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A review by fork_me
River God by Wilbur Smith
4.0
I had a really hard time coming up with a rating for this book.
I absolutely hated the start of it. Twice in the first 15 pages, I was ready to quit right then there. Not only is the main character, who tells this story, extremely unlikable, I was trying to figure out why the fuck this historical fiction about ancient Egypt was written with the antiquated English of a Shakespeare play. The only thing that kept me going were the reviews which promised it got much better.
The story did get better. The main character, Taita, became slightly less annoying, but still made me roll my eyes. And, every time I found myself warming to his character, he did something to grate my nerves again. I did, however, become very fond of many of the other leading characters.
This was a LONG book. While the action continued and it never got boring, I feel like it could have been split into two stories. After Pharoah Mamose dies, I felt I needed a break. Around pages 400-450 were the worst for me as I was just kind of wishing away the book and, at that point, I was ready to rate it a 3.
But, the last 200 pages or so read like a dream. Taita was thoughtful and charming, the other leading characters were rich and developed, the story was beautifully told, and I couldn't put it down. I laughed, I cried, and, if the whole book had read like the last ⅓ of it, I would have rated it a 5, no question. Those last pages definitely saved it for me.
My biggest problem now is to decide if I want to read more of the series - there seems to be at least 6 more they all look to be 600-700 pages; I'm afraid they'll follow the same blueprint of annoying me for the bulk of the story.
I absolutely hated the start of it. Twice in the first 15 pages, I was ready to quit right then there. Not only is the main character, who tells this story, extremely unlikable, I was trying to figure out why the fuck this historical fiction about ancient Egypt was written with the antiquated English of a Shakespeare play. The only thing that kept me going were the reviews which promised it got much better.
The story did get better. The main character, Taita, became slightly less annoying, but still made me roll my eyes. And, every time I found myself warming to his character, he did something to grate my nerves again. I did, however, become very fond of many of the other leading characters.
This was a LONG book. While the action continued and it never got boring, I feel like it could have been split into two stories. After Pharoah Mamose dies, I felt I needed a break. Around pages 400-450 were the worst for me as I was just kind of wishing away the book and, at that point, I was ready to rate it a 3.
But, the last 200 pages or so read like a dream. Taita was thoughtful and charming, the other leading characters were rich and developed, the story was beautifully told, and I couldn't put it down. I laughed, I cried, and, if the whole book had read like the last ⅓ of it, I would have rated it a 5, no question. Those last pages definitely saved it for me.
My biggest problem now is to decide if I want to read more of the series - there seems to be at least 6 more they all look to be 600-700 pages; I'm afraid they'll follow the same blueprint of annoying me for the bulk of the story.