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3.95 AVERAGE
3.95 AVERAGE
Not worth the time investment. If you want apocalytic fiction with more substance, try Oryx and Crake by Margaret Atwood. This could have been a MUCH shorter book.
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
medium-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:
Complicated
adventurous
dark
inspiring
reflective
tense
slow-paced
This is a beautifully written and imagined novel with vivid characterization and an excellent plot, rich with action and with great character development, and an excellent movement of plot. Cronin moves the book from the beginnings of the virals (vampires) and then jumps forward 92 years forward, to 92 A.V. and portrays the life being lived after (and still during) the viral apocalypse. His use of an anatomical and epistolary style of using "conference" and "research" documents as well as journal entries making up some sections as well as using a more traditional third person omniscient narrator is a master's class of plot and POV management. The book is about 800 or so pages, and yet I read it in three days. Three days of doing little else, but three days where I was compelled to keep reading, where I just wanted to be living in the book. I love the characters in the book, and there are strong female and male characters, and subtle relationships throughout.
For all of the above reasons, I would have given this book five stars, but there are two reasons why I can't do that. Two reasons that I have struggled with, and whether or not it is just my hang up, and it might well be, but I don't think it is entirely my own bias. I read "The Twelve" right after this book, and so the books have somewhat merged in my mind, as have my objection, so I'll just discuss my lesser problem here, and my bigger problem with "The Twelve":
1) Reason one, and the less viscerally troubling reason I had a slight problem with this book, is the total lack of gay characters in the novel, besides the homosexual oriented pedophiles, which don't count as gay characters at all except as a perversion of sexuality in the same way that heterosexual pedophilia it a perversion. But besides that, somehow in the entirety of the human race, there is not a single gay person left alive. When I realized that around page 600, I was kicked out of the fictional dream. It just isn't believable. I don't expect this to be a "gay" novel. Cronin didn't need to make any of the central characters gay, although that would have been nice, and would have made sense because there are a dozen main characters. But besides that, there are so many secondary characters that make their way through the book in the background. So many married couples, singles, etc. that are mentioned throughout. How and why are none of this background cast gay? It could have been accomplished with one sentence, one mention of a same sex couple, and then move on. That would have created a more believable world. Having everyone being heterosexual is like having everyone that survived the viral apocalypse be the same race. It is just unbelievable to have a 100% heterosexual world. That has never been the case in all of human history, and I don't think some vampires are going to change that. He almost successfully built an entire complete fictional world, but not quite.
All of this said, I still recommend this book, and am glad I read it. It was a well written, well conceived novel, it just isn't a perfect novel.
For all of the above reasons, I would have given this book five stars, but there are two reasons why I can't do that. Two reasons that I have struggled with, and whether or not it is just my hang up, and it might well be, but I don't think it is entirely my own bias. I read "The Twelve" right after this book, and so the books have somewhat merged in my mind, as have my objection, so I'll just discuss my lesser problem here, and my bigger problem with "The Twelve":
1) Reason one, and the less viscerally troubling reason I had a slight problem with this book, is the total lack of gay characters in the novel, besides the homosexual oriented pedophiles, which don't count as gay characters at all except as a perversion of sexuality in the same way that heterosexual pedophilia it a perversion. But besides that, somehow in the entirety of the human race, there is not a single gay person left alive. When I realized that around page 600, I was kicked out of the fictional dream. It just isn't believable. I don't expect this to be a "gay" novel. Cronin didn't need to make any of the central characters gay, although that would have been nice, and would have made sense because there are a dozen main characters. But besides that, there are so many secondary characters that make their way through the book in the background. So many married couples, singles, etc. that are mentioned throughout. How and why are none of this background cast gay? It could have been accomplished with one sentence, one mention of a same sex couple, and then move on. That would have created a more believable world. Having everyone being heterosexual is like having everyone that survived the viral apocalypse be the same race. It is just unbelievable to have a 100% heterosexual world. That has never been the case in all of human history, and I don't think some vampires are going to change that. He almost successfully built an entire complete fictional world, but not quite.
All of this said, I still recommend this book, and am glad I read it. It was a well written, well conceived novel, it just isn't a perfect novel.
Inventive story, and a strange combo of action and literary genres. But I found the more literary pieces rather disjointed - also that some minor characters were quite developed, but then bumped off.
Incredible.. I love the authors version of Vampires, just read it; it's slept on.
I really enjoyed this take on the apocalypse. Although the novel is lengthy, the plot and characters are so engaging that it's difficult to put down.