Scan barcode
heidi_may91's review
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
mjporterauthor's review
5.0
Momenticon is a wonderfully weird and yet engagingly easy to read novel.
It immerses the reader into its strange futuristic world, and I"m only disappointed that it's the first of two parts, and I don't yet know how it all ends.
Readers will thoroughly enjoy the world-building and characters. They too, will be left wanting more as the characters weave their way through an alien world populated with images that readers will find reassuringly familiar.
My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my review copy.
It immerses the reader into its strange futuristic world, and I"m only disappointed that it's the first of two parts, and I don't yet know how it all ends.
Readers will thoroughly enjoy the world-building and characters. They too, will be left wanting more as the characters weave their way through an alien world populated with images that readers will find reassuringly familiar.
My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my review copy.
kleonard's review
2.0
I liked the author's earlier work, but this seems to be convoluted for the sake of being convoluted, There are megacorporations running and ruining the world, improbable holdouts and survivors, loads of reality-altering drugs, several murders, a romance, and some good characters, but there was just too much horse-trading instead of actual plot.
themanfromdelmonte's review
1.0
DNF 78%
I struggled with this book, only abandoning it when I discovered by chance that there is a sequel. I persevered for so long because of my huge respect for the author. (I thought Rotherweird was a work of genius)
However, I lost patience with it in the end. So much of it features unlikely people doing unlikely things that I felt as if I was reading an adult fairy tale at times. The allusions to Alice didn't help and I constantly felt as though I wasn't educated enough to catch all the clever references to art and literature. I don't like to be made to feel stupid when I'm reading a novel for entertainment.
The reader should come to care for the protagonist and I just didn't. None of the characters made sense to the extent that it was hard to believe they could be real.
I struggled with this book, only abandoning it when I discovered by chance that there is a sequel. I persevered for so long because of my huge respect for the author. (I thought Rotherweird was a work of genius)
However, I lost patience with it in the end. So much of it features unlikely people doing unlikely things that I felt as if I was reading an adult fairy tale at times. The allusions to Alice didn't help and I constantly felt as though I wasn't educated enough to catch all the clever references to art and literature. I don't like to be made to feel stupid when I'm reading a novel for entertainment.
The reader should come to care for the protagonist and I just didn't. None of the characters made sense to the extent that it was hard to believe they could be real.
marchelos's review
dark
hopeful
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.75
joosty's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
informative
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
seang81's review
2.0
So I really enjoyed the Rotherweird series and was looking forward to this, however, a word of warning, Momenticon is not like those books. This was quite fantastical and, because of that, I struggled. There's a lot of world building, the characters were difficult to differentiate between (possibly because of a similarity in names?), the wording felt a little too grandiose...I could go on. For me, this novel didn't provide me with any sort of impact in the way the Rotherweird series did. Read if you like your fantasy futuristic and with a heavy does of magical surrealism.
pilebythebed's review against another edition
4.0
Those readers who have experienced the delights of Andrew Caldecott’s Rotherweird series (Rotherweird, Lost Acre and Wyntertide) may have some inkling of what to expect from the first of his latest duology Momenticon. That earlier series dealt with an English town cut off from the rest of the world, alternate realities, bizarre inventions and a roll call of eccentric characters. But even they may have to recalibrate in the face of the sheer post-apocalyptic weirdness that makes up his latest novel.
Momenticon opens in a museum full of famous art works, a lonely dome in a dying landscape. The Museum has been looked after for the last three years by a young man called Fogg but has received no visitors. As the third year ticks over strange things start to happen including finding a pill that gives him Monet’s perspective of painting his water lillies, discovering that a young woman called Morag Spire has been living above him in the ceiling of the Museum for three years and being visited by two malicious young men dressed as Tweedledum and Tweedledee out of Alice in Wonderland. Morag and Fogg catch each other up on the previous three years before the story catches up to the present and then hurtles forward.
There is so much going on in Momenticon that it is hard to encapsulate. But the overarching narrative is a battle for control between the two powers (Genrich who specialise in cloning and Tempestas who can control the weather) that remain over the damaged world with Fogg, Morag and their allies caught in the middle. The battle takes place in landscapes that have been created to resemble famous art works and involve not only people but robots and genetically altered creatures resembling characters out of Alice in Wonderland. And that is before we get to the momenticons themselves – pills that can transport the taker to another world – which only a few, including Morag and the evil Cosmo Vane, have the power to create.
