Thadlerian
Riftsound resident
- Joined
- Jun 6, 2005
- Messages
- 989
I just finished reading The Little Country, my first de Lint.
I can't say I liked it very much, though. The plot had its potential, but it was far too long and uninteresting, and seemed not very well executed. For example, one of the characters is practically killed, only to be saved by an item we've never heard about, that is being introduced right there and then, and which "fortunately" happened to be upon their person.
Several places the plot seemed to take shortcuts, like when events observed were recollected in one sentence ("He told them what had happened.") where it would have been far more interesting to see how the observer interpreted what he had seen, and how the others reacted while the details were unrolled. Especially the one at the end of the chapter "The Unforunate Cup Of Tea", which triggered the first major character intrigue.
There are various other little details as well, standing out every now and then, adding up to my scepticism. There's the main character, initially described as someone to which "[the] smile came so often and easily (...)", but who comes across as short-tempered and crabby through the actual plot. There's the Robert Jordan-esque gentle, handsome male lead, whom all the girls instantly fall in love with. There's a peaceful English village in which all evil has been forced upon it by greedy Americans. The most complex and interesting character is being killed off near the end, resolving a problematic and potentially interesting relationship. A lot of sentences claiming their own paragraphs, to show their importance.
Like this.
I gave this book a fair chance, even though I was slightly put off by the Robert Jordan promotional quote on the front, as well as a Nietzsche quote taken out of its context a bit further in. I had hoped it was someting new, sophisticated, but I found nothing I haven't seen before.
The Robert Jordan quote was perhaps not quite malplaced. This book felt a little like the result if he was to make a novelization of Gaiman's Sandman. Or what Pratchett's The Wee Free Men would have felt like if it had taken itself dead seriously.
I can't say I liked it very much, though. The plot had its potential, but it was far too long and uninteresting, and seemed not very well executed. For example, one of the characters is practically killed, only to be saved by an item we've never heard about, that is being introduced right there and then, and which "fortunately" happened to be upon their person.
Several places the plot seemed to take shortcuts, like when events observed were recollected in one sentence ("He told them what had happened.") where it would have been far more interesting to see how the observer interpreted what he had seen, and how the others reacted while the details were unrolled. Especially the one at the end of the chapter "The Unforunate Cup Of Tea", which triggered the first major character intrigue.
There are various other little details as well, standing out every now and then, adding up to my scepticism. There's the main character, initially described as someone to which "[the] smile came so often and easily (...)", but who comes across as short-tempered and crabby through the actual plot. There's the Robert Jordan-esque gentle, handsome male lead, whom all the girls instantly fall in love with. There's a peaceful English village in which all evil has been forced upon it by greedy Americans. The most complex and interesting character is being killed off near the end, resolving a problematic and potentially interesting relationship. A lot of sentences claiming their own paragraphs, to show their importance.
Like this.
I gave this book a fair chance, even though I was slightly put off by the Robert Jordan promotional quote on the front, as well as a Nietzsche quote taken out of its context a bit further in. I had hoped it was someting new, sophisticated, but I found nothing I haven't seen before.
The Robert Jordan quote was perhaps not quite malplaced. This book felt a little like the result if he was to make a novelization of Gaiman's Sandman. Or what Pratchett's The Wee Free Men would have felt like if it had taken itself dead seriously.
