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3.28 AVERAGE
3.28 AVERAGE
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
funny
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Easy read but I found that it was too unrealistic for me to fully enjoy it.
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I will say, one of the best things about this book is how short it is.
Okay, okay, that's not exactly right.
The first half of this book, I actually genuinely enjoyed. It's a jaunty little tale, told in that typically very early-20th century style, where there's minimal characterisation and it's more a series of humourous events happening to a gent who sort of goes along with it all because he's bored. The chapters here are short and self-contained, the sort of thing you'd expect to read in local magazines of the time.
And then it escalates... but the stakes never feel quite high. See, the problem with stories that evolve over events and not characterisation is that I never feel drawn into the narrative. How can I trust the stakes are high when it never feels that way?
I'll say this, however: part of the longevity of this book, I believe, is that it ushered in the spy genre. Though I may not enjoy this book as fully as others, I can appreciate it for that reason... even if I personally don't like spy novels.
Okay, okay, that's not exactly right.
The first half of this book, I actually genuinely enjoyed. It's a jaunty little tale, told in that typically very early-20th century style, where there's minimal characterisation and it's more a series of humourous events happening to a gent who sort of goes along with it all because he's bored. The chapters here are short and self-contained, the sort of thing you'd expect to read in local magazines of the time.
And then it escalates... but the stakes never feel quite high. See, the problem with stories that evolve over events and not characterisation is that I never feel drawn into the narrative. How can I trust the stakes are high when it never feels that way?
I'll say this, however: part of the longevity of this book, I believe, is that it ushered in the spy genre. Though I may not enjoy this book as fully as others, I can appreciate it for that reason... even if I personally don't like spy novels.
adventurous
I read this as part of a reading challenge, so disclaimer that this is not my preferred genre. Yet again, it’s another stupid thriller. It’s only like 100 pages long, shouldn’t have even taken me an hour to read, and yet has dragged out over a week because it simply isn’t interesting. And when I tried to shake off my distraction and focus on the plot, I just found myself more confused on every page. And then I realized my entire review can take the shape of six questions.
■ Who? — Who the heck is this guy? Richard Hanney is the protagonist. He’s Scottish, though he was raised in Africa (that tiny country “Africa”), and he has been in England for awhile suffering from total boredom. Why doesn’t he have a job? What is he living on? And who is he even supposed to be?! What I hate about first-person narratives is exactly this: just getting violently dumped into the narrative with no explanation whatsoever. Rewrite this book from third person and maybe I wouldn’t be nearly as confused — but I doubt it. Anyway, most books eventually offer you some explanation of who the heck the main character is, but 75 pages in and I still didn’t know who Richard Hanney was or why I should care. The action, I guess, is supposed to be enough; talk about plot-first.
■ Where? — Initially it’s London. I gathered that much from Hanney somehow finding the most exciting city ever to be a pit of boredom. And then things start happening — I’ll get to that — and Hanney makes a break for the north, and the plot descends into some trains and cross-country and one automobile crash. An airplane comes up. But about after the car crash, I ceased having any concept of where this guy was, but I suppose all’s fair because he didn’t know either.
■ When? — It is 1914, but I had to find that out from the Wikipedia because I wasn’t getting it from the book. While our narrator obsessively tells us what o’clock it is every few paragraphs, and that it was May in the first chapter, he never actually mentions the year. I guess this is less egregious when the copyright says 1915, but a hundred years later, I can’t be counted on to realize it’s set the spring before its publication. Actually I spent a lot of the first half trying to decide whether the imminent outbreak of war was WWI or WWII. I was struck by the idea that any assassination would have served to trigger the Great War.
■ What? — Oh, yeah, the book is sort of about triggering WWI. Some random guy shows up on the protagonist’s doorstep, neither of them knowing the other from Adam. Nevertheless, rando there confides in our convenient protagonist a wild tale of geopolitical intrigue, war, and assassination. Like any normal, sane, everyday human being, Hanney says “no milk today, thanks,” and shuts the door on him. Oh, wait, no, that’s not what happens. He gives the man food, clothes, and a room in his house for several days free of charge. Also, he never takes it on himself to question the man about his weird adventure, and when the man offers details, he doesn’t pay attention. What?! What kind of protagonist is this? My willful suspension of disbelief took a hike. Nobody would do this. Anyway, rando is savagely murdered and Hanney decides, however implausibly, to take up the mission himself, sneaking out of his apartment, making off with rando’s conspiracy goods, and takes off with the aid of remarkably and luckily available new disguises himself.
