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resounding success

Revisado: 09-01-22

Its hard for me to find fault with this trilogy. But I sometimes wonder whether it's success is due to the narrator, such is her skill at delivering rich characters.

Thats said, it's the motivation and actions of these characters which make them so compelling.
I adore these book and the only real difficulty is explaining them to friends in some vain hope they will also read them.

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Even Better

Revisado: 08-30-22

The second book finds Breq and Seivarden in the aftermath of a secret civil war but the story is more intimate. Its so good and so heartfelt.

We're treated to some new characters who give us a variety of motivations, including, love, loyalty, hatred and revenge ... and not in the most traditional of pairings

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Good world building

Revisado: 08-25-22

I was hooked straight away and found the intrigue deepened throughout the novel.

The characters felt lived in and the story's premise gave me enough world building to keep me hungry.

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Goes places

Revisado: 08-25-22

An interesting read, and certainly not afraid to draw with some bold strokes. The issues I had were maybe more technical so liable to taste.

The author chose to use modern slang and pop culture references in the writing and dialogue and I found it too distracting.

Also, even knowing the horrors some of the characters experienced, I didn't find the likable enough to be sympathetic.

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Avoid at all costs

Revisado: 08-25-22

This felt like it was going to be a slam dunk for me. I love fantasy and the isekai (another world) genre. I very wrong.

The setup is fine. A mysterious illness and being transported to a different world full of magic and opportunity.

The problem is the writer has only the slimmest imagination and is hell bent on spreading it thinly across 10 stories.

Each character is impossibly capable, kind and wise. literally no problem feels like a challenge.

And each story arch is identical. The protagonist, dripping with humility, encounter an entitled noble who they low-key humiliate, and then out maneuver any consequences effortlessly. mostly making a lifelong friend along the way.

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Great ideas, bad ideas and poor delivery

Revisado: 06-05-21

I expected a detective noir and got one set in a wild uncohesive future filled with unlikable characters with inconsistent voices and motivations. And the narrator really hams it up too.

Honestly surprised because of favourable reviews. Maybe I'm noir challenged.

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Perfection

Revisado: 02-06-15

If you could sum up The Luminaries in three words, what would they be?

An engrossing mystery

What did you like best about this story?

This story unfolds so naturally becoming clearer and more complex all the while: It's meticulously crafted.

What about Mark Meadows’s performance did you like?

Meadows is truly brilliant and I was especially impressed how nimble he is jumping between characters.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

A Chinaman, a Scotsman, a land baron, a journalist, a mystic, a chemist, a politician, an opium-fuelled prostitute and a dead body: You figure it out.

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Insight and tenderness in a dark time in history

Revisado: 02-06-15

If you could sum up The Narrow Road to the Deep North in three words, what would they be?

Stirring, enlightening, tender

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Narrow Road to the Deep North?

There is a moment when the reader learns something the protagonist isn't aware of and it changes the complexion of the whole book.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Richard Flanagan?

Anyone else. Sam Neil (kiwi I know) or and australian with natural gravitas. Flanagan wrote the book but I didn't like his narration. The start of the book is read especially slow, I assume to add and artistic solemnity but it annoyed me.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

A boring man's journey through the bitter trials of love and war.

Any additional comments?

Seriously, i enjoyed this book but (SPOILERS) the protagonist is a serial adulterer, a rock-star surgeon and a leader of men though horrific conditions BUT he is so dull!

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