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A review by logantea
Chasing Shadows by Paul Costanzo, Tom DeLonge, A.J. Hartley
3.0
This book doesn’t seem sure what it wants to be. Somewhat grounded sci-fi thriller? Conspiracy theory fanfic? Screed against the US government intelligence complex and a world hijacked by shady special interests?
I really enjoyed the beginning of this book. It’s setup as a loosely based on reality piece of fiction, that through mixing truth and fiction tells a hidden truth. The writing style is somewhat dry, but that actually serves to enhance the idea that this is almost a historical account (despite being fiction). The multiple narratives are all interesting and populated with characters I was drawn to care about. However, as the novel goes on it seems to become overly ambitious and loses focus.
There’s 4 regular narratives you have to keep track of in this book, but then it will randomly throw in a chapter of conspiracy theory fanservice that simply recounts recorded alien sightings and does nothing to advance the plot. When they occurred at the beginning of the book they worked to enhance the mood, but as the book went on they simply became cumbersome roadblocks that brought the well paced plot to a startling halt.
I also felt the writer of the book was much less adept at writing fight sequences than they were at building the tension during the investigation and world building sections of the book, which meant my eyes started to glaze over and I completely lost interest during the final fight sequence. This was made all the more frustrating by the fact that it doesn’t lead to a satisfying conclusion. By the end everyone is double crossing everyone else and it's not clear what anyone's goal is or who they're even working for.
Overall it’s a decent and enjoyable read that seems to get so caught up in what it’s trying to do (expose conspiracies and rail against government secrecy) that it loses track of where the story is actually going. It spends most of the book seeming like it wants to be a somewhat grounded conspiracy theory thriller, but by the end there’s dozens of UFOs fighting all over earth and it’s never clear why the hell anyone is benefitting from keeping the UFOs secret when it seems that every powerful nation on earth has a buttload of them lying around that they’re not afraid to constantly use. There's Nazi's too -- and they serve no purpose besides giving a reason for some old dude to have written a diary about alien tech that someone can find and make it all the more strange and implausible that people are still hiding this UFO tech when it's apparently been in operation since the 40s.
It seems like perhaps some of my confusion and reservations about the end of this book are setup to be resolved by a sequel, but I don’t think the fact that there’s a sequel coming is a valid excuse for badly written and unsatisfying endings. And at this point the logic of this conspiracy is so unbelievable and confusing that I'm not sure they could manage to tie a nice bow around it. But I suppose maybe that's my fault for expecting any consistent logic in a book purporting to expose the truth of an alien conspiracy.
I really enjoyed the beginning of this book. It’s setup as a loosely based on reality piece of fiction, that through mixing truth and fiction tells a hidden truth. The writing style is somewhat dry, but that actually serves to enhance the idea that this is almost a historical account (despite being fiction). The multiple narratives are all interesting and populated with characters I was drawn to care about. However, as the novel goes on it seems to become overly ambitious and loses focus.
There’s 4 regular narratives you have to keep track of in this book, but then it will randomly throw in a chapter of conspiracy theory fanservice that simply recounts recorded alien sightings and does nothing to advance the plot. When they occurred at the beginning of the book they worked to enhance the mood, but as the book went on they simply became cumbersome roadblocks that brought the well paced plot to a startling halt.
I also felt the writer of the book was much less adept at writing fight sequences than they were at building the tension during the investigation and world building sections of the book, which meant my eyes started to glaze over and I completely lost interest during the final fight sequence. This was made all the more frustrating by the fact that it doesn’t lead to a satisfying conclusion. By the end everyone is double crossing everyone else and it's not clear what anyone's goal is or who they're even working for.
Overall it’s a decent and enjoyable read that seems to get so caught up in what it’s trying to do (expose conspiracies and rail against government secrecy) that it loses track of where the story is actually going. It spends most of the book seeming like it wants to be a somewhat grounded conspiracy theory thriller, but by the end there’s dozens of UFOs fighting all over earth and it’s never clear why the hell anyone is benefitting from keeping the UFOs secret when it seems that every powerful nation on earth has a buttload of them lying around that they’re not afraid to constantly use. There's Nazi's too -- and they serve no purpose besides giving a reason for some old dude to have written a diary about alien tech that someone can find and make it all the more strange and implausible that people are still hiding this UFO tech when it's apparently been in operation since the 40s.
It seems like perhaps some of my confusion and reservations about the end of this book are setup to be resolved by a sequel, but I don’t think the fact that there’s a sequel coming is a valid excuse for badly written and unsatisfying endings. And at this point the logic of this conspiracy is so unbelievable and confusing that I'm not sure they could manage to tie a nice bow around it. But I suppose maybe that's my fault for expecting any consistent logic in a book purporting to expose the truth of an alien conspiracy.