Review: Tell me less...
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 08 8, 2011
Like the rest of this book, the title itself could use some cutting... I enjoy post-apocalyptic books, and eagerly downloaded this for free with every intention of buying the next two when I finished this one. I won't be buying the next two.Credit due: the author has a good concept with the bones of a compelling story. I kept reading because I wanted to find out what happens to Martin, our main man on a journey of survival.But my mood grew more irritated the longer I read. Mr. Hunter and his writing could benefit from some time with a critique group. His unrelenting use of "was" or "were" instead of any other more active and appealing verbs became a burden. I found his misuse of italics, parentheses, and double punctuation nearly as annoying. Long, ponderous paragraphs described the way a neighborhood used to be, then more described the same place after the disaster. Page after page of eye-glazing backstory kept me skimming. What I suppose he thought was world-building actually came across as blatant social commentary and lecturing.Partway through the book, Mr. Hunter resorts to "transcripts" from video logs and news reports to tell the part of the story that Martin is not witness to. These come across as stilted and contrived. Perhaps the author needs to re-think which story he is trying to tell. And then he needs to learn how to "show" his reader the story, instead of just relating it the way the relatives bore you with monochromatic narrative about their trip to Hoboken.I've read worse writing on my Kindle, but eventually, I had to extricate myself. I gave up caring what happened to Martin, because finding out had become too tiresome.