Book finished

[johnridley]

All Clear by Connie Willis

Blackout and All Clear together make a good story, but I really think it's at least twice as long as it should be. Perhaps 3 or 4 times. And it seems like a pointless slog for at least 3/4 of the way. The ending is satisfying enough, though by the time things start to make sense, I was mainly thinking "good grief, it's about damned time."

I think I could only recommend it to someone who reads much faster than I do.

The historical stuff is fairly interesting, so if taken as a bit of historical fiction I suppose it's 2-for-1 and the length could be forgiven.

I think I'll read something nice and short now.

Comments

[isherempress.livejournal.com]

Well, *I* liked it, but it is now obvious that I am not like you or Moshe. Probably just as well.

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

Don't get me wrong, I liked it. As I said, satisfying ending, interesting history. It just seemed like it should have been a single book about 2/3 as long as either one of the books separately. If I were a faster reader this probably would not bother me nearly as much, but it's a 650 page book and it probably took me on the order of 14 hours to read it over the course of a week. Normally those 14 hours would be spread over about a month to 6 weeks, but I have been really pushing to get some words crammed through.

It's possible I'm just trying too hard and it's reducing my enjoyment. There's certainly nothing in this book that I can point to and say "this isn't good" - there just seemed to be a hell of a lot of the same thing.

Reading the (minority) one star reviews on Amazon, they are of very much the same opinion. Good, but far too long for the story that is told.

I have noticed that some authors tend to have this happen to them when they have a few best sellers under their belt; they don't spend the time they used to in tightening up the story and really examining things and asking if certain story segments really add to the characters or the plot, because the publisher will just print whatever they type.