Helen A. (helenann2k) - , reviewed on 9/7/2010

This book was a huge disappointment. It had so much hype, great buzz, all the literary types were saying it was THE book to read this summer. And it did take me all summer, although I usually finish a book quite quickly. The first problem was the pacing: fast paced thriller with a sci-fi flare in the first third of the book; thick, plodding and murky second third of the book; and finally a combination of characters being bandoned before we could care about them and a stereotypical post apocalyptic cliff-hanger for the end. After the first third of the book,the entire writing style and story line changes, and not for the better. Add to this some incredibly annoying facts, such as an entire cmmunity that had lived a whole century and yet had not developed any advances in science and technology. In fact, they seem to have lost half of the modern vocabulary of the previous century, along with its collective knowledge. The characters, after the first third of the book, were wooden. The prose could be beautiful at times, but not enough to carry the massive amount of tedious detail that did not advance the plot. And the ending, well I felt as if I had been set up for the next book. Such a shame. It is almost s if the author forgot what he had intended to do after the first third of the book. As a professional editor myself, I kept wanting to fire the editors who worked with this author. A shame, really.It could have been a good read. But I do not recommend it, although in the hands of a good filmaker and limited to two hours worth of script, it might work better as a film, which has already been optioned.

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