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phua_jieying's review against another edition
The Chinese-American characters are badly written. The guy is a banana, and the lady is only defined by how hot she is and her designer clothes and bags, in contrast to Sara in The Alienist seen through the eyes of ladies’ man John.
I didn’t find the rest of the story engaging either.
I didn’t find the rest of the story engaging either.
gawronma's review against another edition
3.0
Despite the length of the book, it held my interest. I do wish it was a bit shorter. The characters were interesting. However some day I hope Carr will bring back Lazlo Kreizler.
rosemary_quintet's review against another edition
3.0
Okay, so this book took me a week to read, which for me is a very long time. It was worth finishing, and I'll rate it three stars although it was closer to 2.5. maybe 2.75. Carr got a little too bogged down in details in this book, making it unnecessarily long and hard to follow. I really liked Marcianna and Lucas, and found Ambyr interesting. Overall, I'd describe this book as a "mediocore, contemporary version of The Alienist." Read that one instead.
bookhero6's review against another edition
5.0
So... I see a lot of one star reviews for this book. And I can only assume that those who did so, did not finish this book. There is a lot of exposition in this book, especially in the beginning, and for about the first 150-200 pages it seems more like a discourse than a mystery/suspense. In fact, the first bit reads more like a Sherlock Holmes story than a more modern book. But, seriously, stick with it. You'll reach a point where it is unputdownable. I admit I wondered at first if maybe Mr. Carr wasn't as suited to contemporary fiction as he is to historical. But then, oh my god, it sucked me in just the way The Alienist and The Angel of Darkness did, two books that have long been among my favorites.
Drs. Trajan Jones and Michael Li are former NYC criminal investigators, now professors of criminal science in upstate New York, having been run out of The City. Local law enforcement asks their opinion on a string of recent youth disappearances and deaths, when they don't buy the state party line that it is just a serial killer. Drs. Jones and Li then must uncover the truth, unravel the potential conspiracy, and sweep out institutional corruption, along with a locally recruited teenage sidekick.
I think the inability of some readers to connect with this book comes from the fact that it is not composed of quickly edited bursts of action like certain TV shows that love montages of people in lab coats putting things in vials, and fast scrolling text on a computer monitor, while techs dust for fingerprints, a hold up bullets while wearing earmuffs, while the camera zooms in on striations along the side, then the music cuts out and some middle aged white man says, "So what've we got?" This book does things the old fashioned way and those of us who love the details and don't mind sometimes being left in the dark, and love us some discussion, feel right at home in this book. Plus, there's a kitty cat who features prominently.
Drs. Trajan Jones and Michael Li are former NYC criminal investigators, now professors of criminal science in upstate New York, having been run out of The City. Local law enforcement asks their opinion on a string of recent youth disappearances and deaths, when they don't buy the state party line that it is just a serial killer. Drs. Jones and Li then must uncover the truth, unravel the potential conspiracy, and sweep out institutional corruption, along with a locally recruited teenage sidekick.
I think the inability of some readers to connect with this book comes from the fact that it is not composed of quickly edited bursts of action like certain TV shows that love montages of people in lab coats putting things in vials, and fast scrolling text on a computer monitor, while techs dust for fingerprints, a hold up bullets while wearing earmuffs, while the camera zooms in on striations along the side, then the music cuts out and some middle aged white man says, "So what've we got?" This book does things the old fashioned way and those of us who love the details and don't mind sometimes being left in the dark, and love us some discussion, feel right at home in this book. Plus, there's a kitty cat who features prominently.
jennybeastie's review against another edition
I eagerly awaited Caleb Carr's new book, but have had to put it down. While I love his consistently 19th century storytelling style, it is weirdly jarring with a more contemporary set of characters. I keep expecting time travel (it's possible that happens later in the book, but I doubt it), and the plodding pace, with digressions into local history, is less atmospheric and more just... tangential.
The reason I stopped reading it, however, is that I grew so annoyed with the deep arrogance of the main character that I just didn't care to see the book play out. I assume he will triumph, in the face of all stupid forensic assumptions. I expect he will once again be treated wrong by the overbearing forces of government. And likely will lose either his partner or the kid he recruited or his beloved pet to either arrogance or serial killer or aforementioned overbearing forces of government. Meh. I may pick it up later, but I doubt it.
Advanced reader's copy provided by Edelweiss.
The reason I stopped reading it, however, is that I grew so annoyed with the deep arrogance of the main character that I just didn't care to see the book play out. I assume he will triumph, in the face of all stupid forensic assumptions. I expect he will once again be treated wrong by the overbearing forces of government. And likely will lose either his partner or the kid he recruited or his beloved pet to either arrogance or serial killer or aforementioned overbearing forces of government. Meh. I may pick it up later, but I doubt it.
