Review: Wonderfully written, great storyteller.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 19, 2014
Let's get this out of the way right now: the lack of quotation marks is on purpose. Many negative reviews focus on this as some sort of horrendous grammatical error. By deliberately choosing to write dialog this way, the author creates a different tone and feel in the characters. It might take getting used to, but it is effective.The story consists of numerous story arcs which cover over a hundred years. Many characters appear for only a chapter, others more. While at first, the reader wonders what happened to them, but every chapter manages to pull the reader deeper into the overall story. The author is a gifted storyteller who manages to change between a large variety of characters,  including their backstories and how they add to our present story.Some aspects of the story I felt were underdeveloped (what about the Soma cure? What happened with the revolution?), but some tory elements need to be left to the readers' imaginations. Also, as a general rule, I truly dislike serialized novels, as frequently it ends up as a gimmick to sell more books. That's not the case here, but I would have appreciated a bit more closure (if not answers).As a whole, I loved the book. Excellent writing and a rich tapestry of characters combine to tell the story of not individuals, but the race of humans. In the end, it is humankind that tells the story, not just the individuals. That's why there are no quotation marks.