■ How? — Yeah, this was really the secondmost common question that occurred to me during a read that should’ve taken 60 minutes but instead dragged over a week. There are ten chapters, which mainly focus on the people Hanney encounters, just about every single one of which is useful for a disguise or furthering the plot. Actually in its construction, this book would make a way better computer game than a book, because everybody he talks to is like an NPC with useful information or props. And don’t give me that “it was written in a different time” spiel. The Iron Pirate was written 20 years before this and didn’t hang on so much implausibility.
■ Why? — That’s really what it comes down to. Every single page, I was asking, “Why is this happening?” I was constantly trying to sort out why, and it truly ruined whatever suspense the plot might’ve had. Why would this guy show up on Hanney’s door and tell him all this? Why would Hanney believe him? Why, believing him, would he keep him and take care of him, and then flee his murder? Why, fleeing his murder like a guilty man, would he pick up the guy’s quest? Why would any of the authorities later believe and assist him? Why would the bad guys condescend to play bridge with him for three hours while he tried to decide if they were the bad guys or not?! Why would anything in this entire book happen?
■ Who? — Who the heck is this guy? Richard Hanney is the protagonist. He’s Scottish, though he was raised in Africa (that tiny country “Africa”), and he has been in England for awhile suffering from total boredom. Why doesn’t he have a job? What is he living on? And who is he even supposed to be?! What I hate about first-person narratives is exactly this: just getting violently dumped into the narrative with no explanation whatsoever. Rewrite this book from third person and maybe I wouldn’t be nearly as confused — but I doubt it. Anyway, most books eventually offer you some explanation of who the heck the main character is, but 75 pages in and I still didn’t know who Richard Hanney was or why I should care. The action, I guess, is supposed to be enough; talk about plot-first.
■ Where? — Initially it’s London. I gathered that much from Hanney somehow finding the most exciting city ever to be a pit of boredom. And then things start happening — I’ll get to that — and Hanney makes a break for the north, and the plot descends into some trains and cross-country and one automobile crash. An airplane comes up. But about after the car crash, I ceased having any concept of where this guy was, but I suppose all’s fair because he didn’t know either.
■ When? — It is 1914, but I had to find that out from the Wikipedia because I wasn’t getting it from the book. While our narrator obsessively tells us what o’clock it is every few paragraphs, and that it was May in the first chapter, he never actually mentions the year. I guess this is less egregious when the copyright says 1915, but a hundred years later, I can’t be counted on to realize it’s set the spring before its publication. Actually I spent a lot of the first half trying to decide whether the imminent outbreak of war was WWI or WWII. I was struck by the idea that any assassination would have served to trigger the Great War.
■ What? — Oh, yeah, the book is sort of about triggering WWI. Some random guy shows up on the protagonist’s doorstep, neither of them knowing the other from Adam. Nevertheless, rando there confides in our convenient protagonist a wild tale of geopolitical intrigue, war, and assassination. Like any normal, sane, everyday human being, Hanney says “no milk today, thanks,” and shuts the door on him. Oh, wait, no, that’s not what happens. He gives the man food, clothes, and a room in his house for several days free of charge. Also, he never takes it on himself to question the man about his weird adventure, and when the man offers details, he doesn’t pay attention. What?! What kind of protagonist is this? My willful suspension of disbelief took a hike. Nobody would do this. Anyway, rando is savagely murdered and Hanney decides, however implausibly, to take up the mission himself, sneaking out of his apartment, making off with rando’s conspiracy goods, and takes off with the aid of remarkably and luckily available new disguises himself.
■ How? — Yeah, this was really the secondmost common question that occurred to me during a read that should’ve taken 60 minutes but instead dragged over a week. There are ten chapters, which mainly focus on the people Hanney encounters, just about every single one of which is useful for a disguise or furthering the plot. Actually in its construction, this book would make a way better computer game than a book, because everybody he talks to is like an NPC with useful information or props. And don’t give me that “it was written in a different time” spiel. The Iron Pirate was written 20 years before this and didn’t hang on so much implausibility.
■ Why? — That’s really what it comes down to. Every single page, I was asking, “Why is this happening?” I was constantly trying to sort out why, and it truly ruined whatever suspense the plot might’ve had. Why would this guy show up on Hanney’s door and tell him all this? Why would Hanney believe him? Why, believing him, would he keep him and take care of him, and then flee his murder? Why, fleeing his murder like a guilty man, would he pick up the guy’s quest? Why would any of the authorities later believe and assist him? Why would the bad guys condescend to play bridge with him for three hours while he tried to decide if they were the bad guys or not?! Why would anything in this entire book happen?