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kairosdreaming 's review for:
The Celestine Prophecy
by James Redfield
I first read this book back in middle school, and back then, it made a profound impact on me. Some of the concepts about energy and human's use of it are things I still think about. Now, returning as an adult, I have a somewhat different perspective.
Redfield has good story concepts and ideas, but unfortunately he leaves a lot to be desired as a writer. Where when I was younger I didn't recognize or could ignore a lot of things, there were certain words, phrases, directions the book took that had me questioning what younger me though. It didn't help that I was reading the book aloud to someone else either; that just made the issues that more glaring.
First and foremost, you could make a drinking game out of the amount of times that someone looks intensely at another person in this book. It happens nearly every page, sometimes more. We began shouting it out loud at certain points because it amused us. Same goes with conversation and the use of the word "said". And that goes to the conversations itself; there is no conversation that doesn't mean something in this book. Everything has a message. Which gets a bit tedious. It's like it's the only way the author has of expressing his views so there's a lot more telling than showing that happens.
But it does have some good points. I still find the concepts of energy a bit magical in this book. Who wouldn't want to view energy that way or use it? For adventure, it does have a compelling narrative; religion and government trying to limit what might take their power, etc.
My advice is, don't take this book too serious. It's not going to be a guidebook. Enjoy it for what it is and view it as the author's concepts of the world around and things he would like to see.
Review by M. Reynard 2020
Redfield has good story concepts and ideas, but unfortunately he leaves a lot to be desired as a writer. Where when I was younger I didn't recognize or could ignore a lot of things, there were certain words, phrases, directions the book took that had me questioning what younger me though. It didn't help that I was reading the book aloud to someone else either; that just made the issues that more glaring.
First and foremost, you could make a drinking game out of the amount of times that someone looks intensely at another person in this book. It happens nearly every page, sometimes more. We began shouting it out loud at certain points because it amused us. Same goes with conversation and the use of the word "said". And that goes to the conversations itself; there is no conversation that doesn't mean something in this book. Everything has a message. Which gets a bit tedious. It's like it's the only way the author has of expressing his views so there's a lot more telling than showing that happens.
But it does have some good points. I still find the concepts of energy a bit magical in this book. Who wouldn't want to view energy that way or use it? For adventure, it does have a compelling narrative; religion and government trying to limit what might take their power, etc.
My advice is, don't take this book too serious. It's not going to be a guidebook. Enjoy it for what it is and view it as the author's concepts of the world around and things he would like to see.
Review by M. Reynard 2020