A review by vinjii
The Quincunx by Charles Palliser
3.0
I've got many gripes with The Quincunx:
- Published in 1990 but written in the style of Charles Dickens.
- Too long. Too dense.
- If I wanted to learn about inheritance law, I wouldn't have picked up a novel.
- Unnecessarily complex. (I've never had to study a family tree as often as this one.)
- Anything that can go wrong, goes wrong. Repeatedly. And that quickly becomes tedious.
- 800 pages to reach an unsatisfactory ending...
There were moments where it drew me in, and some of the chapters were genuinely gripping. Palliser is a skilled writer, and the complexity of the mystery is impressive, but that's where my praise ends.
- Published in 1990 but written in the style of Charles Dickens.
- Too long. Too dense.
- If I wanted to learn about inheritance law, I wouldn't have picked up a novel.
- Unnecessarily complex. (I've never had to study a family tree as often as this one.)
- Anything that can go wrong, goes wrong. Repeatedly. And that quickly becomes tedious.
- 800 pages to reach an unsatisfactory ending...
There were moments where it drew me in, and some of the chapters were genuinely gripping. Palliser is a skilled writer, and the complexity of the mystery is impressive, but that's where my praise ends.