Post by Manius on Jul 7, 2008 12:52:07 GMT
“Soul Drinker”
After reading the authors synopsis (yes, I actually DO read those bits at the front of a book), I had high hopes for this collection.
I’m currently a quarter of the way through the whole Omnibus (nearing the end of Soul Drinkers) and I have to admit that Ben Counter is an exceptional novelist. The book is very well written with just the right balance struck between action, scene setting, moral undertone and descriptive pieces.
Unfortunately, I’m not enjoying the book and I have to admit that this is mainly because I don’t sympathise with the main protagonists! Initially, I was there…I was hooked…but soon warning signs started to glow at me in my mind as to where the book was going and what the main characters were heading for, but I took heart from what I’d read in the synopsis at the front…”surely this was not the way the book was going as it’s counter to what the author said his aims were”…unfortunately, this is what’s happening.
I will attempt to finish “Soul Drinker” in the hope that things will turn round for the main characters. They are well founded, well described and I feel I must at least read the first book to its conclusion. I also find that I’ve hit the point where I “know the ‘secret’” contained within the book, I’m not clear if the hints are intentional and the reader is meant to unravel the underlying issue of the series of books well within the first 100 pages…but I strongly feel I have (though I won’t spoil anything here).
What this has highlighted to me is how “brainwashed” I have become by more Pro-Imperial books such as the Gaunt’s Ghosts books and others like them…to say that I am turning from the Heretic as assuredly as any real Guardsman would, although I’m only reading about a fictional thing, set in a fictional universe which is all…erm…FICTION, perhaps says more about the quality of the writing in this book (to provoke such a reaction) and the quality of other books I’ve read previously (that have conditioned me to react in this way).
In short, I would recommend this book and perhaps the series but it’s not for everyone’s taste.
After reading the authors synopsis (yes, I actually DO read those bits at the front of a book), I had high hopes for this collection.
I’m currently a quarter of the way through the whole Omnibus (nearing the end of Soul Drinkers) and I have to admit that Ben Counter is an exceptional novelist. The book is very well written with just the right balance struck between action, scene setting, moral undertone and descriptive pieces.
Unfortunately, I’m not enjoying the book and I have to admit that this is mainly because I don’t sympathise with the main protagonists! Initially, I was there…I was hooked…but soon warning signs started to glow at me in my mind as to where the book was going and what the main characters were heading for, but I took heart from what I’d read in the synopsis at the front…”surely this was not the way the book was going as it’s counter to what the author said his aims were”…unfortunately, this is what’s happening.
I will attempt to finish “Soul Drinker” in the hope that things will turn round for the main characters. They are well founded, well described and I feel I must at least read the first book to its conclusion. I also find that I’ve hit the point where I “know the ‘secret’” contained within the book, I’m not clear if the hints are intentional and the reader is meant to unravel the underlying issue of the series of books well within the first 100 pages…but I strongly feel I have (though I won’t spoil anything here).
What this has highlighted to me is how “brainwashed” I have become by more Pro-Imperial books such as the Gaunt’s Ghosts books and others like them…to say that I am turning from the Heretic as assuredly as any real Guardsman would, although I’m only reading about a fictional thing, set in a fictional universe which is all…erm…FICTION, perhaps says more about the quality of the writing in this book (to provoke such a reaction) and the quality of other books I’ve read previously (that have conditioned me to react in this way).
In short, I would recommend this book and perhaps the series but it’s not for everyone’s taste.