Advanced reader's copy provided by Edelweiss.
breazy_reader_724's review against another edition
2.0
Enjoyed the performance of the audiobook (kudos Tom Taylorson) more than the story as a whole. The characters were interesting, but too much of the plot (and in some cases the dialogue) did not ring true. It also felt like the world the characters inhabited wasn't real. I was a bit disappointed as I purchased the audiobook after reading the glowing NYT book review by Michael Connelly, whose Harry Bosch, Mickey Haller, and Terry McCaleb novels I've really enjoyed. I didn't think this book matched the review.
bookdarling1987's review against another edition
5.0
[b:Surrender, New York|28952751|Surrender, New York|Caleb Carr|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1458203000s/28952751.jpg|49177799]
Bon-apptread with the Eight-Course Meal that is Surrender, New York by Caleb Carr
After reading a review by Michael Connelly as he raves in his review of Surrender, New York in the New York Times Book Review, I had to listen and take my time to enjoy this book. I even took a day to let it all digest before sitting down to write my review. Caleb Carr, once again, took me on a journey of enlightenment told through an entertaining story peppered with endearing and real characters. I laughed. I cried. I learned and most of all I enjoyed this. For being a 624-page book, this went really quick which speaks to Carr’s story telling. He likes educate his audience while he entertains them. How many of us had ever heard of the term “Alienist” before he wrote the bestseller, The Alienist? I know I hadn’t. in this novel he is teaching us again. This time we are learning about the plight of “throwaway children” and the unreliability of forensic science we have been brainwashed with for all these years. Just like the Alienist we are treated with beautiful pictures of Upstate New York making the reader want to go sightseeing. I noticed many complained about the writing style but given the fact that he is inspired by 19th-century writers it is to be expected. If you have been fallowing my reviews then you know I talk about devouring books in days. This one I am going to eat my words on. Please take your time and treat it like a five-star eight course meal and enjoy every page. I want to hear all about your thoughts on Marcianna in this story. She is a gem and adds tenderness to an otherwise heartbreaking tale.
A wise person once said you get out of something what you put into it. Surrender, New York demands time and full attention. Don’t let that discourage you--it’s worth it!
Bon-apptread with the Eight-Course Meal that is Surrender, New York by Caleb Carr
After reading a review by Michael Connelly as he raves in his review of Surrender, New York in the New York Times Book Review, I had to listen and take my time to enjoy this book. I even took a day to let it all digest before sitting down to write my review. Caleb Carr, once again, took me on a journey of enlightenment told through an entertaining story peppered with endearing and real characters. I laughed. I cried. I learned and most of all I enjoyed this. For being a 624-page book, this went really quick which speaks to Carr’s story telling. He likes educate his audience while he entertains them. How many of us had ever heard of the term “Alienist” before he wrote the bestseller, The Alienist? I know I hadn’t. in this novel he is teaching us again. This time we are learning about the plight of “throwaway children” and the unreliability of forensic science we have been brainwashed with for all these years. Just like the Alienist we are treated with beautiful pictures of Upstate New York making the reader want to go sightseeing. I noticed many complained about the writing style but given the fact that he is inspired by 19th-century writers it is to be expected. If you have been fallowing my reviews then you know I talk about devouring books in days. This one I am going to eat my words on. Please take your time and treat it like a five-star eight course meal and enjoy every page. I want to hear all about your thoughts on Marcianna in this story. She is a gem and adds tenderness to an otherwise heartbreaking tale.
A wise person once said you get out of something what you put into it. Surrender, New York demands time and full attention. Don’t let that discourage you--it’s worth it!
monty_reads's review against another edition
3.0
Caleb Carr’s The Alienist knocked my socks off in the mid 90s, but I sadly don’t remember reading its follow-up, The Angel of Darkness. 20 years later, I suspect Surrender, NY is going to exist somewhere in between. Neither an unqualified success nor an outright failure, it’s just compelling enough to make me glad I read it.
Trajan Jones and Michael Li are forensic scientists exiled to upstate New York after ruffling too many police feathers in the Big Apple with their effective but unconventional methods. When a string of child deaths suddenly plagues their small community, Trajan and Li are conscripted by the local cops to figure out what’s going on.
With that as its basis, this should've been an easy one for Carr to knock out of the park, especially considering just how deft a job he did with turn-of-the-century forensics in The Alienist. And at first it's got all the morbid, oogy bits that originally turned me on to writers like Mo Hayder and Tana French (in her darker moments). The first body Trajan and Li investigate is that of a teenage girl strung up in a closet, her clothes folded neatly on the floor next to her. Was she murdered? Is it an accidental overdose made to look like a suicide? Or is it something altogether darker and more nefarious? (Hint: It's "c.") It doesn't take long for them to discover that this body is just the latest in a series of deaths that the local police have either covered up or been incapable of dealing with. As I said, all the pieces for a slam-bang thriller were in places.
