3.39 AVERAGE

robinbrz's profile picture

robinbrz's review

DID NOT FINISH: 15%

Too dark for me with more complex world building than I prefer. 
mkdila's profile picture

mkdila's review

DID NOT FINISH: 31%

Truly unreadable. I wanted to give this a chance because I really enjoyed Miéville's The City and The City, but man this was the trenches. No descriptors of characters, very little setting description, and sentences that are not sentences. Run-ons and incomplete sentences made this painful to get through. 
dark emotional mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
dark mysterious slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
deltajuliet83's profile picture

deltajuliet83's review

DID NOT FINISH: 14%

Too weird.

fishjay's review against another edition

DID NOT FINISH

Too dense and prosaic. Not my cup of tea.
tobin_elliott's profile picture

tobin_elliott's review against another edition

DID NOT FINISH: 26%

Yeah, this one's a hard no. 

Now, I've read every single issue of the BRZRKR comic series that this book is based on, and I catch the references. And no, no one will ever mistake any issue of that series as Important Literature. But the comic has two things going for it that are completely missing here.

The first is, the series tells a story and for the most part, it's clear and understandable. The second is, the series is written well. Not overwritten, not underwritten. Not fantastic, but not terrible.

This book though? I have no idea how much—if any—input Reeves had in it, and I do get the impression they wanted to both broaden and deepen the mythos of Unute (aka B) which isn't a bad thing. But—and again, I'm guessing here, but I'm guessing China Miéville is the sole writer—the various narrative voices in this book, because we're literally bouncing from narrator to narrator, is both confusing as hell, as well as terribly written. 

I tried, because I'm a fan of the comic. I really tried. 

But with every book that ultimately ends up a DNF, there's a point where I stop reading and just ask myself, "do I care what happens next? Have I cared at any point in this story?" And if the answers are "no" to both, as they were with this book, I stop reading.

But you know what? Typically, I still usually keep the book, or donate it. This one? This one's getting returned for a refund.

No rating, because of the DNF.

jodieryu's review


DNF'd at 30%
I tried really hard to get through it but it was painful. I don't think the style of writing or story was for me, personally.
challenging mysterious reflective tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced