Review: Piles it On
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 11 8, 2011
As entertaining as this started out, the more it goes on the more it starts to suffer from overload. From an intriguing and scary beginning where the majority of the world's population vanishes overnight, the story quickly begins to stagger under the weight of more and more supernatural elements and conspiracies that get heaped on until it stops being scary and just becomes silly.I got episode one for free on my Kindle, and, enjoying it well enough, grabbing the whole "season" after I was done. While it's an entertaining enough read, it wound up being far too scatterbrained and convoluted for me personally. Having one or two plot threads is expected, but this book piles on dozens within the first few "episodes" and it kind of ruins the atmosphere. The longer it goes on, the more minor inconsistencies began to pop up, and the more annoyed I was by how huge the cast was. There were only a few people I was really interested in, and with so many viewpoints it takes a long time for the narrative to cycle back around. I also felt that there was a problem with people reacting unrealistically to things around them, and characters having a tendency to deliver long narratives or speeches that fail to sound natural and come across as scripted and rehearsed in a way that detracts from the immersion. I also found myself hating Luca early on, whose narrative is so peppered with faux-adorable kid-isms ("the sad spider feeling", "an ouchy in his heart") that I literally rolled my eyes more than once.Yesterday's Gone is a good idea that with a bit more restraint and a few less ingredients could have been great. As it stands, I'd still recommend it if you're looking for something pulpy and cheesy to take up an afternoon. I found my attention wandering more than once, and you'll probably start to draw a lot of similarities to Robert R McCammon's Swan Song, but fans of post-apocalyptic sci-fi conspiracy thrillers will probably enjoy it.