Review: Present tense and weird speech style
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 05 21, 2014
This book is a fresh new take on the post-apocalyptic genre. And the premise was interesting but the reading wasn't really very enjoyable. The whole book is in present tense, which I really dislike. What is it with this trend? On top of that the author does't seem to like his characters to speak - most speaking is done like this: "I told him get away, to leave me alone" (not actual text in the book, but indicative of the pattern), instead of quoting them. Here and there, there are actual quotes, but the speaking, if you can call it that, is rushed and frustrating. I actually finished this book, even though I didn't like the style, and came away sorely disappointed.Another problem I had with this book is the premise that people turned to cannibalism before trying to fish. Really? I can imagine a few crazies doing this, but people with equipment doing this is just beyond the realm of believability. Later in the book, there are people living on fish. On a world that's filled with water, fishing seems the obvious solution to the food problem to me and I don't even fish. I expect some suspense of belief with fiction and especially science fiction, but I do expect some amount of plausibility.