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dannys_book_corner's reviews
14 reviews
The Real-Town Murders by Adam Roberts
adventurous
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Premise
The Real-Town Murders by Adam Robert’s is a fairly short and fun book reading at 230 pages. It describes itself as a fast-paced Hitchcockian thriller where the main character, Alma, becomes entangled in a political coup when she is hired to solve an impossible murder.
This is a multilayered book set in future Britain where real life is dominated by the presence of the Shine, the succession to the Internet. Like Ready Player One, we find that the citizens of this world prefer spending their time in their computer-generated life, so much so that the government has fractured into one that governs the real world and one that governs the Shine. Don’t go into this novel expecting it to read like Ready Player One, because Alma, our main character, has an aversion to the Shine and refuses to log in. It combines dystopia, science-fiction, crime noir, mystery, humour, power, and action to create an enjoyable, if brief, novel.
The Real-Town Murders by Adam Robert’s is a fairly short and fun book reading at 230 pages. It describes itself as a fast-paced Hitchcockian thriller where the main character, Alma, becomes entangled in a political coup when she is hired to solve an impossible murder.
This is a multilayered book set in future Britain where real life is dominated by the presence of the Shine, the succession to the Internet. Like Ready Player One, we find that the citizens of this world prefer spending their time in their computer-generated life, so much so that the government has fractured into one that governs the real world and one that governs the Shine. Don’t go into this novel expecting it to read like Ready Player One, because Alma, our main character, has an aversion to the Shine and refuses to log in. It combines dystopia, science-fiction, crime noir, mystery, humour, power, and action to create an enjoyable, if brief, novel.
Plot
I did enjoy the plot, it kept me entertained throughout and wondering just how this impossible murder happened. The plot was tight but not overly ambitious. Some of the plot points I found to be a little predictable, more so because the premise has been done many times. The delivery is what makes this book all the better, sometimes you don’t need to reinvent the wheel because the wheel still works.
On the surface, The Real-Town Murders reads as a locked-room mystery, but it steadily evolves into much more than that, demonstrating Robert’s ability to craft a story with more layers than a german tree cake. He is able to inject satire where needed, whilst keeping the plot grounded in a more serious tone. The humour itself is subtle rather than being in your face and anyone who has read Robert’s previous books would likely feel comfortable with this one. I haven’t read Robert’s since The Soddit in school, and even I recognised the writing style fairly quickly.
Characters
Robert’s has created a small cast of characters and this book benefits from that. I knew who each of the characters were, even when being reintroduced, in part due to their unique characteristics, quirks, and distinctive names. A highlight of the book is meeting these characters throughout Alma’s story and her interactions with them. Some of my favourite portions of The Real-Town Murders was her synergy with the supporting cast, in particular, how she deals with various levels of AI such as her door. It may sound ridiculous, but this scene in particular is written with wit and humour and adds to the world Robert’s has built in a satisfying way.
I would have liked to learn more about Alma, however. By the end of the book I didn’t real I knew much about her backstory, and while this isn’t always essential to understand or like a character, it would have helped me grow to appreciate her more. I wanted to know why Alma was considered to be the right person for the job, and I wanted to understand what made her tick. We know that Alma has carer duties to her partner Marguerite, and we are constantly reminded of how this is all Alma’s is focussed on, but surely there are other things that make her run.
World-Building
Robert’s has created a fully-realised not-quite-but-almost-there-dystopian Britain, where the Shine is the de-facto method of living. Even seeing 10 people out at once is considered a crowd. Because of these changes in population habits Robert’s has invented a re-imaged Britain, where towns are renamed in humorous ways, and the heads of famous brits are carved into the chalk cliffs looking out to France to lure people back into the real world. It’s a believable Britain (especially because we like questionable puns) and a future that is threatening to happen once the Internet is superseded.
What didn’t work for me
Repetition. Repetition. Repetition. I found myself getting frustrated at being told things I’d already been told multiple times before. Speaking about Alma’s integrated feed, on page 116 we are told , “And if she did that the police would be on her in moments.”. I already knew this consequence of linking back into her feed, which would allow her to be tracked, because I’d already been told it multiple times. In addition, the urgency to return to Marguerite is repeated at numerous points. I as the reader know and understand these, and felt my immersion break by being reminded of these facts, as though I would constantly forget them.
