Reviews

Kings of a Dead World by Jamie Mollart

beckylouise2904's review against another edition

reflective slow-paced

1.0

jeanpear's review

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

valentinacaneschi's review against another edition

1.5

After finishing this book I felt the need to read something feminist. 

The idea behind the novel is really cool, the structure super interesting. 

The characters are a huge disappointment. 
Ben is an 80 something man who apparently has almost no physical limits and is treated for the whole book as a middle aged individual. 
Peruzzi’s interesting traits are all derivative from Slattery. 

Andreas is mad and it’s clear he’s a terrorist from the very beginning, and yet we’re supposed to sympathize with the lot of them? I really hope that’s just a misinterpretation of mine.

The women are completely useless, their only purpose is to be sexualised. 
Rose is non existent because of her illness.

Young Rose barely ever speaks or does anything, except turning Ben on and having sex with him.

Darla never speaks either, her only purpose is for Peruzzi to get turned on by her.

Once he loses his routine and more interesting things happen, she disappears and is never mentioned again.

Ripley is AI but even then she needs to be given a gender, and obviously the assistant will be female. 
Kittie is the best written female character, and she’s barely a character at all. 
I really wish the author had taken a bit of time to read around how to write realistic female characters, because his are straight-up offensive.

The story has many confusing plot points. Why was a whole religion created in the space of a few years and completely erased every other religion? That’s just not a thing. Especially considering the characters really do seem to believe in Chronos and Bacchus. 

And why did the city fall in a couple of days out of nowhere? The novel was so slow paced and then the last third was extremely rushed.

I had big expectations for this novel that just weren’t met. 

jenbren's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

corina10755's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

najdvss's review against another edition

4.0

3,5
i would give the writing of this book 5 stars. not often can an author describe situations and landscape so accurately that i can instantly see it before my eyes.
storywise this was a bit of a miss for me. the story starts off incredibly strong with interesting characters but ends off being convoluted and unexplained. most of the hints and loose ends are tied off but they were super easy to guess (i got literally every prediction right.. never happens. this book suffers from both over and underexplaining somehow.
nice read that oddly coincided with me starting a course on ecocriticism in literature

elfab's review

3.0

It didn't grip me. I wanted to find out what happened to the characters and where it was going but 20pages before the end, I was still distracted and had to keep consciously turning my attention back to the book. It's quite a depressing read and there's not much light to the book; all three parts - before, Peruzzi, and Ben - are telling the story of a world in which it's increasingly hard to survive on a planet we have destroyed. 

mbennett51's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

camaronempanizado's review

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

james_reynolds's review

challenging dark sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Well plotted, well written, but seriously depressing. There isn't a lot to lighten the gloom in this book. I found I had to read it in small doses, it's definitely not a relaxing read but it is worth sticking with. A little more balance between light and shade and I would have given it five stars.