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3.72 AVERAGE
3.72 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
adventurous
emotional
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
As a big fan of Shantaram, I approached this book with a bit of trepidation--can a sequel deliver the same impact as the first book in the series? Well, almost. It was a pleasure to meet the likes of Lin, Karla and Didier once again. Their lives of crime continue to fascinate, as do the new characters who find their way onto the pages of this book. Alcohol and drugs are frequently involved, and seem to be an important component in finding a pathway to enlightenment and spirituality. Gregory David Roberts weaves an intricate tale, and his language is often beautiful and thought provoking. Overall, a very good read.
adventurous
funny
inspiring
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
A very long read; parts are really good and parts you can literally skip over. I skimmed/skipped over all the philosophy talk and focused on the story itself. It is definitely a good follow-up to his first book and does close all the loops at the end, which I always like. If you've read Shantaram, and liked it, you should read the sequel.
This was a nice conclusion to the character arcs and plot that was set up in Shantaram, but it lacked some of the spice and impact of the first book. In Shantaram, the introduction of a foreign main character to the people and culture of India was powerful, likely because the author had lived a similar experience and remembered the feeling of sinking into a new cultural experience. For me, the plot was always secondary to this philosophical "personal growth/enlightment" element.
TMS focuses more on plot and character (which I do think are mostly improved) and has less focus on culture. I think that interfered with my enjoyment to some extent, and I found myself being more frustrated by cheesy writing, annoying relationships, not enough editing, bad communication between characters, etc. than I was with the first book. It's still a good story, and it's definitely worth reading after Shantaram to fill out the missing details and get a real ending, but on its own, I don't think it's anything to marvel over.
Technical Rating: 2.5/5
Enjoyment Rating: 3/5
TMS focuses more on plot and character (which I do think are mostly improved) and has less focus on culture. I think that interfered with my enjoyment to some extent, and I found myself being more frustrated by cheesy writing, annoying relationships, not enough editing, bad communication between characters, etc. than I was with the first book. It's still a good story, and it's definitely worth reading after Shantaram to fill out the missing details and get a real ending, but on its own, I don't think it's anything to marvel over.
Technical Rating: 2.5/5
Enjoyment Rating: 3/5
adventurous
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A story of too many caricatures all jammed into one book. Skip.
Not as good as Shantaram (which is one of my favorite books ever), but it was nice to be back in Lin's world.
I didn't much care for Shantaram, so I should have been ready for the sequel, but I had hopes. Lame, lame, lame. I'm not even sure where to begin. The main character, aloof, armed, and violent, manages to befriend a strange assortment of friends, sort of friends, anyway, since even he refers to these oddballs as his "characters." His group is sort of like a bad sit-com arrangement with himself and his sometimes girlfriend the parental figures lording over an assortment of misfits. Virtually everything about the main character is supposed to be impressively cool, yet the denouement of the story shows that most of this macho bravado shit was really playing out in his mind while his Karla really was running the show. In addition, the novel really has no plot, no story arc: things happen for no real reason, and he reacts, and then something else happens (hard to write this without spoiler examples). Without wholly bizarre coincidences, the novel would fall apart. Consider, one non-spoiler example: the main character is looking for another of the characters, but because for some reason, he refuses to use the telephone (one of his many quirks that we are supposed to find curious and endearing), he simply cruises the streets of Mumbai until he finds her. What? I could cruise the streets of my town of 10,000 for weeks and not run across a particular person, yet this sort of thing happens constantly. I would swear that Mumbai must be about ten blocks in size with a population of a hundred people the way that these folks constantly run into each other at just the right moment. Most chapters end or begin with some heavy sounding, quasi-philosophical nonsense that sounds like something from the '60s and which is often unrelated to the plot, what little of it there is. Let's see, anything else? Oh, yes, the motorcycle. Our hero regularly when depressed simply has "to ride," talking to his motorcycle at times. I have no problem with maintenance, but the motorcycle whisperer thing goes too far. At one point when he is unable to get the bike started for no clear reason, his girlfriend caresses it and talks soothingly to it, and off we go -- unintended hilarious sexual undertones.