Review: Soldiers! A Chronicle of the 31st Century (Part Two)
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 04 21, 2013
I tried, I really tried. After reading the first book, the reviews of the second book indicated there was improvement, but I must have been reading a different book. In ways, this one was a downturn from the first book. I gave up after getting to 51%, and even that was a struggle, where I just have to call it a day and move on.I don't want to trash the book or the author, but I don't think it's fair to say you don't like something without indicating why, so I'll try to be brief.Basically, too many words, not enough story. When it takes three or four paragraphs to describe men loading a boat, and the length of that description really adds no color or flavor to the story... I'd wager a talented and aggressive editor could take both of these books and work them into a single novel without any loss of story.Some of the narrative seems to have gone downhill from the first book. Very short sentences. Almost fragmentary. Not really adding to atmosphere. Using short sentences like this is Ok. In certain circumstances. Like during action scenes. To present a sense of urgency. But that's not the case here.There is also a loss of clarity in some scenes; where the action involves multiple people, and only one specific individual is named, the implication (due to lack of narrative regarding the others) is that the incident affected only the named individual. e.g., "Sergeant Major came under fire" would imply only Sergeant Major was in duress; where the story would actually benefit from the addition of phrases such as "Sergeant Major and the rest". I made up the name and the situation only to illustrate my point, so no spoiler there.There are other points, but I'll leave it at this.