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A review by cdurbzz
Only Forward by Michael Marshall Smith
1.0
there's a distinction between a book i don't like and a book that's poorly written; the mark of a true one-star novel is that it satisfies both conditions.
anyway this sucked. the goofy irreverence really wore thin after 30 pages, but it was fucking relentless (had a similar problem with catch-22). the narrative takes so many illogical, poorly established turns into utter nonsense - first half is a snatch-and-grab caper that veers wildly into an end-times fantasy about stopping a malevolent supervillain from wreaking havoc on the dream world (not kidding). the bad guy, by the way, is introduced halfway through the novel and doesn't actually make an appearance in the story until the penultimate page, following multiple chapters of pure expository drivel that completely derails any momentum generated up to that point.
i wrote a short story in grade 2 that opened with my main character, speaking directly to the reader, giving his name and home address. this writing reminded of that.
anyway this sucked. the goofy irreverence really wore thin after 30 pages, but it was fucking relentless (had a similar problem with catch-22). the narrative takes so many illogical, poorly established turns into utter nonsense - first half is a snatch-and-grab caper that veers wildly into an end-times fantasy about stopping a malevolent supervillain from wreaking havoc on the dream world (not kidding). the bad guy, by the way, is introduced halfway through the novel and doesn't actually make an appearance in the story until the penultimate page, following multiple chapters of pure expository drivel that completely derails any momentum generated up to that point.
i wrote a short story in grade 2 that opened with my main character, speaking directly to the reader, giving his name and home address. this writing reminded of that.