Readers of Caldecott’s previous work will recognise many familiar elements but deployed in a new guise. The fundamental battle between good and evil, a range of characters with Dickensian names (such as Oblivious Potts, Peregrine Mander and Hilda Crike), a steampunk aesthetic (the main characters get around in windbag operated airships and there are plenty of automata), puzzles and quests, and a very English sensibility. But here, being post-apocalyptic, he also has an environmental point to make.
Momenticon is wild but fun and works within its own crazy frame of reference. The trick is to let accept the fantastical premise, don’t wait around for too much exposition and go with it. While Rotherweird took a while to get going, this book is more stripped back, only providing a little backstory before dropping straight into the action. After which it feels non-stop, splitting the protagonists up and bringing them together again, delivering a series of growing climaxes and then leaving readers hanging for an anticipated concluding second volume.
Momenticon opens in a museum full of famous art works, a lonely dome in a dying landscape. The Museum has been looked after for the last three years by a young man called Fogg but has received no visitors. As the third year ticks over strange things start to happen including finding a pill that gives him Monet’s perspective of painting his water lillies, discovering that a young woman called Morag Spire has been living above him in the ceiling of the Museum for three years and being visited by two malicious young men dressed as Tweedledum and Tweedledee out of Alice in Wonderland. Morag and Fogg catch each other up on the previous three years before the story catches up to the present and then hurtles forward.
There is so much going on in Momenticon that it is hard to encapsulate. But the overarching narrative is a battle for control between the two powers (Genrich who specialise in cloning and Tempestas who can control the weather) that remain over the damaged world with Fogg, Morag and their allies caught in the middle. The battle takes place in landscapes that have been created to resemble famous art works and involve not only people but robots and genetically altered creatures resembling characters out of Alice in Wonderland. And that is before we get to the momenticons themselves – pills that can transport the taker to another world – which only a few, including Morag and the evil Cosmo Vane, have the power to create.
Readers of Caldecott’s previous work will recognise many familiar elements but deployed in a new guise. The fundamental battle between good and evil, a range of characters with Dickensian names (such as Oblivious Potts, Peregrine Mander and Hilda Crike), a steampunk aesthetic (the main characters get around in windbag operated airships and there are plenty of automata), puzzles and quests, and a very English sensibility. But here, being post-apocalyptic, he also has an environmental point to make.
Momenticon is wild but fun and works within its own crazy frame of reference. The trick is to let accept the fantastical premise, don’t wait around for too much exposition and go with it. While Rotherweird took a while to get going, this book is more stripped back, only providing a little backstory before dropping straight into the action. After which it feels non-stop, splitting the protagonists up and bringing them together again, delivering a series of growing climaxes and then leaving readers hanging for an anticipated concluding second volume.
booksforscee's review against another edition
3.0
his book is an all round wonderful and completely bonkers fairy tale. I want to see a animated movie from Pixar based off of it. I mean some of the vibes reminded me of UP sooo its meant to be.
At the start you think its a dystopian sci-fi sort of thing, but then the whole thing unravels even further and you fall down the rabbit hole. Following lovely heartfelt characters (Fogg deserves the world) you tumble through a tumultuous future earth. Where most of humanity has been wiped out and those that remain only survive through the use of Chitinous shields that protect them from the toxic dust that blankets earth. This is really a book thats told through stories, fairy tales, paintings and sculptures. I would definitely recommend looking up the pieces that are mentioned.
Overall I did feel like the book went on too long. There were too many twists and turns that it got to a point where I didn’t really have any sense of wonder at finding a new sanctuary or some other weird situation. A few sort of magical realism devices just seemed to be used too many times. I really enjoyed the first half of this book but after that I just went on too long and started to drag.
At the start you think its a dystopian sci-fi sort of thing, but then the whole thing unravels even further and you fall down the rabbit hole. Following lovely heartfelt characters (Fogg deserves the world) you tumble through a tumultuous future earth. Where most of humanity has been wiped out and those that remain only survive through the use of Chitinous shields that protect them from the toxic dust that blankets earth. This is really a book thats told through stories, fairy tales, paintings and sculptures. I would definitely recommend looking up the pieces that are mentioned.
Overall I did feel like the book went on too long. There were too many twists and turns that it got to a point where I didn’t really have any sense of wonder at finding a new sanctuary or some other weird situation. A few sort of magical realism devices just seemed to be used too many times. I really enjoyed the first half of this book but after that I just went on too long and started to drag.
rachelann88's review
adventurous
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0