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A review by roadtripreader
Firewalkers by Adrian Tchaikovsky
2.0
My first disappointment from Tchaikovsky. I came out of the introduction to the series (Ironclads) with high everything: excitement, anticipation and expectation for greatness and witty writing in the 2nd installment. Little things that persisted throught this book really brought all of that crashing down for me. Still, I powered through but once I became annoyed, I just couldn't get into the great story hidden beneath my not-pet peeves (I refuse to liken a peeve to a pet because my pets are adored). It boils down to two things really:
1. The slang and colloquialism started out fine, but it just became grating, visceral and annoying. Wabenzi, chomie, vai sonko, dangi... It got old really fast. Can they just speak in full sentences without littering every other piece of slang into the conversation? Seems unlikely.
2. The first few pages setting the tone for the heat-stricken planet and what survival would look like in Ankara, the Anchor settlement...or whatever it was. This also started out rather intriguing but at what point does the writer expect the reader to infer the "location" of this setting wuth drips and drabs of information? It feels like Nigeria, or maybe it's South Africa...could be Turkey(just got caught up on Ankara). And then he mentions the equator and I think hhhmmm maybe Central Africa. But dang it, he outright mentions Ecuador in passing and a couple other countries AND YET for the main setting he tap dances around it.
WHY so annoying dude? Would it kill you to say " after the water wars and global catastrophe blah blah blah, the people settled on a now barren and scorching hot (Name of place) yada yada yada and there, time passed until the old country became the new country... bing bang boom, it became Ankara." There, was that so hard?
3. Too damn much- yet not enough is what I get from this book: I was invested in the main character Mao, but then I lost interest. I found myself literally speedreading and skimming through pages like I was back at school and I just wanted the book to end.
Still, 1 miss in 3 hits means I will still complete the series. I just need to lower my expectations just a tad.
Cant believe I went from 5 stars for Ironclads to 2.5 starsfor this one.
1. The slang and colloquialism started out fine, but it just became grating, visceral and annoying. Wabenzi, chomie, vai sonko, dangi... It got old really fast. Can they just speak in full sentences without littering every other piece of slang into the conversation? Seems unlikely.
2. The first few pages setting the tone for the heat-stricken planet and what survival would look like in Ankara, the Anchor settlement...or whatever it was. This also started out rather intriguing but at what point does the writer expect the reader to infer the "location" of this setting wuth drips and drabs of information? It feels like Nigeria, or maybe it's South Africa...could be Turkey(just got caught up on Ankara). And then he mentions the equator and I think hhhmmm maybe Central Africa. But dang it, he outright mentions Ecuador in passing and a couple other countries AND YET for the main setting he tap dances around it.
WHY so annoying dude? Would it kill you to say " after the water wars and global catastrophe blah blah blah, the people settled on a now barren and scorching hot (Name of place) yada yada yada and there, time passed until the old country became the new country... bing bang boom, it became Ankara." There, was that so hard?
3. Too damn much- yet not enough is what I get from this book: I was invested in the main character Mao, but then I lost interest. I found myself literally speedreading and skimming through pages like I was back at school and I just wanted the book to end.
Still, 1 miss in 3 hits means I will still complete the series. I just need to lower my expectations just a tad.
Cant believe I went from 5 stars for Ironclads to 2.5 starsfor this one.