Review: Good, But Not As Fully Realized As Wasteland
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 05 10, 2013
While I enjoyed the book overall, I felt Cole indulged himself a bit too much, to the detriment of the novel. While emotionally Boy was on par with The Old Man and the Wasteland, the execution of it wasn't. It seemed a bit rushed and forced, and Cole seemed to be a little too much in love with his own tropes (e.g., his experimentation with formatting, "And..." etc). I feel a stronger editorial hand could've helped bring some objectivity to the style without sacrificing individuality of authorship. Little things like verb tense shifts within sentences (for no good reason I could divine) are an example.Having stated that critique, I felt like the characterizations in the novel were fully realized, and we care about The Boy as he learns to navigate the wasteland with only the ghost of Sergeant Presley's training to help him. If I had advice to give for Mr. Cole's next novel, it would be to take your time, don't try to recreate lightning in a bottle, and find a good copy editor that isn't afraid to tell you things you might not want to hear. The raw materials we saw so beautifully crafted in Wasteland are here, just not as well refined.