The sad thing, though, it that Surrender, NY ends up being a decent mystery hobbled by, I guess, Carr's lack of impulse control. As characters, Trajan and Li are mainly a collection of self-consciously wacky quirks (Trajan owns a cheetah; he and Li work out of the body of a disused WWII-era airplane), and the dialogue is almost unforgivably clunky. This is especially true when Carr introduces Lucas, a teenager who becomes Trajan's spunky, profanity-obsessed young sidekick. Like a lot of Young Adult authors, Carr can't quite wrangle adolescent vernacular into anything approaching believable speech, so a lot of their exchanges sound like Cool Teenage Dialogue™ instead of authentic conversations between people we believe to be real. Similarly, Trajan's first-person narration tries to have it both ways by asking him to relay information that’s way more comprehensive than a single dude should have access to. For instance, for a 30something forensic scientist who is, seemingly by all accounts, kind of a walking disaster in the interpersonal relationship department, he has a weirdly comprehensive knowledge of people's clothing and other details. Take this description of another doctor:
That kind of thing is peppered throughout the book, and its purpose (I think) is to give the reader all the same information from a first person narrator that they'd typically get from an omniscient narrator. But it's so obviously tortured in places that I found myself repeatedly thinking, "There's no way Trajan would know that.
Surrender, NY really is a case of squandered potential. I liked it well enough, and the book really hums along when Trajan and Li dig into the details of the case, employing an inexorable logic that would make Holmes and Watson proud. But there were also long stretches where my mind wandered – Carr really loves having Trajan ruminate on the history of upstate New York, and it's in these stretches especially where narrative momentum grinds to a halt – and by the end I found it ultimately to be a book that just barely works, and does so in spite of its own impulses.
Trajan Jones and Michael Li are forensic scientists exiled to upstate New York after ruffling too many police feathers in the Big Apple with their effective but unconventional methods. When a string of child deaths suddenly plagues their small community, Trajan and Li are conscripted by the local cops to figure out what’s going on.
With that as its basis, this should've been an easy one for Carr to knock out of the park, especially considering just how deft a job he did with turn-of-the-century forensics in The Alienist. And at first it's got all the morbid, oogy bits that originally turned me on to writers like Mo Hayder and Tana French (in her darker moments). The first body Trajan and Li investigate is that of a teenage girl strung up in a closet, her clothes folded neatly on the floor next to her. Was she murdered? Is it an accidental overdose made to look like a suicide? Or is it something altogether darker and more nefarious? (Hint: It's "c.") It doesn't take long for them to discover that this body is just the latest in a series of deaths that the local police have either covered up or been incapable of dealing with. As I said, all the pieces for a slam-bang thriller were in places.
The sad thing, though, it that Surrender, NY ends up being a decent mystery hobbled by, I guess, Carr's lack of impulse control. As characters, Trajan and Li are mainly a collection of self-consciously wacky quirks (Trajan owns a cheetah; he and Li work out of the body of a disused WWII-era airplane), and the dialogue is almost unforgivably clunky. This is especially true when Carr introduces Lucas, a teenager who becomes Trajan's spunky, profanity-obsessed young sidekick. Like a lot of Young Adult authors, Carr can't quite wrangle adolescent vernacular into anything approaching believable speech, so a lot of their exchanges sound like Cool Teenage Dialogue™ instead of authentic conversations between people we believe to be real. Similarly, Trajan's first-person narration tries to have it both ways by asking him to relay information that’s way more comprehensive than a single dude should have access to. For instance, for a 30something forensic scientist who is, seemingly by all accounts, kind of a walking disaster in the interpersonal relationship department, he has a weirdly comprehensive knowledge of people's clothing and other details. Take this description of another doctor:
She had slung her simple black Bottega Veneta hobo bag on the back of her chair, and draped her similarly reserved but costly Alexander McQueen linen jacket over it . . . and it was easy to see very light perspiration forming through her sheer Anne Fontaine white shirt.
That kind of thing is peppered throughout the book, and its purpose (I think) is to give the reader all the same information from a first person narrator that they'd typically get from an omniscient narrator. But it's so obviously tortured in places that I found myself repeatedly thinking, "There's no way Trajan would know that.
Surrender, NY really is a case of squandered potential. I liked it well enough, and the book really hums along when Trajan and Li dig into the details of the case, employing an inexorable logic that would make Holmes and Watson proud. But there were also long stretches where my mind wandered – Carr really loves having Trajan ruminate on the history of upstate New York, and it's in these stretches especially where narrative momentum grinds to a halt – and by the end I found it ultimately to be a book that just barely works, and does so in spite of its own impulses.
jonjeffryes's review against another edition
3.0
I really like the way that Carr creates these unexpected motley crews to join forces to solve large mysteries...this reads a bit as a spiritual sequel to The Alienist. It has a very similar tone but takes place in modern times. I thought it went too long and I never quite believed in the character of Ambyr, but still a compelling read.