paul

willing suspension

Revisado: 02-14-12

Most thrillers of this type--often a first novel--have the same format: innocent character mysteriously entangled in baffling, fatal series of events, life ruined, money gone, no one to trust, eluding guys both good and bad in search of answers, etc. This plot works because the reader wants to understand as much as the protagonist does, and the gradual accretion of information carries the day on the level of simple plot.

It's what happens alongside that basic structure that distinguishes potboilers from one another: how interesting the characters, setting and plot elements are, and how unusual and engaging all these things are.

This book succeeds on all fronts: it's a good romp through some non-standard terrain. I'll look for more from this guy.

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banal

Revisado: 11-25-11

This appears to be an earnest attempt to write a thriller; unfortunately, the writing is a string of cliches--situational, grammatical, structural. The insights are predictable and ham-handedly set up, the settings irrelevant or overdone (e.g. Washington DC). The lines intended to be profound are laughable.

The book isn't horrible, but it is tedious, predictable and banal; suitable for background noise if you're heavy bored.

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needs a different voice (or ten)

Revisado: 09-27-10

this novel has an outlandish plot, 'developed' in a series of vignettes scattered across the globe, each containing multiple 'characters' (largely clichéd). This would be confusing in any audio production; this one, however, suffers additionally from the limited range of the narrator's voice. The reader's voice seemed an odd choice from the opening pages, having an annoying timbre best reserved for women's prison warden, though it softened up a bit after a while and wasn't too bad, though far too fast. What complicates matters, though, is the narrator's limited vocal range, making all the disparate characters sound very much alike, especially as she tends to begin a new bit of dialogue in an imitation of another voice, but rapidly slinks back to her own. Not a very good book to start with, combined with a discordant reading, it's no wonder so many hours cost so little.

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enough

Revisado: 03-04-10

It's the first book of a series I won't be pursuing. The premise has run far enough in this 3-part narrative for me: the initial engagement of the absurd premise has worn off, and the promise of upcoming conflicts with the coming-to-focus distant enemy doesn't, for me, promise enough to make me continue.

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pretty fun

Revisado: 03-04-10

some good accents, lots of atmosphere, lots of good background, engaging characters. The author knows a lot about the subject: it's an anatomy of the water system, and, like the anatomy of melancholy, perhaps a bit too long. Still, enough different than the run-of-the-mill whodunit to keep me listening.

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