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maria_pulver's review
3.0
It took me a long time to finish this book and it took me another week to write this.
The book is not interesting and is bordering on boring. It's full of details that are irrelevant to the plot movement or its understanding, the hero is not inspiring and the settings are depressing.
However, the book reminded me how it felt to live under communist dictatorship.
The book is not interesting and is bordering on boring. It's full of details that are irrelevant to the plot movement or its understanding, the hero is not inspiring and the settings are depressing.
However, the book reminded me how it felt to live under communist dictatorship.
readacorn's review against another edition
Kurzmeinung / Leseerlebnis
Das Buch ist sehr atmosphärisch und einnehmend geschrieben. Vom Lesefluss her würde ich 5 von 5 Sternen vergeben. Auch die Charaktere sind toll gezeichnet.
Die Handlung allerdings plätschert so vor sich hin. Gelegentlich gab es spannende Momente, allerdings eher selten.
3,5 Sterne von mir, hauptsächlich wegen der interessanten Thematik und dem tollen Schreibstil.
Das Buch ist sehr atmosphärisch und einnehmend geschrieben. Vom Lesefluss her würde ich 5 von 5 Sternen vergeben. Auch die Charaktere sind toll gezeichnet.
Die Handlung allerdings plätschert so vor sich hin. Gelegentlich gab es spannende Momente, allerdings eher selten.
3,5 Sterne von mir, hauptsächlich wegen der interessanten Thematik und dem tollen Schreibstil.
cpalisa's review
1.0
It looks like I'm in the minority here, but, thank God this one is done! It was a struggle to get through and (for me) it just didn't go anywhere. Didn't care for it at all.
chairmanbernanke's review against another edition
2.0
Not great but good qualities were likely lost in translation.
anaphabetic's review against another edition
3.0
No me ha apasionado nada este libro la verdad. Se lee bien, en ciertos puntos en interesante, pero me parece que en ciertos puntos se prolonga demasiado (sobretodo hacia el final) y encima en temas totalmente innecesarios. Por ejemplo, en el pasaje El Final hay un montón de ideas que se podrían haber expresado de una forma más sencilla y abreviada, y que creo que habrían quedado mucho mejor de esa manera.
Uno de las cosas que más me gustaron fue el principio, como habla de la familia Rong y las historias de las diferentes personas. Este en general un aspecto que me gusta y me atrae de todos los libros chinos o inspirados en china: la forma de tratar la familia y la historia familiar.
Uno de las cosas que más me gustaron fue el principio, como habla de la familia Rong y las historias de las diferentes personas. Este en general un aspecto que me gusta y me atrae de todos los libros chinos o inspirados en china: la forma de tratar la familia y la historia familiar.
cdeane61's review
3.0
An interesting read, but i feel clueless as to what it was trying to say about anything, cryptography, China, relationships, genius, and more.
All these topics were on the table, but not in any way that I could decode (see what I did there?)
Not sure that I have ever felt I fully got all I could of a book translated from the Chinese, so maybe that's part of it.
Good enough to keep me reading.
All these topics were on the table, but not in any way that I could decode (see what I did there?)
Not sure that I have ever felt I fully got all I could of a book translated from the Chinese, so maybe that's part of it.
Good enough to keep me reading.
nomad_stone's review
4.0
An interesting book with a story that could very well believed as true for how real the characters are in their strangeness, but flawed by some rather slow moments at times given by the author's preference for a not-so-fluid kind of writing.
margaretefg's review
3.0
I liked the historical sweep at the beginning of the novel, the whole family set up of how Rong Jinzhen came to be who and where he was, the politics of late 19th and early 20th century China. It gets more difficult as he becomes the main character because he is so distant and the top secret cryptography makes him even more distant, and then it seemed like it should be over for a long time before it actually ended. Reading it was a bit of a decoding process for me, I guess.
xeirea's review against another edition
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0