly a quick read, it manages to connect a number of genres: Science-fiction, magical realism, surrealism, some romance here and there. The fragmented narration jumps jauntily through temporal and spatial constraints. Characters are well-rounded. All in all, Findesferas never falls short of what it tries to achieve. It is both entertaining and enlightening.
The footnotes were a bit too sprawling here and there, and some parts in the beginning interfered with the reading flow, but those are just minuscule criticisms. I loved the language, especially the bilingual parts. Let's hope that Robertson's next novel is as good as this one - you've definitely found another interested reader!
4/5
The footnotes were a bit too sprawling here and there, and some parts in the beginning interfered with the reading flow, but those are just minuscule criticisms. I loved the language, especially the bilingual parts. Let's hope that Robertson's next novel is as good as this one - you've definitely found another interested reader!
4/5
scarla's review
3.0
I received my copy of "Findesferas" through goodreads and I really looked forward reading it.
I like the setting of the story. I never read a story before that is plays in Paraguay and it was interesting to explore parts of the country. I'm always for stories that include characters and places not mainstream and this is the case in this book.
The characters Juan, Matías and Octavia were interesting and the story was too.
I think, my favourite character is Juan.
It was nice to read, how different the twins Matías and Juan are, but how much they care about each other.
Octavia is very elusive. You don't really know what she is after and what her intention is, and that makes her interesting.
But then the story was very confusing for me. The time leaps made it difficult to follow the storylines. I couldn't figure out, how the storyline with the Findesferas connects with the other one with Juan and Matías in the war.
Furthermore, I'm not really sure in which genre to put the book. It is about a war, then about family (problems), then about an oil catastrophe and a trip in space. I don't think this is a problem, but the war and then the mythological elements don't really worked here for me.
The writing was quite good. But I noticed, that my concentration got less and less while reading, because it wasn't that exciting. I wasn't really into the story. I liked the idea of the footnotes, but there were so many and the explanaitons were so long, I couldn't really focused on them all.
I liked the parts, where Spanish and Guarani are used. I couldn't understand everything (I only speak a bit Spanish), but it brought a nice variation into the story.
I give 3 of 5 for this book. I'm happy that I read it, but I couldn't really get into it. Nevertheless, I think if you are interested in war stories, you should give the book a try. :)
I like the setting of the story. I never read a story before that is plays in Paraguay and it was interesting to explore parts of the country. I'm always for stories that include characters and places not mainstream and this is the case in this book.
The characters Juan, Matías and Octavia were interesting and the story was too.
I think, my favourite character is Juan.
It was nice to read, how different the twins Matías and Juan are, but how much they care about each other.
Octavia is very elusive. You don't really know what she is after and what her intention is, and that makes her interesting.
But then the story was very confusing for me. The time leaps made it difficult to follow the storylines. I couldn't figure out, how the storyline with the Findesferas connects with the other one with Juan and Matías in the war.
Furthermore, I'm not really sure in which genre to put the book. It is about a war, then about family (problems), then about an oil catastrophe and a trip in space. I don't think this is a problem, but the war and then the mythological elements don't really worked here for me.
The writing was quite good. But I noticed, that my concentration got less and less while reading, because it wasn't that exciting. I wasn't really into the story. I liked the idea of the footnotes, but there were so many and the explanaitons were so long, I couldn't really focused on them all.
I liked the parts, where Spanish and Guarani are used. I couldn't understand everything (I only speak a bit Spanish), but it brought a nice variation into the story.
I give 3 of 5 for this book. I'm happy that I read it, but I couldn't really get into it. Nevertheless, I think if you are interested in war stories, you should give the book a try. :)
kingjason's review
4.0
Interesting concept for a book, Paraguayan spirits, apocalypse, war and space travel, it takes a talented writer to put all those things into one book and Leo Robertson achieves it on his debut novel.
It took me quite a while to get a grip on this book only because so many things start off at once and things aren't helped when the first word you read is "epilogue" but it is worth sticking with as when your brain syncs with the book you realise just how clever this all is.
It is one of those books where each time you read it you'll understand it different each time. It is a dystopian future, oil reserves are gone and Paraguay is now the nation with power... so what are humans gonna do about that? Why go to war of course. We are then introduced to the hero of the story, the Marshal, the insane commander of Paraguay's army, he with the wonderful necklace made of ears, sure I've seen that same necklace in Argos for £12.99.
The confusing part for me was it seems we are seeing a similar story from different realities, you have Octavia doing deals with spirits, Juan on a spaceship, the Marshal in the afterlife??? And Juan and Matias at war with Brazil.
This isn't a book you can sit down and read with only half your brain active, this book demands your full attention and if you're willing to give it then you're in for an amazing ride.
It took me quite a while to get a grip on this book only because so many things start off at once and things aren't helped when the first word you read is "epilogue" but it is worth sticking with as when your brain syncs with the book you realise just how clever this all is.
It is one of those books where each time you read it you'll understand it different each time. It is a dystopian future, oil reserves are gone and Paraguay is now the nation with power... so what are humans gonna do about that? Why go to war of course. We are then introduced to the hero of the story, the Marshal, the insane commander of Paraguay's army, he with the wonderful necklace made of ears, sure I've seen that same necklace in Argos for £12.99.
The confusing part for me was it seems we are seeing a similar story from different realities, you have Octavia doing deals with spirits, Juan on a spaceship, the Marshal in the afterlife??? And Juan and Matias at war with Brazil.
This isn't a book you can sit down and read with only half your brain active, this book demands your full attention and if you're willing to give it then you're in for an amazing ride.
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