Crimsonient

I surprisingly didn't like the book

Revisado: 03-31-15

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POSSIBLE SPOILERS

I found it really weird, but I really didn't care for this book. I love the play, and the idea is one of the best sounding out there to me, but the book itself has a talent of getting me mad and losing my interest. The aspects I didn't like are probably things that others wouldn't mind or would even love, but I couldn't help but be distracted by. I didn't even finish the first 7 hrs of the book, so for all I know, these things are different later on, and I'm only speaking for this section of the story. Anyway, I was distracted by the racism, the point of view shifts, and the incorporation of religion.
Firstly, the racism, I feel like could have been a wonderful facet to the story, but it was done in a way that I found inconsistent and unrelatable. Specifically with the Animals, there was very little said as to why the Animals are lesser creatures. The segregation seems weird because no one seems to think they are intellectually any lesser than humans, or if anyone does they don't say so, which I guess would make the segregation purely an aesthetic thing? Plus, in a college setting, where the thinking is generally more liberal and everything is questioned, the Animals debate is never mentioned. I know not everyone saw Animals as lesser, so why was there no division among the students even in just this aspect. Even when the story was being told by Boq, he didn't ever express any view on the segregation even though apparently Dillamond was his idol. I like seeing passion in a character, and having a crush on Galinda/Glinda is not good enough for me. It made him unrelatable and sort of two dimensional. Anyway, this is something I know I'm being picky about, and that didn't make this a bad story, it was just something that distracted me.
Secondly, I would get confused with who was telling the story and why. The point of view shifts from third person to first person (always the p.o.v. of a character I didn't care about) and I was distracted by this. I was also disappointed that the writer didn't take full advantage of the point of view switch and use it more for character development. It was like some outside person was writing a story from the point of view of a person they are observing and assuming thoughts that the person is having based on their actions. People think a lot more than the writer lets on and I felt like I couldn't understand any of the characters more than superficially. I know this is also me just being picky, but I felt like the switches made the story less fluid, and I didn't get the information I wanted that would make up for the awkwardness of the switch.
Lastly, and most importantly to me, the incorporation of religion. Now, I'm all for this, and all for fictional religions, but I didn't know what was going on here until the religions were explained by Frex and Nanny later on in the book while debating. This is a wonderful way of explaining things in a movie, but this isn't a movie. I didn't understand the significance of the clock at the beginning and why it was bad, why Frex was against it, why the people were so affected by it, and really what it was other than a prop. Since nothing was explained before Frex started showing action in his work, I had to assume that the religion was not made up and was possibly something like Catholicism or Christianity. But then the unnamed god was brought up, and the pleasure faith mentioned (which I had nothing really to compare to, other than maybe people who live life just for instant gratification and pleasure, but then, it didn't feel that way as it had a god itself which made me think this was inaccurate) and other actions confused me, like why he was so against the clock at the beginning. I really need someone to just name the main religions and just give a sentence or two on what they believe then I'd be able to understand what's going on better.



All in all, the reason I gave such a bad rating was because of the sequels. If this book was the only one in the series, I'd probably be able to finish it and still grumble about it a bit, but probably enjoy it overall. However, because of the sequels and because the writer apparently likes to leave some things unexplained until later makes me completely uninterested in finishing this book because I don't want to have to go on to the next books just to understand something in the first book. Overall, not completely terrible, but terrible for me personally.

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esto le resultó útil a 10 personas

Unexpectedly perfect!

Revisado: 02-14-15

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I absolutely love this!! I was not expecting the narrator to be perfect for this story. He made very distinct voices for each of the characters which made listening much easier and much MUCH more entertaining. His narration made it super easy to submerge myself into the story, which, for me, is impossible for me to do with a bad or even a decent narrator. He is wonderful and I could not be happier about his performance. The story itself is well known, but for anyone who doesn't know anything about it, plainly, it's a wonderful story. Bilbo is easy to identify with because of some of his nervousness, and you get to watch him grow into someone who is brave but also uses his intellect and common sense. The story is also easy to submerge yourself into, making the narrator and the story perfect for eachother. I didn't grow up with the story, so the nostalgia factor is out of there, and it's still exciting, challenging, and in a lot of places hilarious.

10 outta 10, would recommend.

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