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verkisto's review
1.0
Buh, what a mess of a book. The story rambles a lot, circles back in on itself multiple times, doesn't feel particularly original, has a habit of telling rather than showing, and it's full of lackluster characters. It's not interesting, it's barely engaging, the narrative feels awkward and clunky, and some of the dialogue is so stilted it makes me cringe. It has touches of sexism and misogyny, too, which is disappointing, even for a book that was published over twenty years ago.
To the author's credit, he owns up to most of these foibles. He writes (and writes and writes and writes ... there are 5-6 essays about the book included as bonus material in this edition) about this being his first novel, and how much luck was involved with it getting published at all. He even states his regret for the misogyny, but I have to give him more credit for leaving it in, when he could have taken the opportunity to revise some of the worst parts.
Arnzen seems to want to defy those who dislike the book, which ... okay, as an author, you have that right, but man, if you can identify bad parts of the book, how can you defy those who don't like it as a result? I feel like the book suffers for all of Arnzen's philosophizing about it, because his whole perspective on things puzzles me. Maybe I'm mixing up the different essays, some of which were written closely after its original publication, others following as much as twenty years later, but he comes across as both self-effacing and arrogant about the book. I feel like books need to stand on their own without apologies or defenses from the authors.
I hate to give it just one star (it's not as bad as the Ron Dee and Rick R. Reed dreck that also populated the Abyss imprint, and which fully deserved the one-star ratings), but whoah nelly, it's not a two-star book by any means. It's times like these when I wish Goodreads would allow zero or half stars, so I could at least rank all these books in relation to each other.
Abyss #42
To the author's credit, he owns up to most of these foibles. He writes (and writes and writes and writes ... there are 5-6 essays about the book included as bonus material in this edition) about this being his first novel, and how much luck was involved with it getting published at all. He even states his regret for the misogyny, but I have to give him more credit for leaving it in, when he could have taken the opportunity to revise some of the worst parts.
Arnzen seems to want to defy those who dislike the book, which ... okay, as an author, you have that right, but man, if you can identify bad parts of the book, how can you defy those who don't like it as a result? I feel like the book suffers for all of Arnzen's philosophizing about it, because his whole perspective on things puzzles me. Maybe I'm mixing up the different essays, some of which were written closely after its original publication, others following as much as twenty years later, but he comes across as both self-effacing and arrogant about the book. I feel like books need to stand on their own without apologies or defenses from the authors.
I hate to give it just one star (it's not as bad as the Ron Dee and Rick R. Reed dreck that also populated the Abyss imprint, and which fully deserved the one-star ratings), but whoah nelly, it's not a two-star book by any means. It's times like these when I wish Goodreads would allow zero or half stars, so I could at least rank all these books in relation to each other.
Abyss #42
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