Review: Good but occasionally tedious.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 12 6, 2013
I am at a bit of an impasse reviewing this book.  On one hand, there is very little that is actually bad about this book.  The author is reasonably competent.  There are no spelling errors, no formatting errors, and no grammatical errors except for a couple times where he leaves off a question mark.  The dialogue is clear, the action scenes are decent, and the setting is certainly detailed.  But I find myself still somewhat ambivalent towards this book.One previous reviewer compared this book to the works of Leo Frankowski, but I have to disagree.  While I confess that I've read those novels many times as a guilty pleasure, this book lacks the pencil-moustache and used-van creepiness of Frankowski's fourteen year-old Polish girls - nor does it have the focus on technology transfer that is at the core of Conrad's adventures.On the other hand, what it also lacks is Frankowski's ability to get to the point.  Frankowski's novels, despite averaging thirteen and a half pages (perhaps a little exaggeration here) cover an entire plot quickly and enjoyably.  This book often borders on tedious.  It's not that it's poorly written.  It's that there is a lot in this book that really doesn't need to be there and doesn't contribute to the plot at all.  Blink gives detailed accounts of their travels, to the extent that I'm glad he did leave off the latrine arrangements.  (The ten pages or so where Jolan discusses his need to defecate - looks for the proper place to do so, makes sure he has the tools, discusses it extensively with Asari, goes and does it, discovers he doesn't have toilet paper, and then finds a leaf which will substitute - is something that I'm glad he spared us.)  The biggest example that comes to mind is the scene where they take a boat, which is twenty pages, and should have been handled in two as virtually nothing there furthers the plot.It's like someone writing about going to the grocery store, complete with detailed discussion of every item on the list, how they chose their shopping cart, and then a long action scene where they maneuver their cart around every person (fully described) who is in the aisles.  As opposed to something like "Jolan made a quick trip to the grocery store, where he picked up milk, cheese, and overripe pomegranates."It's not purple prose.  There is no dark and stormy night here.  He knows how to use a thesaurus and picks excellent words to describe things.  It's just that he really needs to cut the story down.  Kill his darlings, so to speak.  The book clocks in at six hundred and sixty-eight pages.  It should be half that.it is, however, good enough to buy, and good enough that I bought Part Two.