I also did found myself pausing with some of the dialogue. I understand and get that some of the characters are more comfortable interacting in the Shine and via their feeds rather than talking, but having to work out if the character is bumbling their words or if the dialogue if slightly off also broke my immersion. For example, when Alma is speaking to a support character, they say “‘I called you to ask you to call you, sorry. Sorry, I stumble over words.’”. While the speaker itself explains their stumbling, it’s this scattergun speak that forced me to go back and re-read to understand what was being said.
Conclusion
For the most part I enjoyed The Real-Town Murders. It’s story was intriguing and Alma was a great character, but I found myself wanting a bit more from her. If you’re a fan of both science-fiction and mystery, then I’d recommend at least trying this book out at some point. It doesn’t ask for much of your time and brings with it likeable humour and a satisfying ending.
Elantris by Brandon Sanderson
adventurous
inspiring
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Suspicious Minds by Gwenda Bond
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.25
Sleeping Beauties by Stephen King, Owen King
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Sleeping Beauties asks the question: What if all the women fell asleep and didn’t wake up?
Set in an Appalachian community the story follows an ensemble cast that includes drug addicts, sleaze-bags, murderers, adulterers, and yes, some good-natured people too. Sleeping Beauties really is a book about the people in Dooling and at times the story is just a passenger along for the ride.
It’s a long book, reading at over 700 pages and 26 hours on audio. It demands a significant time investment in doing so. But is it worth that time?
I’ve split this review in three sections. I’ll be covering plot, characters, and pacing, as I think they are three of the most important aspects coming out of this book.
Plot
The plot itself is sprawling, starting as the magical sleeping disease - later dubbed Aurora - begins to affects the world’s population of women, inducing them into a wakeless sleep, cocooning them in a webbing like organic mummies. The book covers the town of Dooling and it’s residents, how they cope with the impending shift in dynamics that results in a world where half the population is rendered comatose. It’s a tight plot, with few holes, and for the most part was what kept me interested in Sleeping Beauties. There was one aspect of the story I didn’t like because it felt, let’s say out of place. The King’s choose not to answer all your questions and I like that mystery about the story, it leaves some of the plot to the reader’s imagination.
I enjoyed the what if questions, I thought it was intriguing and could form the base of a clever novel which the King’s largely succeed at writing. But the what if isn’t the only subject of Sleeping Beauties. It touches on other subjects like toxic masculinity, police brutality, racism, sexism, adultery, redemption, fake news, manipulation, over-thinking, addiction, among many others. Some are tackled superbly and provided cornerstones to believable characters, others not so much. There was one plot-point towards the end that came across as shoe-horned in. It happened and was considered again later, but not adequately. Some of these ideas would have benefitted from being saved for another story.
Characters
I enjoyed following most of the characters but there was just too many. So many, in fact, that an index was needed, and even with that to reference I still found myself asking “who are you?” when some characters pop up. Many characters are afforded pages upon pages of this book, particularly the two main characters in Clint and Lila Norcross, others get relegated to mere sections. It’s these that are intended to give life to Dooling and it’s expansive population. It’s add an unnecessary complexity to the book that isn’t all that rewarding. I will praise the elder King’s ability to create realistic American characters, he is able to flesh out the most minor of them into vivid people. In growing the list of characters we run into issues with pacing, which I’ll cover in the next section.
Pacing
The pacing is one of my gripes with Sleeping Beauties. It’s leisurely at best until the climatic ending. The large cast and weaving of many stories meant constant divergences from the main plot that would introduce me to a character, just to not see them again in any significant way for 200 or so pages, if at all.
The first quarter of the Sleeping Beauties was sluggish, had me wondering if it was going to end up on my did not finish pile but I stuck with it as the story finally progressed. That’s the benefit of being an established author with a track record of writing some exceptional novels, readers will at times persevere beyond what other authors are afforded.
When the story did pick up I was compelled to read and find out how the world of men was going to cope without the women and what lengths the few women still awake would go to to stay awake. It was in reaching the red lights, do not pass until we’ve given this character their 15 minutes of fame, that I willed it hurry up.
