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A review by sarah1984
Cradle by Arthur C. Clarke
1.0
Read for the 2017 POPSUGAR Challenge prompt 'A Book with Multiple Authors'
6/3 - I think this may be up there with the worst books I've ever read. Most of the books I give one star to are because of their atrocious editing, off the top of my head I can't remember reading a book where the plot played such a big part in drawing the one star.
The original premise sounded quite interesting - advanced aliens, and treasure hunters find their space ship on the ocean floor - but then someone went and ruined it and produced this pile of crap. Most other reviewers are blaming Lee (I hope it's not Clarke as I bought his [b:2001: A Space Odyssey|70535|2001 A Space Odyssey (Space Odyssey, #1)|Arthur C. Clarke|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1432468943s/70535.jpg|208362] series and I don't think I could read four entire books written like this), but as I haven't read anything from either of them I'm taking their word for it.
The characters were ridiculously overwritten - a treasure hunter with an unnecessary back story of a love affair with a married older woman who broke his heart when he was young; an army man with an unnecessary back story about his pre-marital sexual escapades which somehow lead into his desire to bed his underage co-star in the community theatre production of Tennessee William's The Night of the Iguana (he plays Shannon to her Charlotte); a black man who was an embarrassing caricature of a black man from the south (constantly using the exclamation "Oooeee!" and never calling Carol by her given name, only 'Angel'); and a reporter who has the most annoying internal dialogue since Ana.
There were a couple of totally dreadful sex scenes, one was so awkward I haven't felt so uncomfortable reading a sex scene since I finally finished [b:Lolita|198806|Lolita|Vladimir Nabokov|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1379905639s/198806.jpg|1268631] last year while the other was a weird mix of awkward and clinical.
The final nail in the coffin for this one was the aliens! They have to be the most inept 'advanced alien lifeforms' ever. They crash land their space ship in the ocean and when some humans (the main characters) finally happen across them by accident they request
"An English dictionary and grammar, plus the same thing for four other major languages; an encyclopaedia of plant and animal life; a compact world history; a statistical tract defining the current political and economic status of the world; a comparative study of the world's major existing religions; complete issues covering the last two years of at least three significant daily newspapers; summary journals of science and technology, including surveys of weapons systems both deployed and under deployment; an encyclopaedia of the arts, preferably including video and sound where appropriate; forty seven pounds of lead; and fifty eight pounds of gold."
That is the most illogical list of demands!! I'm assuming they want the gold and lead for some kind of 'repairs' to their ship (Troy was pretty vague with explanations using the excuse that despite the 'communications bracelet' they gave him he had trouble deciphering what they were saying), but why bother with all information about human language, history, and technology only to leave without using their new found knowledge to their advantage. If they weren't going to use it why did they want it? The type of information they wanted originally made me think they were going to use it to wage war against us, but in the end they just attempted to leave a 'seed packet' (why wouldn't an advanced civilisation like theirs realise what would happen if a foreign, more advanced species was introduced to the environment?) and then disappear back home with very little explanation.
There were no redeeming features to this story. I would recommend it to no one, although I still can't bring myself to destroy it so I will be passing it on to some poor person (I'm sorry anonymous receiver of this book, it might be a dreadful book but it is still a book and I can't kill it) via my local Brotherhood of St. Laurence.
6/3 - I think this may be up there with the worst books I've ever read. Most of the books I give one star to are because of their atrocious editing, off the top of my head I can't remember reading a book where the plot played such a big part in drawing the one star.
The original premise sounded quite interesting - advanced aliens, and treasure hunters find their space ship on the ocean floor - but then someone went and ruined it and produced this pile of crap. Most other reviewers are blaming Lee (I hope it's not Clarke as I bought his [b:2001: A Space Odyssey|70535|2001 A Space Odyssey (Space Odyssey, #1)|Arthur C. Clarke|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1432468943s/70535.jpg|208362] series and I don't think I could read four entire books written like this), but as I haven't read anything from either of them I'm taking their word for it.
The characters were ridiculously overwritten - a treasure hunter with an unnecessary back story of a love affair with a married older woman who broke his heart when he was young; an army man with an unnecessary back story about his pre-marital sexual escapades which somehow lead into his desire to bed his underage co-star in the community theatre production of Tennessee William's The Night of the Iguana (he plays Shannon to her Charlotte); a black man who was an embarrassing caricature of a black man from the south (constantly using the exclamation "Oooeee!" and never calling Carol by her given name, only 'Angel'); and a reporter who has the most annoying internal dialogue since Ana.
There were a couple of totally dreadful sex scenes, one was so awkward I haven't felt so uncomfortable reading a sex scene since I finally finished [b:Lolita|198806|Lolita|Vladimir Nabokov|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1379905639s/198806.jpg|1268631] last year while the other was a weird mix of awkward and clinical.
The final nail in the coffin for this one was the aliens! They have to be the most inept 'advanced alien lifeforms' ever. They crash land their space ship in the ocean and when some humans (the main characters) finally happen across them by accident they request
"An English dictionary and grammar, plus the same thing for four other major languages; an encyclopaedia of plant and animal life; a compact world history; a statistical tract defining the current political and economic status of the world; a comparative study of the world's major existing religions; complete issues covering the last two years of at least three significant daily newspapers; summary journals of science and technology, including surveys of weapons systems both deployed and under deployment; an encyclopaedia of the arts, preferably including video and sound where appropriate; forty seven pounds of lead; and fifty eight pounds of gold."
That is the most illogical list of demands!! I'm assuming they want the gold and lead for some kind of 'repairs' to their ship (Troy was pretty vague with explanations using the excuse that despite the 'communications bracelet' they gave him he had trouble deciphering what they were saying), but why bother with all information about human language, history, and technology only to leave without using their new found knowledge to their advantage. If they weren't going to use it why did they want it? The type of information they wanted originally made me think they were going to use it to wage war against us, but in the end they just attempted to leave a 'seed packet' (why wouldn't an advanced civilisation like theirs realise what would happen if a foreign, more advanced species was introduced to the environment?) and then disappear back home with very little explanation.
There were no redeeming features to this story. I would recommend it to no one, although I still can't bring myself to destroy it so I will be passing it on to some poor person (I'm sorry anonymous receiver of this book, it might be a dreadful book but it is still a book and I can't kill it) via my local Brotherhood of St. Laurence.