A review by mantissabolt
China Mountain Zhang by Maureen F. McHugh
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
I have mixed feelings about this book. I kind of liked how she describes a world where China is the dominant power and the US is a 2nd world socialist state. It was interesting that this is not a dystopian nightmare nor a utopian dream, but just "it could go like this". Even though she published it in 1992, her vision of the future is still interesting, even though the US is not a socialist state,... yet.
I was bored by the main character Zhang, though he got better. I liked most of the other characters, but not Zhang. Zhang seems to be a bit of slacker, for lack of a better description. Why would anyone want to read about a slacker?
One particularly annoying part was when Zhang was describing how the th US became Socialist (which could have used a LITTLE more detail) and was comparing it to the scientific revolutions of Newton, quantum mechanics and chaos theory. Part way though the comparison, Zhang just stops. Argh.
Overall, the book was a definite meh.
I was bored by the main character Zhang, though he got better. I liked most of the other characters, but not Zhang. Zhang seems to be a bit of slacker, for lack of a better description. Why would anyone want to read about a slacker?
One particularly annoying part was when Zhang was describing how the th US became Socialist (which could have used a LITTLE more detail) and was comparing it to the scientific revolutions of Newton, quantum mechanics and chaos theory. Part way though the comparison, Zhang just stops. Argh.
Overall, the book was a definite meh.