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A review by oofym
The Thirty-Nine Steps by John Buchan
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.5
Jesus, what rot. This was genuinely pretty garbage in almost every aspect.
I don't think I've ever read a boring and meandering "fast paced" novella before, but I now have.
This book can be summed up as "And then I went here, then I saw a river, to which I went down into the river, then I saw a hill so I went up the hill, but then I looked behind me and men were chasing me, and then I saw a plane which was following me, so then I found a place to hide and then fell asleep."
Some other general complaints to add:
-NONE of the characters act in a believable manner, not one. Every character in this is just stupid and ridiculous, Richard Hannay the main character most of all. There's multiple points where he comes across a random stranger, who he then tells everything that's just happened to him, and then that stranger just believes him and decides to help him in every way possible.
-Richard also seems to have narcolepsey or something, atleast he has to for this story to make sense. Richards room-mate is murdered by assassins so richard has a nap. Richard has assassins chasing him and are very close to catching him; he decides to have a nap.
-There's also a scene where Richard gets into a fist fight with the police for seemingly no reason, to which he runs off and faces no consequences and it's never brought up again, in fact about 5 pages later he's working with the police.
-Richard is a Mary Sue, or I suppose a gary stu. At multiple points in this story we have to know how smart, strong, fast and how excellent his eye sight is. Not joking, he describes his eyesight as "owl like" multiple times and says he sees things better than animals do. He also gets himself out of every dangerous situation easily and triumphs over any danger with ease.
-Everything that happens in this book is incredibly contrived, forced and unrealistic. You can tell constantly that things are happening just to push the plot forward without ever stopping to consider if it makes sense.
Richard gets locked in a Barn? Well there's dynamite in a closet in the barn and Richard knows how to use it. There are so many examples of ridiculous occurrences in this story that are treated as reasonable.
Rant over, don't read this. Also no; it being written in the early 1900's is no excuse, I've read books from the 17th and 18th century that are more coherent and exceedingly better written than this stinking turd of storytelling, a waste of paper.
I don't think I've ever read a boring and meandering "fast paced" novella before, but I now have.
This book can be summed up as "And then I went here, then I saw a river, to which I went down into the river, then I saw a hill so I went up the hill, but then I looked behind me and men were chasing me, and then I saw a plane which was following me, so then I found a place to hide and then fell asleep."
Some other general complaints to add:
-NONE of the characters act in a believable manner, not one. Every character in this is just stupid and ridiculous, Richard Hannay the main character most of all. There's multiple points where he comes across a random stranger, who he then tells everything that's just happened to him, and then that stranger just believes him and decides to help him in every way possible.
-Richard also seems to have narcolepsey or something, atleast he has to for this story to make sense. Richards room-mate is murdered by assassins so richard has a nap. Richard has assassins chasing him and are very close to catching him; he decides to have a nap.
-There's also a scene where Richard gets into a fist fight with the police for seemingly no reason, to which he runs off and faces no consequences and it's never brought up again, in fact about 5 pages later he's working with the police.
-Richard is a Mary Sue, or I suppose a gary stu. At multiple points in this story we have to know how smart, strong, fast and how excellent his eye sight is. Not joking, he describes his eyesight as "owl like" multiple times and says he sees things better than animals do. He also gets himself out of every dangerous situation easily and triumphs over any danger with ease.
-Everything that happens in this book is incredibly contrived, forced and unrealistic. You can tell constantly that things are happening just to push the plot forward without ever stopping to consider if it makes sense.
Richard gets locked in a Barn? Well there's dynamite in a closet in the barn and Richard knows how to use it. There are so many examples of ridiculous occurrences in this story that are treated as reasonable.
Rant over, don't read this. Also no; it being written in the early 1900's is no excuse, I've read books from the 17th and 18th century that are more coherent and exceedingly better written than this stinking turd of storytelling, a waste of paper.