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As I said in one of yesterday's entries, I've been reading Eve Forward's Animist.
I'm still not sure what to think of this book. I don't hate it, but I don't like it very much, either. I do like the world; I think it could have lovely stories in it; but given how this book was handled, I'm not really inclined to expect this author to bring them out, either.
I mean, she handles it okay. In the first few chapters, I was developing a like (and a wincing sympathy) for the main character, the world was fascinating, and I wanted to see what happened.
Then...then, the first real directing disaster hit him. I still feel sorry for the poor guy, but only in the abstract, honestly. Because he reads like an rpg character that the GM is herding all over the map with violant hand-of-god maneuvers.
He's also so amazingly stupid, that it's hard to believe he's all that bright, and for someone who's supposed to bond with animals, he apparently has no training at evaluating his own emotions and instincts rationally. What an idiot.
The problem is, I'm supposed to believe in and care about the situation he is thrust into with that first directing disaster. Know what? I don't. Frankly, I think the whole thing is an extended hallucination from catching cold in the water, or maybe even from the drink he's given in the first part of the books. I just don't find most of the sequence on the island believable.
Considering that's, oh, 300 pages of the book give or take.... (And no, the book does not break 400 pages.)
This is a book that seems to be planned for a sequel. It has several more stories it could tell. And you know what? I don't care about them. Oh, I would have. I would have. But I don't believe this author can make real or plausible stories. She's trying to mix magic and science. It can be done, and done well; here, it comes across as stupid.
And just like a bad GM, she has to periodically salvage her main character from situations she's made too powerful for him - and isn't willing to let him go down in and replace him (probably just as well; that may work in a roleplaying game but it sort of stinks in most books - it can be done well, but only if planned for).
The result? It feels like the world is a fake fever-dream, updating itself to drive the hero, and then having to periodically revise itself again in order to keep from messing up its own story with too much heavy-handedness.
It fails.
And, as a minor gripe, I do not believe the picture on the cover is at all appropriate. It shows a scene that never happened; the closest analog would be early in the book, when he's talking to the dean, whose Anim is a monkey. But there were no wolves, and they weren't near the buildings.
Frankly, the cover makes you expect him to bond a monkey or a wolf. I don't think he even sees one after he leaves the college!
I'm still not sure what to think of this book. I don't hate it, but I don't like it very much, either. I do like the world; I think it could have lovely stories in it; but given how this book was handled, I'm not really inclined to expect this author to bring them out, either.
I mean, she handles it okay. In the first few chapters, I was developing a like (and a wincing sympathy) for the main character, the world was fascinating, and I wanted to see what happened.
Then...then, the first real directing disaster hit him. I still feel sorry for the poor guy, but only in the abstract, honestly. Because he reads like an rpg character that the GM is herding all over the map with violant hand-of-god maneuvers.
He's also so amazingly stupid, that it's hard to believe he's all that bright, and for someone who's supposed to bond with animals, he apparently has no training at evaluating his own emotions and instincts rationally. What an idiot.
The problem is, I'm supposed to believe in and care about the situation he is thrust into with that first directing disaster. Know what? I don't. Frankly, I think the whole thing is an extended hallucination from catching cold in the water, or maybe even from the drink he's given in the first part of the books. I just don't find most of the sequence on the island believable.
Considering that's, oh, 300 pages of the book give or take.... (And no, the book does not break 400 pages.)
This is a book that seems to be planned for a sequel. It has several more stories it could tell. And you know what? I don't care about them. Oh, I would have. I would have. But I don't believe this author can make real or plausible stories. She's trying to mix magic and science. It can be done, and done well; here, it comes across as stupid.
And just like a bad GM, she has to periodically salvage her main character from situations she's made too powerful for him - and isn't willing to let him go down in and replace him (probably just as well; that may work in a roleplaying game but it sort of stinks in most books - it can be done well, but only if planned for).
The result? It feels like the world is a fake fever-dream, updating itself to drive the hero, and then having to periodically revise itself again in order to keep from messing up its own story with too much heavy-handedness.
It fails.
And, as a minor gripe, I do not believe the picture on the cover is at all appropriate. It shows a scene that never happened; the closest analog would be early in the book, when he's talking to the dean, whose Anim is a monkey. But there were no wolves, and they weren't near the buildings.
Frankly, the cover makes you expect him to bond a monkey or a wolf. I don't think he even sees one after he leaves the college!
