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summerzinger 's review for:
American War
by Omar El Akkad
Arghhh I wanted to love this one I really did, but for such an exciting premise I found myself constantly distracted and/or bored while reading.
American War starts off strong. The opener is written retrospectively and explains that between the years 2075 and 2094 America was engaged in a second civil war between the dominant North and the rebel South, largely over the outlaw of fossil fuel (which to me was a fairly weak catalyst for a 20 year war, when there are soooo many other things that could and should have contributed).
The world is a changed place with country borders flooded by the oceans, and new dominant world powers. The bulk of the story follows protagonist Sarat during the course of the war. We see Sarat experience unspeakable tragedies that slowly strip her of her humanity and turn her into the South's most powerful weapon.
So where did it go wrong? Something about it felt very impersonal. Despite the horrific things done to Sarat, I felt very little for her. There was a ginormous time frame of events to get through, and it felt like true character development was sacrificed because of this. I found the structure off putting, with a lot of jumping from event to event, and jumping from first person to third person.
It would have worked much better as a trilogy and probably will work much better as a movie. A+ for originality, D for execution.
American War starts off strong. The opener is written retrospectively and explains that between the years 2075 and 2094 America was engaged in a second civil war between the dominant North and the rebel South, largely over the outlaw of fossil fuel (which to me was a fairly weak catalyst for a 20 year war, when there are soooo many other things that could and should have contributed).
The world is a changed place with country borders flooded by the oceans, and new dominant world powers. The bulk of the story follows protagonist Sarat during the course of the war. We see Sarat experience unspeakable tragedies that slowly strip her of her humanity and turn her into the South's most powerful weapon.
So where did it go wrong? Something about it felt very impersonal. Despite the horrific things done to Sarat, I felt very little for her. There was a ginormous time frame of events to get through, and it felt like true character development was sacrificed because of this. I found the structure off putting, with a lot of jumping from event to event, and jumping from first person to third person.
It would have worked much better as a trilogy and probably will work much better as a movie. A+ for originality, D for execution.