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3.47 AVERAGE
3.47 AVERAGE
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This is the worst book I’ve read in recent memory. The cover and blurb tricked me. It was the most boring and utterly pointless 300+ pages with zero plot development and a hundred pointless side quests, for no resolution/payoff and the promise of a sequel. Who would want to read MORE books of this? I feel betrayed, disappointed, and mad at myself that I even wasted my time finishing it.
This is a big unwieldy uncoth novel, and I loved it!. It's one of those of novels that feels it was written for me. I loved the writing, the messiness, that paticular brand of British otherness and mystical that I am always drawn to.
It was just one of books where I could live in, those winding streets, towers, shadowey libraries and what not.
It was just one of books where I could live in, those winding streets, towers, shadowey libraries and what not.
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Underwhelming. The comparisons to Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell are apt, but somewhat unflattering to this novel as it's just not as good. It's not terrible, but I'm not remotely tempted to check out future instalments in the trilogy.
Andrew Caldecott QC tries to build a unique world of fantasy and strange characters comparable to Hogwarts or Gormenghast. But the end result is closer to The Vicar of Dibley, without the humour.
So I have to agree with all of the less favourable reviews so far: poor characterisation, too many dull characters with awful names (Oblong, Snorkle, Valourhand), slightly juvenile writing style, little atmosphere and worst of all a very muddled plot.
Caldecott devotes a chapter at the end to tie up the lose storyline threads, but it still made little sense to me. He has ideas but struggles with character motivation. This is a novel with the ambition of selling screen rights, (the author has previously written plays) as the descriptive passages almost read as scene notes.
So I have to agree with all of the less favourable reviews so far: poor characterisation, too many dull characters with awful names (Oblong, Snorkle, Valourhand), slightly juvenile writing style, little atmosphere and worst of all a very muddled plot.
Caldecott devotes a chapter at the end to tie up the lose storyline threads, but it still made little sense to me. He has ideas but struggles with character motivation. This is a novel with the ambition of selling screen rights, (the author has previously written plays) as the descriptive passages almost read as scene notes.
A well crafted puzzle that tantalisingly reveals some of its clues and actually leaves others for you to work out. Very satisfying. Lovely bunch of characters too.
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
When my curious crew members on the sailing boat asked me what I was reading and what I thought of it, I struggled to answer. How do you describe a book that is equal parts mystery, fantasy and dark academia? Add to this a dash of Pratchett-like quirkiness. In theory, Rotherweird sounds like the book for me, but in reality it was difficult to come to grips with. It wasn’t until the beginning of the end of the story that I felt like I knew what the story was about. I was surprised to learn that it was set in the year 2017 since there was a distinct lack of mobile phones, social media and computers… In fact, during the first 250 pages I was fumbling in the dark, just following the whims of the author. Sometimes, this kind of “exploratory” reading can be fun and part of the storytelling but now I felt like it was more down to this being the author’s first attempt at a novel. Some of the workarounds to keep the reader in the blind in regard to the mystery of the story were a little too obvious (in the style of “he thought of the secret thing he was going to do, then did the secret thing and finally celebrated that he had succeeded with his secret mission”). But hey! These are only the reasons this book isn’t getting a five star review from ME, it’s still worth a read if the blurb sounds interesting to you. It’s imaginative, ambitious, playful and there are several characters I would have liked to get to know better.