A review by secre
Dream London by Tony Ballantyne
2.0
I wanted to enjoy this. I really, really wanted to enjoy this. But in reality, I didn't. The idea of a London that is constantly changing to some unknown organisations whims and ideals was really quite interesting and yet the execution of the descriptions along with the actual plot simply failed to thrill or really engage me.
The plot itself bumped along but didn't actively bring me along with it... things move quite quickly but half the time you don't seem to understand what's moving or why and what is actually going on. Then when you find things out they make no bleeding sense or stretch the bounds of reasonable belief way beyond my little feeble mind. The big villain isn't really a villain, the real villain is just weird and the foul mouthed child creature who likes to threaten obscene sexual punishments failed to make me uncomfortable after about two or three lines from her. It got stale quickly.
On top of that, all of the characters seemed pretty much 2D and were more interested in telling you what they are like rather than being that in actual action. So you are told - lots of times - what the main characters character is but you don't actually see it in action a lot. It makes the entire thing rather bland and the characters don't ever seem to leap off the page and accost you with their brilliance.
All in all, disappointing and somewhat of a plod, despite the fact that it's the weirdest book I have read in a long time.
The plot itself bumped along but didn't actively bring me along with it... things move quite quickly but half the time you don't seem to understand what's moving or why and what is actually going on. Then when you find things out they make no bleeding sense or stretch the bounds of reasonable belief way beyond my little feeble mind. The big villain isn't really a villain, the real villain is just weird and the foul mouthed child creature who likes to threaten obscene sexual punishments failed to make me uncomfortable after about two or three lines from her. It got stale quickly.
On top of that, all of the characters seemed pretty much 2D and were more interested in telling you what they are like rather than being that in actual action. So you are told - lots of times - what the main characters character is but you don't actually see it in action a lot. It makes the entire thing rather bland and the characters don't ever seem to leap off the page and accost you with their brilliance.
All in all, disappointing and somewhat of a plod, despite the fact that it's the weirdest book I have read in a long time.