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webjoram's review against another edition
1.0
Si tuviera que calificar esta novela con un solo adjetivo diría que es ABURRIDA. Me ha costado horrores terminarla y sinceramente no sé por qué no la he abandonado.
Se supone que nos encontramos con una novela de intriga ambientada en una época histórica. Supongo que el autor pensó que unir en una trama dos de los géneros más leídos sería buena idea, y quizás hubiera tenido razón si la novela de verdad combinara ambos géneros, pero en realidad nos encontramos con una trama de asesinatos que tiene poca intriga y nula investigación por parte del protagonista y una trama histórica cogida por los pelos y que sinceramente tiene poco interés.
Después de tenernos páginas y páginas describiendo situaciones y escenas de sexo sin mucho sentido la historia se resuelve en apenas las 30 últimas páginas.
Una desilusión...
Se supone que nos encontramos con una novela de intriga ambientada en una época histórica. Supongo que el autor pensó que unir en una trama dos de los géneros más leídos sería buena idea, y quizás hubiera tenido razón si la novela de verdad combinara ambos géneros, pero en realidad nos encontramos con una trama de asesinatos que tiene poca intriga y nula investigación por parte del protagonista y una trama histórica cogida por los pelos y que sinceramente tiene poco interés.
Después de tenernos páginas y páginas describiendo situaciones y escenas de sexo sin mucho sentido la historia se resuelve en apenas las 30 últimas páginas.
Una desilusión...
binstonbirchill's review against another edition
1.0
I unfortunately won this audio book through goodreads giveaways. I entered it because the setting seemed interesting and I know Emperor Rudolph was a 'peculiar' man to say the least. A man stumbles on a murder, then is told he's to investigate that murder. Unfortunately the author decided to make this man the least interesting man in the world and then stick with him as the narrator for the entire story. Wow. That's a bold choice but he went with it so let's see how it goes. Everyone who is of any interest comes to spy on and talk to our main character, usually the spying and talking occurs in the same scene which gets more and more absurd the more times it happens. In between his bouts of sex our main character does no investigating, because he's quite unfit for the role which, all things considered, is fair. But then why do we want to read about this? Oh yeah, the setting and this historical context. Whelp, sorry, none of that in this book. People come talk to our main character some more and then they tell him who killed the girl and some other things. He buys back his horse and... What? That's it?
I knew from disc one that I should have stopped but for some reason I didn't.
One rotten turd-encrusted star.
I knew from disc one that I should have stopped but for some reason I didn't.
One rotten turd-encrusted star.
skconaghan's review
adventurous
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Grandiose setting for a less than complex execution of a fairly flat story.
It starts off as a proper tale in the medieval city of Prague, set in the centre of Europe, while England and Spain vie for power on the fringes of the world. The forte of this novel is the setting, briefly taking us to great scapes of exotic end-of-the-Dark-Ages scenery, but the idiot at the centre of the story is at times too stupid to bear. And the women he manages to snag need their heads checked; I cannot for the life of me see the attraction...
I enjoyed the almost Dickensian character descriptions—they popped from the page with unique and dazzling humour. They and the promise of Prague in the throes of medieval politics kept me reading, but goodness there were a number of ridiculous distractors from the plot(plot?) of this novel (such as an impressive number of dumb and desperate women easily drawn in by this doofus of a man). Somehow, the entrails of this haphazard plot managed to fall into place by the end. Miraculously.
The main character was wholly unlikeable—the epitome of mediocre European white male basking in making zero decisions as life happens favourably to him everywhere he goes with little thought of the potential consequences… Well, okay, I concede: he’s sorry for his self-fulfilment once or twice. But then he moves on and gives it nary a second thought.
Quite like what I’m about to do with this novel…
jhbandcats's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
informative
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
A plodding story that bogs down in the philosophical jabberings of the protagonist Christian Stern, this book is full of information about Prague at the turn of the century, when 1599 became 1600.
Stern comes upon the murdered body of a well-to-do young woman his first night in Prague, and thus is drawn into intrigues and power plays in the court of Rudolf II. He jumps from one bed to another, having no real fealty to any of his mistresses; they use him for information and comfort as he uses them.
He’s not a particularly likable character, and the rest of the characters are pretty awful themselves. While I loved learning about Renaissance Prague and the politics of the period, I found the mystery too slow to really care much by the end. My favorite character was found dead on a doorstep and that was it for any loyalty I might have had to the book.
Stern comes upon the murdered body of a well-to-do young woman his first night in Prague, and thus is drawn into intrigues and power plays in the court of Rudolf II. He jumps from one bed to another, having no real fealty to any of his mistresses; they use him for information and comfort as he uses them.
He’s not a particularly likable character, and the rest of the characters are pretty awful themselves. While I loved learning about Renaissance Prague and the politics of the period, I found the mystery too slow to really care much by the end. My favorite character was found dead on a doorstep and that was it for any loyalty I might have had to the book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Torture, Alcohol, Murder, Violence, Animal death, and Blood
justamber's review
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
azaharavila's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
sharoncsmith's review
Sample downloaded and read hinted that the story was too pedestrian and plodding. Wont be reading it.
aquamarine's review
2.0
Good luck finishing this book. It's a slog.
I like the writing of Benjamin Black (John Banville) and picked this up in Prague because of the setting. I enjoyed the descriptions of Prague - Old Town, Golden Lane etc. But oh lord were all the characters in this unpleasant and not in interesting ways. This book suffered from a few things: the main character only had things happen to him; he was passive, not very bright and didn't make any interesting decisions so there was little tension. The mystery wasn't interesting and it wasn't hard to guess who the culprits were.
Worst of all was the sexism and old-fashioned horror of the Other - you'll see what I mean. There's ways of portraying what might be the attitudes of the time without seeming to share in them. I don't need the author to step out from behind a curtain and say 'hey, it's my character who thinks openly sexual women are cold evil temptresses who share in the original sin of Eve' but there's no subtlety here and Banville makes it pretty clear when he says himself his favourite character (and his main character's true love) is the silent servant girl - silent because her tongue has been cut out while she was being raped. Ugh ugh ugh. The lovely submissive and silent serving girl is the ideal woman. Not forgiving the writer for this one. Not sure I'll read anything else by him - his portrayals of women and sex are uniformly awful.
I did like the attention paid to animals though; the horses and poor Plato the cat.
I like the writing of Benjamin Black (John Banville) and picked this up in Prague because of the setting. I enjoyed the descriptions of Prague - Old Town, Golden Lane etc. But oh lord were all the characters in this unpleasant and not in interesting ways. This book suffered from a few things: the main character only had things happen to him; he was passive, not very bright and didn't make any interesting decisions so there was little tension. The mystery wasn't interesting and it wasn't hard to guess who the culprits were.
Worst of all was the sexism and old-fashioned horror of the Other - you'll see what I mean. There's ways of portraying what might be the attitudes of the time without seeming to share in them. I don't need the author to step out from behind a curtain and say 'hey, it's my character who thinks openly sexual women are cold evil temptresses who share in the original sin of Eve' but there's no subtlety here and Banville makes it pretty clear when he says himself his favourite character (and his main character's true love) is the silent servant girl - silent because her tongue has been cut out while she was being raped. Ugh ugh ugh. The lovely submissive and silent serving girl is the ideal woman. Not forgiving the writer for this one. Not sure I'll read anything else by him - his portrayals of women and sex are uniformly awful.
I did like the attention paid to animals though; the horses and poor Plato the cat.
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