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rui_leite's review against another edition
3.0
It's an odd creature this...
It's better than the previous book, I'll give it that, but the narration can still be painfully boring, prone to describe actions in pointless detail for no good reason other than to fill space with words. This turns what should have been a fun quick read into a challenge for patience(although the style does pay off when we reach odd settings or scenes, true).
Bruce, the first person narrator, who, by the way, had a completely pointless role in the story and I can't for the life of me, understand why he was there to begin with, is very prone to melodrama (really, don't get me started on the "love story"), and, more often than not, slow-witted as everything (for goodness sake, at one point he has his room set on fire, then his food poisoned, he barely escapes a thrown knife while walking down the street... and some time later he points out "he suspects someone might be trying to kill him". Yeah. HE SUSPECTS! Good one Sherlock.) in many ways he is remarkably similar to the protagonist, whatsisname, in the first book, but gladly Boothby understood that this time around the protagonist role HAD to fall on Nikola. Thank God for that.
Because even from a very rubbishy point of view like Bruce's, Nikola is a delight to read. When all else fails (and it will fail, trust me) just have him being generally amoral, acting nonchalantly while facing certain death (as it so often happens), hinting at having hidden supernatural powers, being obsessed by science, mathematics and the occult at the most unexpected and awkward moments, referring to thousands of noodle incidents of his past, and being overall a curious and fascinating creature.
I swear I don't know how such a great character in its own right could have developed in the middle of all this tripe, but it did, and that somehow makes me believe some characters are just meant to exist no matter what. Honestly, it's easy to imagine Nikola forcing himself into the mind of the writer just because he wants to exist, and refusing to be written in any other way, like all the other idiots that seem to surround him. (And the point being it doesn't seem we are supposed to take all those other characters as idiots... but, they just are.... sorry...)
Talking about idiots... do expect several moments of idiot's ball (because my God, they happen)... and offensive racial stereotypes(as you might expect from a book of this time period set in "exotic foreign lands", ok...) and cringe worthy sentimentality. They are all there.
But the basic premise for the story is fairly decent though, just handled badly. So, here, have a star for Nikola + another star for a good premise + another star for a few truly good bits of weirdness. Everything else, zero. So, three stars in total. But barely. So watch it, Boothby, I have my eye on you...
It's better than the previous book, I'll give it that, but the narration can still be painfully boring, prone to describe actions in pointless detail for no good reason other than to fill space with words. This turns what should have been a fun quick read into a challenge for patience(although the style does pay off when we reach odd settings or scenes, true).
Bruce, the first person narrator, who, by the way, had a completely pointless role in the story and I can't for the life of me, understand why he was there to begin with, is very prone to melodrama (really, don't get me started on the "love story"), and, more often than not, slow-witted as everything (for goodness sake, at one point he has his room set on fire, then his food poisoned, he barely escapes a thrown knife while walking down the street... and some time later he points out "he suspects someone might be trying to kill him". Yeah. HE SUSPECTS! Good one Sherlock.) in many ways he is remarkably similar to the protagonist, whatsisname, in the first book, but gladly Boothby understood that this time around the protagonist role HAD to fall on Nikola. Thank God for that.
Because even from a very rubbishy point of view like Bruce's, Nikola is a delight to read. When all else fails (and it will fail, trust me) just have him being generally amoral, acting nonchalantly while facing certain death (as it so often happens), hinting at having hidden supernatural powers, being obsessed by science, mathematics and the occult at the most unexpected and awkward moments, referring to thousands of noodle incidents of his past, and being overall a curious and fascinating creature.
I swear I don't know how such a great character in its own right could have developed in the middle of all this tripe, but it did, and that somehow makes me believe some characters are just meant to exist no matter what. Honestly, it's easy to imagine Nikola forcing himself into the mind of the writer just because he wants to exist, and refusing to be written in any other way, like all the other idiots that seem to surround him. (And the point being it doesn't seem we are supposed to take all those other characters as idiots... but, they just are.... sorry...)
Talking about idiots... do expect several moments of idiot's ball (because my God, they happen)... and offensive racial stereotypes(as you might expect from a book of this time period set in "exotic foreign lands", ok...) and cringe worthy sentimentality. They are all there.
But the basic premise for the story is fairly decent though, just handled badly. So, here, have a star for Nikola + another star for a good premise + another star for a few truly good bits of weirdness. Everything else, zero. So, three stars in total. But barely. So watch it, Boothby, I have my eye on you...
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