Review: A conundrum indeed
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 09 17, 2013
I'm taking the step of reviewing this book before I have finished simply because I am so confounded. This book is indeed a conundrum - but not because of the Yellowstone supervolcano exploding but because of the way in which this book is written. The author swings between excellently written scientific fact and horribly written interactions/flashbacks/other stuff.. and hence the conundrum. Does the quality of the writing in the "good" bits outweigh the "bad"? I'm honestly undecided. This book could do with a very good session at the editors. There are lots of little errors, where characters names change or words are just plain wrong.I think for me, this is by far a better written book than Harry Turtledove's(in terms of the descriptions of the event/destruction) and as someone who actually enjoys reading about the actual destruction wrought, this book succceeds magnificently. Additionally, the scope of the tragedy is already becoming obvious (something which is rather ignored in HT's)and people are already beginning to suffer(something which just does not happen in HT's). Unfortunately it's all let down by the writing.. and excessive use of bold & italics and inexplicably miniturised text when someone is speaking quietly or is far away. I actually find that rather insulting. I as a reader can use my own imagination and intelligence to deduce that someones voice may be barely a whisper - especially if the author uses such literary Techniques as "xyz" said bob in barely a whisper; or "help me" came the barely distinguishable voice again. I don't need tiny text, that's just annoying, insulting and honestly takes away from the story. As does writing flashbacks in bold italics (sometimes, other times they are just in italics). I don't require it. Neither do I require pictures in my books!! I will allow for some of the meterological ones - they are useful, but the other likes the pictures of the bridges, the dam or the university building? No, I don't need them, if I did there is always that helpful thing called the internet & wikipedia &/or google earth(which I might add is where the author got his pictures anyway!).So there is my conundrum, does the good outweigh the bad? I don't know, because like I have never heard of a 9.45 magnitude earthquake (try 9.4 or 9.5 instead), I am not sure that I can give a a 2.25 star review... maybe I will be generous and up it to a 3.(Added 23/09/2013) - I've now finished reading this book. It needs editing quite badly - but this issue seems to be quite common with self published books. I still stand by my earlier comments - there is alot to fix in this book, but I think that if they were fixed, it would be a 5 star read. First fix? Take out the photos. They detract quite a bit and really I don't need to see what a Buick Roadmaster looks like!!! I'm not 5 years old - I don't require pictures to keep my interest!