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3.29 AVERAGE
3.29 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-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:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Really loved this book it covers all genres… including time travel! Im really having to choose my next book to read because this book has left me speechless!
Excellent , as good as pilgrim. I wasnt sure about it at one stage but it came good again. Loved it, so exciting too
slow-paced
An absolute bin fire of a novel. 10 years after 'I Am Pilgrim', Terry Hayes returns. For 3/4 of 'Locust', we're on familiar ground - exceptional US secret agent good, Middle East mission full of bad guys. Hayes takes the nagging red flags that hindered the hugely successful 'Pilgrim' and doubles down on them: the book is far too long, it could easily be half the 660 pages; there is far too much backstory - every bit part character gets chapters of character history that are just not needed (do we care that the side character psychiatrist was a boy in Vietnam? No, it has nothing to do woth anything else in the book); it hints at xenophobia; Hayes develops a terrible habit of stopping paragraphs and chapters-
With a dash-
When a full stop would be perfectly fine-;
And our main character Kane, like Pilgrim before him, is an exceptional spy who makes constant dumb decisions, bad plans and relies on sheer coincidence and luck.
Another problem is the decision to write in the 1st person, then write endless scenes where Kane is not present, so can't possibly know what was said or what happened - Hayes knows this, so tries to get round it with clunky lines of 'as she described to me later/as I read in the report later/as the CCTV footage I watched showed Mr later'.
But then comes the final 1/4 of the book. What the hell happened? Suddenly, from nowhere, Russia is mining asteroids in deep space, an alien 'spore' is released and mutates humans and destroys the world, our hero ends up on an invisible submarine that TIME TRAVELS into the future - to the exact moment and place needed for no other reason than its needed for the story to work - then returns to the past without knowing anything about how the technology works. The spy story is jettisoned for sci-fi dystopia. Worse than the shift in tone is that it renders the first 3/4 that we've trawled through almost completely irrelevant. The plot is so dumb beyond belief and has holes you could drive an invisible submarine through.
I could go on. I've never been so angry with a book before. Not only is this an embarrassment to Hayes but to all involved - editors and publishers should be ashamed that this has been allowed to be published. It's a damning indictment of the corporate publishing world and the standard of literature that is published today.
I have no idea how anyone has seen fit to give this positive reviews, and those critics and publications that provide the blurb quotes need to have a serious look at their standards.
Its been over 18 months since my last 1 star review, and I rarely give them out, I always try to see the positive, but this is probably the worst book I've ever had the mispleasure to read. Just awful, awful, awful.
With a dash-
When a full stop would be perfectly fine-;
And our main character Kane, like Pilgrim before him, is an exceptional spy who makes constant dumb decisions, bad plans and relies on sheer coincidence and luck.
Another problem is the decision to write in the 1st person, then write endless scenes where Kane is not present, so can't possibly know what was said or what happened - Hayes knows this, so tries to get round it with clunky lines of 'as she described to me later/as I read in the report later/as the CCTV footage I watched showed Mr later'.
But then comes the final 1/4 of the book. What the hell happened? Suddenly, from nowhere, Russia is mining asteroids in deep space, an alien 'spore' is released and mutates humans and destroys the world, our hero ends up on an invisible submarine that TIME TRAVELS into the future - to the exact moment and place needed for no other reason than its needed for the story to work - then returns to the past without knowing anything about how the technology works. The spy story is jettisoned for sci-fi dystopia. Worse than the shift in tone is that it renders the first 3/4 that we've trawled through almost completely irrelevant. The plot is so dumb beyond belief and has holes you could drive an invisible submarine through.
I could go on. I've never been so angry with a book before. Not only is this an embarrassment to Hayes but to all involved - editors and publishers should be ashamed that this has been allowed to be published. It's a damning indictment of the corporate publishing world and the standard of literature that is published today.
I have no idea how anyone has seen fit to give this positive reviews, and those critics and publications that provide the blurb quotes need to have a serious look at their standards.
Its been over 18 months since my last 1 star review, and I rarely give them out, I always try to see the positive, but this is probably the worst book I've ever had the mispleasure to read. Just awful, awful, awful.
Spoiler Alert!
Terry Hayes'novel started out as a typical American-hero spy novel. You know the type...the protagonist is skilled in multiple languages, has unusual endurance and strength, is super smart etc...ie excessively unrealistic.
As was Kalinsky, the prime terrorist.
So, I was expecting more beyond-reality events and adventures. I'm happy to go along with bending light and time travel but 'The Year of the Locust' went just a bit over the top (understatement) with the invisible submarine about 2/3 into the book.
Then, totally over the top with Part 4 where we have a virus invasion, strange human-something creatures and then a post-apocalyptic NYC arrived at by mere co-incidence. I have to admit that I lost interest pretty quickly as the novel became more and more ridiculous even down to references to, of course, the 4th of July.
Such a disappointment after 'I am Pilgrim' a decade ago. Locust is a book that reads more like an AI experiment than the work of Terry Hayes.
Terry Hayes'novel started out as a typical American-hero spy novel. You know the type...the protagonist is skilled in multiple languages, has unusual endurance and strength, is super smart etc...ie excessively unrealistic.
As was Kalinsky, the prime terrorist.
So, I was expecting more beyond-reality events and adventures. I'm happy to go along with bending light and time travel but 'The Year of the Locust' went just a bit over the top (understatement) with the invisible submarine about 2/3 into the book.
Then, totally over the top with Part 4 where we have a virus invasion, strange human-something creatures and then a post-apocalyptic NYC arrived at by mere co-incidence. I have to admit that I lost interest pretty quickly as the novel became more and more ridiculous even down to references to, of course, the 4th of July.
Such a disappointment after 'I am Pilgrim' a decade ago. Locust is a book that reads more like an AI experiment than the work of Terry Hayes.
The first 60% is an outstanding spy caper and a thrilling fun read. The second half - it’s like two different books were married together. The second half is abysmal. Read this book for the first half and don’t bother with the rest.
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A