D. JonesWebdancers
August 4th 2009 07:03
This is the third (and I think final) book of Brian Herbert's Timeweb Chronicles.
Now, I liked the first two books quite a bit, but there were a lot of problems for me about this third one.
As a (grudging) geek, my books need a certain level scientific accuracy.
Lemme start by saying that SHITTING ON EVOLUTION IS NOT THE RIGHT WAY TO GO! Brian Herbert, I was totally okay with all the other crap, UNTIL you had to go and say that Humans are just off shoots of crazy lab bred aliens made by a race that somehow had amazing technology and lost it all (kind of like if Star Wars actually existed in some mysterious, long ago past of the Human race).
I'm going to steal a line or two from Barnes and Nobles: "Only diehard fans will last to the end of the novel, which suffers from clunky writing, a plethora of sketchy characters, a confusing plot, stakes so high as to be meaningless and a pace alternately breathless and leaden. (Dec.)"
To some degree I think this is a little mean, but on another level, I have to say that it is totally true. I loved around 1/5 of the storyline, and the other 80% was pure bullsh**. I'm sorry, but I love technobabble, and this book almost wrecked it for me.
All in all, the saddest part is that it isn't even a horrible book or anything. It just left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth. Kind of like burned creme brulee (which is usually still good on the inside).
A couple of other things I couldn't stand:
The constant elevation. This happened a lot in things like animes (Yu Yu Hakusho comes to mind), where every stage takes a blatant, steaming crap on the last stage. This book was kind of like that.
Religiously charged references. Not being Christian, I really don't appreciate these things. Some things were blatant, while others were subtle, but I got a lot of religious undertones in the whole story (kind of like the gay undertones of Top Gun).
Weird and Random Occurances. That kind of crap is good in books/movies that can pull it off. M. Night Shyamalan for example can pull it off. Quentin Tarantino could pull it off. Dan Simmons (look him up non-geeks) could easily pull it off. Alan Moore could pull it off. Zak Snyder in FREAKING 300 almost pulled it off for god's sake. You, on the other hand Brian Herbert, took it, and wrecked it in this book.
</end list>
Basically, I think that reading the first two novels was totally worth it, but this last one is just a bit too far over the edge. I'd suggest reading a summary of it, or just like, skimming or something. The number of Dues Ex Machinas and plot holes just gets boring. I've written stronger storylines while playing Halo (multiplayer, not campaign).
The worst part about this novel is that it had tons of potential, and that's why it hurt so much to read.
Now, I liked the first two books quite a bit, but there were a lot of problems for me about this third one.
As a (grudging) geek, my books need a certain level scientific accuracy.
Lemme start by saying that SHITTING ON EVOLUTION IS NOT THE RIGHT WAY TO GO! Brian Herbert, I was totally okay with all the other crap, UNTIL you had to go and say that Humans are just off shoots of crazy lab bred aliens made by a race that somehow had amazing technology and lost it all (kind of like if Star Wars actually existed in some mysterious, long ago past of the Human race).
I'm going to steal a line or two from Barnes and Nobles: "Only diehard fans will last to the end of the novel, which suffers from clunky writing, a plethora of sketchy characters, a confusing plot, stakes so high as to be meaningless and a pace alternately breathless and leaden. (Dec.)"
To some degree I think this is a little mean, but on another level, I have to say that it is totally true. I loved around 1/5 of the storyline, and the other 80% was pure bullsh**. I'm sorry, but I love technobabble, and this book almost wrecked it for me.
All in all, the saddest part is that it isn't even a horrible book or anything. It just left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth. Kind of like burned creme brulee (which is usually still good on the inside).
A couple of other things I couldn't stand:
The constant elevation. This happened a lot in things like animes (Yu Yu Hakusho comes to mind), where every stage takes a blatant, steaming crap on the last stage. This book was kind of like that.
Religiously charged references. Not being Christian, I really don't appreciate these things. Some things were blatant, while others were subtle, but I got a lot of religious undertones in the whole story (kind of like the gay undertones of Top Gun).
Weird and Random Occurances. That kind of crap is good in books/movies that can pull it off. M. Night Shyamalan for example can pull it off. Quentin Tarantino could pull it off. Dan Simmons (look him up non-geeks) could easily pull it off. Alan Moore could pull it off. Zak Snyder in FREAKING 300 almost pulled it off for god's sake. You, on the other hand Brian Herbert, took it, and wrecked it in this book.
</end list>
Basically, I think that reading the first two novels was totally worth it, but this last one is just a bit too far over the edge. I'd suggest reading a summary of it, or just like, skimming or something. The number of Dues Ex Machinas and plot holes just gets boring. I've written stronger storylines while playing Halo (multiplayer, not campaign).
The worst part about this novel is that it had tons of potential, and that's why it hurt so much to read.
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