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A review by acgood
Invisible Things by Jenny Davidson
1.0
I feel like I just got side-swiped. What...happened??! Everything interesting and good in The Explosionist is dumped and Davidson's writing regressed so, so much. It feels like this was the very first, roughest draft that she gave to her editor, and her editor stiffed her and turned this into the publisher, no edits or even looking it over.
First off, every important event happens offstage and is reported to Sophie through newspapers or the radio. This isn't an exaggeration; things like the European Federation invading Denmark, Aunt Tabitha committing suicide, and this dissolution of IRYLNS happens with little note or fanfare. These are all such interesting, important events and they're given NO screen time. As a result, the whole plot mostly consists of Sophie's thoughts, wanderings, meetings, and meals. It is incredibly boring and unremarkable in terms of plot.
Also, all of the interesting alternate world building either gets put on hold (like the cultural differences between Scotland and the continental members of the Hanseatic League) or vaguely elaborated on (the scientific progress of the atom bomb). This is incredibly frustrating because Davidson had some very intriguing world building in the last book; it's what kept me interested in picking up the sequel. In fact, that applies to the plot points as well; IRYLNS is disbanded with little notice or fanfare and then quickly dropped from the plot, and the simmering war in Europe is only lightly hinted at, despite the invasion of the Hanseatic League.
And finally, Davidson's writing somehow regressed, and regressed hard. This reads like a first time writer using the Thesaurus function in Word. Davidson relies so much on using SAT words for adjectives to describe even mundane things, like Sophie's cat curling up in her lap and purring ("She could feel the steady vibration of his purr, a deep, reassuring rumble that seemed to resonate with her own sympathetic nervous system and helped her settle down into some semblance of calm.") Along with that, her sentences became so long and verbose; I read a sentence that was literally thirteen lines long. This was not present in The Explosionist AT ALL. I really don't know what happened to her writing in the intervening years.
I was really sad and frustrated with this book because the first book really showed that Davidson can write, and had some interesting ideas. But for some reason that all got chucked out the window in favor of a short but plodding retelling of The Snow Queen that somehow ends on a happy note despite imminent war.
First off, every important event happens offstage and is reported to Sophie through newspapers or the radio. This isn't an exaggeration; things like the European Federation invading Denmark, Aunt Tabitha committing suicide, and this dissolution of IRYLNS happens with little note or fanfare. These are all such interesting, important events and they're given NO screen time. As a result, the whole plot mostly consists of Sophie's thoughts, wanderings, meetings, and meals. It is incredibly boring and unremarkable in terms of plot.
Also, all of the interesting alternate world building either gets put on hold (like the cultural differences between Scotland and the continental members of the Hanseatic League) or vaguely elaborated on (the scientific progress of the atom bomb). This is incredibly frustrating because Davidson had some very intriguing world building in the last book; it's what kept me interested in picking up the sequel. In fact, that applies to the plot points as well; IRYLNS is disbanded with little notice or fanfare and then quickly dropped from the plot, and the simmering war in Europe is only lightly hinted at, despite the invasion of the Hanseatic League.
And finally, Davidson's writing somehow regressed, and regressed hard. This reads like a first time writer using the Thesaurus function in Word. Davidson relies so much on using SAT words for adjectives to describe even mundane things, like Sophie's cat curling up in her lap and purring ("She could feel the steady vibration of his purr, a deep, reassuring rumble that seemed to resonate with her own sympathetic nervous system and helped her settle down into some semblance of calm.") Along with that, her sentences became so long and verbose; I read a sentence that was literally thirteen lines long. This was not present in The Explosionist AT ALL. I really don't know what happened to her writing in the intervening years.
I was really sad and frustrated with this book because the first book really showed that Davidson can write, and had some interesting ideas. But for some reason that all got chucked out the window in favor of a short but plodding retelling of The Snow Queen that somehow ends on a happy note despite imminent war.