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A review by ratgrrrl
Inspection by Josh Malerman
Did not finish book.
DNF @ 61%
I am learning the hard way that Malerman is a very inconsistent author...
I absolutely adored Bird Box and Malorie, each for different reasons, and I honestly thought Black Mad Wheel sucked, but it at least had thar punchy, super effective, even if it's just a literary sleight of hand when not backed up by the text itself, but this was something entirely different.
Black Mad Wheel felt like Malerman at his most King, with the concept and musician MC, whereas Inspection seems to be him trying, and in my opinion, failing to go for a more Atwood or Ishiguro tone and concept.
The thought experiment itself is a really interesting one, but the painfully slow way its told with practically no tension, detail, or intrigue (beyond the premise), and then goes out of its way to undercut or reset any tension it does build is truly maddening!
There are those authors I consider concept and thought experiment based, Chiang, Egan, Tchaikovsky, for example, but there is something head over heels, excitable, and/ or passionate about the way they approach stories as vehicles for exploring and extrapolatkng ideas.
There are those authors who have a similar approach, but softened, sharpened, and quenched by plunging their stories into their hearts, Atwood, Butler, Ishiguro, Le Guin, St John Mandel, for example.
Unfortunately, Inspection is all head and, unfortunately, I have some complaints, because I just didn't care and I wasn't getting anything more than being told the concept of the story--a complaint I equally had of Atwood's Peneolpiad.
Maybe this comes together beautifully in the last third and I'm DNFing, so I won't be rating, but a great third act and close can truly make something you're invested in, but it can't justify not caring about two thirds, so I'm out.
I'm so sad to have gone from being 100% Malerman fangal, to 75%, and now only 50%. Kinda scared to pick up another one for a moment. This is a lesson in getting over excited about a book or two and then grabbing everything they've published...
I am learning the hard way that Malerman is a very inconsistent author...
I absolutely adored Bird Box and Malorie, each for different reasons, and I honestly thought Black Mad Wheel sucked, but it at least had thar punchy, super effective, even if it's just a literary sleight of hand when not backed up by the text itself, but this was something entirely different.
Black Mad Wheel felt like Malerman at his most King, with the concept and musician MC, whereas Inspection seems to be him trying, and in my opinion, failing to go for a more Atwood or Ishiguro tone and concept.
The thought experiment itself is a really interesting one, but the painfully slow way its told with practically no tension, detail, or intrigue (beyond the premise), and then goes out of its way to undercut or reset any tension it does build is truly maddening!
There are those authors I consider concept and thought experiment based, Chiang, Egan, Tchaikovsky, for example, but there is something head over heels, excitable, and/ or passionate about the way they approach stories as vehicles for exploring and extrapolatkng ideas.
There are those authors who have a similar approach, but softened, sharpened, and quenched by plunging their stories into their hearts, Atwood, Butler, Ishiguro, Le Guin, St John Mandel, for example.
Unfortunately, Inspection is all head and, unfortunately, I have some complaints, because I just didn't care and I wasn't getting anything more than being told the concept of the story--a complaint I equally had of Atwood's Peneolpiad.
Maybe this comes together beautifully in the last third and I'm DNFing, so I won't be rating, but a great third act and close can truly make something you're invested in, but it can't justify not caring about two thirds, so I'm out.
I'm so sad to have gone from being 100% Malerman fangal, to 75%, and now only 50%. Kinda scared to pick up another one for a moment. This is a lesson in getting over excited about a book or two and then grabbing everything they've published...