Conclusion
If you’re a Stephen King fan then absolutely give Sleeping Beauties a chance because there is an enjoyable book in there. It’s got his voice, so it’s familiar and thought-provoking, provided some fun and entertaining characters. They’re believable, flawed, frustrating. But, there is an issue with how long this book is. There’s a lot of filler that could have been removed, or at least had the fat trimmed off, with more ruthless editing.
If you’re new to Stephen or Owen King and want to get into them, there are other, better places you could start(such as Salem's Lot, The Stand, IT, The Shining, Carrie). I’d pass on this one because of its heavy time commitment.
Set in an Appalachian community the story follows an ensemble cast that includes drug addicts, sleaze-bags, murderers, adulterers, and yes, some good-natured people too. Sleeping Beauties really is a book about the people in Dooling and at times the story is just a passenger along for the ride.
It’s a long book, reading at over 700 pages and 26 hours on audio. It demands a significant time investment in doing so. But is it worth that time?
I’ve split this review in three sections. I’ll be covering plot, characters, and pacing, as I think they are three of the most important aspects coming out of this book.
Plot
The plot itself is sprawling, starting as the magical sleeping disease - later dubbed Aurora - begins to affects the world’s population of women, inducing them into a wakeless sleep, cocooning them in a webbing like organic mummies. The book covers the town of Dooling and it’s residents, how they cope with the impending shift in dynamics that results in a world where half the population is rendered comatose. It’s a tight plot, with few holes, and for the most part was what kept me interested in Sleeping Beauties. There was one aspect of the story I didn’t like because it felt, let’s say out of place. The King’s choose not to answer all your questions and I like that mystery about the story, it leaves some of the plot to the reader’s imagination.
I enjoyed the what if questions, I thought it was intriguing and could form the base of a clever novel which the King’s largely succeed at writing. But the what if isn’t the only subject of Sleeping Beauties. It touches on other subjects like toxic masculinity, police brutality, racism, sexism, adultery, redemption, fake news, manipulation, over-thinking, addiction, among many others. Some are tackled superbly and provided cornerstones to believable characters, others not so much. There was one plot-point towards the end that came across as shoe-horned in. It happened and was considered again later, but not adequately. Some of these ideas would have benefitted from being saved for another story.
Characters
I enjoyed following most of the characters but there was just too many. So many, in fact, that an index was needed, and even with that to reference I still found myself asking “who are you?” when some characters pop up. Many characters are afforded pages upon pages of this book, particularly the two main characters in Clint and Lila Norcross, others get relegated to mere sections. It’s these that are intended to give life to Dooling and it’s expansive population. It’s add an unnecessary complexity to the book that isn’t all that rewarding. I will praise the elder King’s ability to create realistic American characters, he is able to flesh out the most minor of them into vivid people. In growing the list of characters we run into issues with pacing, which I’ll cover in the next section.
Pacing
The pacing is one of my gripes with Sleeping Beauties. It’s leisurely at best until the climatic ending. The large cast and weaving of many stories meant constant divergences from the main plot that would introduce me to a character, just to not see them again in any significant way for 200 or so pages, if at all.
The first quarter of the Sleeping Beauties was sluggish, had me wondering if it was going to end up on my did not finish pile but I stuck with it as the story finally progressed. That’s the benefit of being an established author with a track record of writing some exceptional novels, readers will at times persevere beyond what other authors are afforded.
When the story did pick up I was compelled to read and find out how the world of men was going to cope without the women and what lengths the few women still awake would go to to stay awake. It was in reaching the red lights, do not pass until we’ve given this character their 15 minutes of fame, that I willed it hurry up.
Conclusion
If you’re a Stephen King fan then absolutely give Sleeping Beauties a chance because there is an enjoyable book in there. It’s got his voice, so it’s familiar and thought-provoking, provided some fun and entertaining characters. They’re believable, flawed, frustrating. But, there is an issue with how long this book is. There’s a lot of filler that could have been removed, or at least had the fat trimmed off, with more ruthless editing.
If you’re new to Stephen or Owen King and want to get into them, there are other, better places you could start(such as Salem's Lot, The Stand, IT, The Shining, Carrie). I’d pass on this one because of its heavy time commitment.