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A review by nickyxxx
Made Things by Adrian Tchaikovsky
2.0
Do you remember the story of when you found a book with an awesome premise, which you thought you’d really love, and… then you didn’t?
I am a huge fan of everything steampunk. And I saw this book and I was like, TAKE MY MONEY. Tiny little dolls, made of wood, iron and other materials and their human counterpart who lies and steals – that’s really right up my alley.
But the harder I tried to get into the story, the less I could feel the characters and the world.
Let’s start at the beginning. There are so many characters, all with names that I’m supposed to remember, and the entire opening scene feels as chaotic as the actual world it is taking place in. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like boring opening scenes either, but Tchaikovsky just threw everything in my face at the same time. I can’t grasp the entire world at once, alright?
Not to mention that none of the characters seem to have their own voice, their own flaws and talents. If you really want to confuse the hell out of me, this surely is the way to go. I mean, I don’t even know what the main character is like – being an orphan isn’t a trait, after all, and it really isn’t what makes a character stand out.
I’ve said it before, a book without any interesting characters is inherently flawed. But it seems to be a trend among authors to just toss a name into a story and think they’re done. Please, write me some interesting, fucked-up misfits, not this kind of, uhm… boring stuff (I’ll keep it somewhat civil).
The story itself had great potential, really, with its puppets and magical world and slum-like neighbourhoods. If you want to get immersed in the setting – hear the buzz of a chatting crowd on the street and smell the stench of dog shit under your shoes – please look further, because this book won’t cut it.
It’s kind of ironic, isn’t it: Tchaikovsky attempted (please mind my choice of words here) to write a book about bringing inanimate things to life, but couldn’t do it himself.
Okay, so we’ve got our overwhelmingly large cast of characters and an empty-feeling world – are we done ranting now?
I wish I could say yes, but here we are. Might as well keep going.
So the story could’ve been really engaging, but it seemed as if it just, never… took off. Sure, some things happen, but I failed to grasp their significance. At one point I realized I was already 70% in, and… I still didn’t know what the story was about.
The heroine didn’t seem to have any goal in the book: she just got dragged on a mission by her friend, and found herself in a peculiar situation which she couldn’t escape from. Main characters who don’t actively pursue some sort of goal, do not in any way help the story forward. If there’s no main mission, it’s going to be be a crappy story. Just sayin’.
Then all of a sudden there was some sort of rescue mission and a really awkward fight scene, both of which could’ve been engaging – if the author had only remembered to include some high stakes and a good amount of tension. But no, how stupid of me to expect that *facepalm*. Not once did I feel the need to just keep turning the pages – well, I did, but only because I wanted to get it over with.
It’s never a good sign when I’m just rushing through the story just to be done with it. I want to be swept off my feet, I want to be sucked into the story – with characters that come to life and feel like real, flawed people to me. I want to be so invested that I physically twinge whenever they make some stupid decision or say something idiotic.
With an increasing amount of books that feel so bland and contain hardly any descriptions of the setting - actual descriptions of what it looks, sounds and smells like, which make me feel like I’m actually there – I’m starting to get concerned of what the sci-fi literature world is growing into. Tchaikovsky certainly didn’t help ease those worries.
This book could’ve been a delightful read, with an enjoyable world and great characters, but in my honest opinion it feels more like a first, very rough draft that hasn’t had any revisions yet.
I am a huge fan of everything steampunk. And I saw this book and I was like, TAKE MY MONEY. Tiny little dolls, made of wood, iron and other materials and their human counterpart who lies and steals – that’s really right up my alley.
But the harder I tried to get into the story, the less I could feel the characters and the world.
Let’s start at the beginning. There are so many characters, all with names that I’m supposed to remember, and the entire opening scene feels as chaotic as the actual world it is taking place in. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like boring opening scenes either, but Tchaikovsky just threw everything in my face at the same time. I can’t grasp the entire world at once, alright?
Not to mention that none of the characters seem to have their own voice, their own flaws and talents. If you really want to confuse the hell out of me, this surely is the way to go. I mean, I don’t even know what the main character is like – being an orphan isn’t a trait, after all, and it really isn’t what makes a character stand out.
I’ve said it before, a book without any interesting characters is inherently flawed. But it seems to be a trend among authors to just toss a name into a story and think they’re done. Please, write me some interesting, fucked-up misfits, not this kind of, uhm… boring stuff (I’ll keep it somewhat civil).
The story itself had great potential, really, with its puppets and magical world and slum-like neighbourhoods. If you want to get immersed in the setting – hear the buzz of a chatting crowd on the street and smell the stench of dog shit under your shoes – please look further, because this book won’t cut it.
It’s kind of ironic, isn’t it: Tchaikovsky attempted (please mind my choice of words here) to write a book about bringing inanimate things to life, but couldn’t do it himself.
Okay, so we’ve got our overwhelmingly large cast of characters and an empty-feeling world – are we done ranting now?
I wish I could say yes, but here we are. Might as well keep going.
So the story could’ve been really engaging, but it seemed as if it just, never… took off. Sure, some things happen, but I failed to grasp their significance. At one point I realized I was already 70% in, and… I still didn’t know what the story was about.
The heroine didn’t seem to have any goal in the book: she just got dragged on a mission by her friend, and found herself in a peculiar situation which she couldn’t escape from. Main characters who don’t actively pursue some sort of goal, do not in any way help the story forward. If there’s no main mission, it’s going to be be a crappy story. Just sayin’.
Then all of a sudden there was some sort of rescue mission and a really awkward fight scene, both of which could’ve been engaging – if the author had only remembered to include some high stakes and a good amount of tension. But no, how stupid of me to expect that *facepalm*. Not once did I feel the need to just keep turning the pages – well, I did, but only because I wanted to get it over with.
It’s never a good sign when I’m just rushing through the story just to be done with it. I want to be swept off my feet, I want to be sucked into the story – with characters that come to life and feel like real, flawed people to me. I want to be so invested that I physically twinge whenever they make some stupid decision or say something idiotic.
With an increasing amount of books that feel so bland and contain hardly any descriptions of the setting - actual descriptions of what it looks, sounds and smells like, which make me feel like I’m actually there – I’m starting to get concerned of what the sci-fi literature world is growing into. Tchaikovsky certainly didn’t help ease those worries.
This book could’ve been a delightful read, with an enjoyable world and great characters, but in my honest opinion it feels more like a first, very rough draft that hasn’t had any revisions yet.