I had planned to abandon the book around page 160 or so. Other members of the Sword and Laser said "It gets better at page 300 when new characters are introduced." In a shocked sense of disbelief, I decided to press on to that point. And, okay, it really does get better at around page 300. In what universe is it okay for an author to not get to the good stuff until 300 pages in? My favorite parts of the book were from about page 300-700. The ending was not satisfying although all the ends are tied up.Here's the thing. I am in awe of Jenny because when the Booker nominees list comes out, she goes out and gets those books ... and actually reads them! And that's just one of the book awards lists she does that for.
I simply do not have that sort of stamina (or maybe it is simply dissimilar reading interests).
Whatever it is, when the lady who does that gives that indictment to Reamde, I am crossing it off my list.
One down. 300 to go.
I feel guilty now. I know some people who are really enjoying it....
ReplyDeleteThese longer books really show Neal Stephenson's warts as a writer. It takes him longer and longer to get going with each books, and his endings become more and more unsatisfying,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed Anathem a great deal, but primarily for the world building. This is a paricular quirk of mine (I also reread the Silmarillion for fun) and even though I enjoyed the book as I tore through it, I recognized at the time that other people would find it slow. The ending, however, was obnoxious, confusing, and annoying.
Diamond Age (which I liked) and Snow Crash (which I didn't) have the same weak and unsatisfying ending issues. Diamond Age has the same slow start. Snow Crash has an exciting start, but I don't recall it being necessary to the plot and the Pizza Mafia are abandoned till you almost forget who they are.
So it sounds like Reamde has the same sort of problems, exacerbated like in Anathem due to his popularity reducing the amount of editing he gets.