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A review by gluckenstein
Polostan by Neal Stephenson
adventurous
funny
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
3.0
Neal Stephenson is a horse girl confirmed.
Having read Cryptonomicon, which was so adamant about being something more than just a historical novel, it's kind of delightful in its own way to see Stephenson writing what appears on the surface to be a much more conventional historical (+spy-ish) fiction, with all its cliches, like cameos of historical figures that the perfect reader gets a rush out of recognizing paragraphs before they are named by the author. On the other hand, there's not quite enough exciting action in this volume (let alone weighty character relationships that, to be fair, probably never were author's strongest suit, although some character stuff here is solid) to make up for how places where Stephenson struts his stuff as a science popularizer (or just a Wikipedia-brained freak) are minimized compared to the earlier novel.
Also doesn't help that rarely do you see a beginning of the trilogy that makes less bones about being just a first third of a story. It's very common and sensible to end a novel that will have continuation on a cliffhanger but when it has to do with a character that was first introduced 10 pages prior... Come on, that's not how it's done!
PS. Or is it not even confirmed as a trilogy and may prove longer? If so, God help us all.
Having read Cryptonomicon, which was so adamant about being something more than just a historical novel, it's kind of delightful in its own way to see Stephenson writing what appears on the surface to be a much more conventional historical (+spy-ish) fiction, with all its cliches, like cameos of historical figures that the perfect reader gets a rush out of recognizing paragraphs before they are named by the author. On the other hand, there's not quite enough exciting action in this volume (let alone weighty character relationships that, to be fair, probably never were author's strongest suit, although some character stuff here is solid) to make up for how places where Stephenson struts his stuff as a science popularizer (or just a Wikipedia-brained freak) are minimized compared to the earlier novel.
Also doesn't help that rarely do you see a beginning of the trilogy that makes less bones about being just a first third of a story. It's very common and sensible to end a novel that will have continuation on a cliffhanger but when it has to do with a character that was first introduced 10 pages prior... Come on, that's not how it's done!
PS. Or is it not even confirmed as a trilogy and may prove longer? If so, God help us all.