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3.57 AVERAGE
3.57 AVERAGE
This should have been right up my alley. I really enjoy Huston's writing and story approach, and I have a fondness for end-of-the-world stories, but this was a resounding 'meh.'
Usually, Huston is skilled at piquing my interest in characters lacking in likable traits or heroic qualities. I just could not develop any concern for the main character, Parker Hass (Parker. Totally generic name), who seems like a full-on Heroic-But-Loner-Boy-Scout, which you would think would be even more likable than a slacker (Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death) or a nihilistic vampire (the Joe Pitt series). But no. He was blander than white bread toast with margarine.
The narrative is three-fold, switching between the third-person view of our hero, the first-person view of our hero, and the view of a Antihero-Loner-Art-Appreciating-Assassin (a more common trope in movies). Somewhere in here, I might have cared, except I didn't. I was mostly bored.
And the plague? Again, I love me a good disease, and real diseases are totally scary, so it should be easy to tap into an imaginary one, right? I mean, c'mon, zombie fan here. But the 'disease' of sleeplessness was just... sleep-inducing. Maybe Huston is such a great writer that the power of suggestion worked on me. Could be. I do know from my own episodes of sleep-deprivation or poor sleep-quality (man, do I ever dislike night shifts), that sleep-deprivation is an insidious and terrible thing. Except the horror of it rarely develops, really. It relies on Parker's infant and his sleep-deprived wife to really get at the delusions. It should be worse, it really should; perhaps Parker is so guarded from his own emotions around it, his tightly contained fear, that it's hard to believe he is scared.
I'm afraid I'm kind of soured on this book for a while, and will throw it into the pile to one day re-read. Meanwhile, it has me thinking about re-reading Huston's other works to recapture that fond feeling.
Usually, Huston is skilled at piquing my interest in characters lacking in likable traits or heroic qualities. I just could not develop any concern for the main character, Parker Hass (Parker. Totally generic name), who seems like a full-on Heroic-But-Loner-Boy-Scout, which you would think would be even more likable than a slacker (Mystic Arts of Erasing All Signs of Death) or a nihilistic vampire (the Joe Pitt series). But no. He was blander than white bread toast with margarine.
The narrative is three-fold, switching between the third-person view of our hero, the first-person view of our hero, and the view of a Antihero-Loner-Art-Appreciating-Assassin (a more common trope in movies). Somewhere in here, I might have cared, except I didn't. I was mostly bored.
And the plague? Again, I love me a good disease, and real diseases are totally scary, so it should be easy to tap into an imaginary one, right? I mean, c'mon, zombie fan here. But the 'disease' of sleeplessness was just... sleep-inducing. Maybe Huston is such a great writer that the power of suggestion worked on me. Could be. I do know from my own episodes of sleep-deprivation or poor sleep-quality (man, do I ever dislike night shifts), that sleep-deprivation is an insidious and terrible thing. Except the horror of it rarely develops, really. It relies on Parker's infant and his sleep-deprived wife to really get at the delusions. It should be worse, it really should; perhaps Parker is so guarded from his own emotions around it, his tightly contained fear, that it's hard to believe he is scared.
I'm afraid I'm kind of soured on this book for a while, and will throw it into the pile to one day re-read. Meanwhile, it has me thinking about re-reading Huston's other works to recapture that fond feeling.
Good Sci-Fi. Took me a while to get into it and figure out the different points of view, but a great read once I settled in.
a dark book with an unexpectedly moving ending - in the near future, 10% of the population are afflicted with fatal insomnia that claim its victims over the course of up to a year of increasingly dreamlike delusion. as society collapses, a drug called "Dreamer" emerges that can offer temporary soothing to the afflicted, but no cure presents itself. the story follows an undercover cop in LA attempting to penetrate a black market "Dreamer" distribution ring, unknowingly pursued by a calculating assassin with a secret agenda. grindingly dystopian, yes, but the characters are exceedingly well-drawn and the resolution is both satisfying and poetic.
An oddly appropriate novel to start reading on a midnight flight to Tokyo. I enjoyed the shifting styles of this book as is jumped from one perspective to another, their 'voices' slowly becoming more indistinguishable as their stories became more intertwined. The main character is a drug dealer in a world where Sleepless is an insomnia-like disease gripping the population. This perspective alone makes it very different from any books in this genre. Add to that the ruthless but aging mercenary as the second protagonist and I was pleasantly surprised overall.
The plot is relatively simple but the execution is refreshing, and it helped me sleep, so 4 stars it is!
The plot is relatively simple but the execution is refreshing, and it helped me sleep, so 4 stars it is!