Review: A game of two halves
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 08 9, 2013
This is one of the toughest reviews I've ever had to score.The problem lies with attributing a number of stars to a book which is a captivating stroke of genius at one end and a depressingly awful attempt at storytelling at the other. So, based on averaging 5 stars and 2 stars, I've scored it at 3. Argue if you will.The good (first half of the book)The plot zips along. It's original, Marcus is a great character, the dialogue is sharp but not too 'clever' (as in irritating) and the intriguing idea of NDE is explored non-sensationally and scientifically. There was a certain amount of Vaudeville about some of the characters but that was forgivable. This had the makings of a read and read again book.The bad (second half of the book)Where did it go wrong? I think the first indicator that all wasn't well was when the number of errors (spelling, grammar etc) suddenly started getting significant. From a rare and minor blot, words started disappearing, spelling became sloppy and the whole book rapidly acquired a hurried appearance. This was further reinforced by the staccato sentences and the long periods of narrative (especially at the very end which was absolutely dire). Where dialogue did appear, it was often repetitive - just stating either the obvious or that which had already been covered. Ironically, for all this haste, the book was still overlong and at least a third of it could be removed without marring the tale.The actual ending was lame and utterly implausible and did no justice to the brilliance of the opening.Poppy Moon was a real let-down - pity.