Saturday 12 October 2013

Challenge Interrupted; to review or not to review.....

So, anyone following this blog will be aware that during my annual leave I am doing a book reading challenge.

Up until now I have thoroughly enjoyed all the books, then yesterday I pulled up with an abrupt stop. Jeff Carlson author of the much enjoyed  Plague Trilogy, which I originally found as a discarded book on a beach and was so enthralled I bought the whole lot on Kindle. (Yes, I still love REAL books!) stumped me with Interrupt.

Ok, I understand that to read sci-fi or horror you have to have a huge suspension of disbelief most of the time, but this was just ridiculous.

*there will be spoilers*

The main characters were poorly written with rubbish back and ongoing stories and just didn't develop in themselves or add to the overall book/story other than to irritate.

The author would have you believe that devastating solar flares are just going to suddenly happen with no warning, despite all the boringly illogical science that is thrown at you in the early chapters, so much so I felt like I was cramming for my science exams. Oh, and said flares make us revert back to Neanderthals (which is so inaccurate) or if you have ASD you will be come "normal". (dont even go there, it got worse)

Marcus, the astronomer, got right on my pip with his constant whining about his son and his random brain farts, and what was all the rampant sex about, it was not even good! It was hinted at with stupid lines like as she put her hand down expecting blood (seriously what sex do you have where you expect blood!) and only found her own excitement - shudder

For someone supposedly so smart he was still trying to start a car after a worldwide EMP, that he knew about and was trying to predict! Oh and he was also an expert on gene therapy!!?!

The other main character, Emily; a gene therapy labrat, who is also an expert on solar flares (imagine that!), cant decide whether she is in love with her stunningly gorgeous boyfriend or just shagging him to piss her mother off.     She bangs on (and on) about being able to develop a gene therapy that will "cure" the autistic & Neanderthal people, whilst the Earth is slowly being cooked and all of nature is being torn asunder, with a mere blood test and microscope - Amazing!

She drove me up the wall with her racist comments and "trial observations". She noted that groups of people divided in to colours (oh yes) because that is what happened at the start of our evolution!, she was able to diagnose autism with a conversation (wow what a skill) and then goes on to happily abuse and lie to those that she finds, and when she spots a group of feral men with weapons covered in blood she invites them into her hiding space as she feels sorry for them, huh. Oh and she thought wearing a computer cover on head would shield her from solar flares. 

The over the top bashing at the start re all the technical jargon was really hard going, but only served to highlight the lack of medical information, you can't just jab a needle in someone in the middle of a war zone and get a blood sample. 

The military element was provided by a one dimensional jet pilot who was such a hardened military man that he fell for his boss in just one kiss - what!  and wanted to "get back out there", in his jet and kill all the Chinese, er EMP? even though he had keratitis from the solar flares and couldn't see a power-point presentation (whoops suspend belief again as THAT pc works!), oh yeah that's so safe!

And then there was this weird Chinese issue? Is it just USA and China on the planet then?

And the shoe issues?

I stopped at 46% as the diatribe regarding autism vs retardedness, the obvious racial comments and stupidity regarding evolution/validity of creationism had me wanting to fling my Kindle at the wall. 

So, my first bad review and I do feel, well bad :(

My usual review sites are Shelfari, Amazon & Goodreads (yes I know they are all connected; but if you can suggest more PLEASE do!) and I scoured these for reviews as I did not want to be the only person who hated this book, I wasn't. 










3 comments:

  1. I think sometimes you have to be just as honest when something does not work for you. And I also believe that is gives you more credence as a reviewer when you don't necessarily love everything that you read.

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  2. Thank you, I was not trying to author bash as I love the Plague Trilogy and I still have Frozen Sky to read (am saving it) but this just made me want to scream.

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  3. Don't feel bad for being honest Vix. I've read stories from authors that I love that I just didn't care for. Rather than say, "I didn't like it" I'd simply say nothing at all. Why? Not to be dishonest, but because I liked their other work. As Todd is so fond of saying, we can't please everybody all the time. I think it's much more bold to actually step up and speak the truth rather than to sit back and only post the reviews of the books you liked.
    Kudos to you!

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