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Spartan Gold (Fargo Adventure, #1)
by Clive Cussler, Grant Blackwood
by Clive Cussler, Grant Blackwood
Andreea Daia's review
bookshelves: ab, read-2011, action-adventure
Jun 29, 11
bookshelves: ab, read-2011, action-adventure
Read from June 26 to 29, 2011
I have never read a novel like this! I should call it "The Book of Details."
I feel bad for giving it only 3 starts because the story is quite good (a 4-star rating for the plot) but the style made it difficult to enjoy it. There is no introspection in this book, no description of emotions or thoughts, nothing but tons of details, over details, over details of irrelevant facts. We are not only told that Sam and Remi took a boat tour; we are told the name of the company that offered the tour, the dimensions and technical specifications of the boat they traveled on AND the dimensions and technical specifications of the other types of boats this company owned but they've never seen. We are not told only that Sam and Remi had dinner; we are told every single instruction that they would give to a waitress and sometimes even more. And when they happen to dine at home, we are told not only that they had chicken soup; we are told what brand the soup was.
For every room they enter or pass by we are told its size, lighting level, furnishing, color, and smell. In every place they travel we are given directions with Mapquest precision, street after street after street, how many miles on the first one, what kind of turn. When we are given clothing description, we are told everything from the designer, color, garment information, to fit. And all this painful process in the detriment of the smallest attempt to do some character development.
I truly feel terrible for criticizing this book due to its style, because obviously the amount of work and effort that went into gathering all that information was considerable. But I found myself losing the idea of the story because of the overly abundant peculiarities.
The only way in which the characters are developed is through action and dialog, which in itself would have been a spectacular exercise if successful. Unfortunately, the characters come out flat and lifeless, if not completely unbelievable. Sam and Remi have the Russian Mafia (and sometimes the Sicilian Mafia) following them one step behind, yet they never think to run away. Even for an ex-CIA guy, that is a hard-to-swallow pill.
It is too bad because as I said the story would have had potential.
I feel bad for giving it only 3 starts because the story is quite good (a 4-star rating for the plot) but the style made it difficult to enjoy it. There is no introspection in this book, no description of emotions or thoughts, nothing but tons of details, over details, over details of irrelevant facts. We are not only told that Sam and Remi took a boat tour; we are told the name of the company that offered the tour, the dimensions and technical specifications of the boat they traveled on AND the dimensions and technical specifications of the other types of boats this company owned but they've never seen. We are not told only that Sam and Remi had dinner; we are told every single instruction that they would give to a waitress and sometimes even more. And when they happen to dine at home, we are told not only that they had chicken soup; we are told what brand the soup was.
For every room they enter or pass by we are told its size, lighting level, furnishing, color, and smell. In every place they travel we are given directions with Mapquest precision, street after street after street, how many miles on the first one, what kind of turn. When we are given clothing description, we are told everything from the designer, color, garment information, to fit. And all this painful process in the detriment of the smallest attempt to do some character development.
I truly feel terrible for criticizing this book due to its style, because obviously the amount of work and effort that went into gathering all that information was considerable. But I found myself losing the idea of the story because of the overly abundant peculiarities.
The only way in which the characters are developed is through action and dialog, which in itself would have been a spectacular exercise if successful. Unfortunately, the characters come out flat and lifeless, if not completely unbelievable. Sam and Remi have the Russian Mafia (and sometimes the Sicilian Mafia) following them one step behind, yet they never think to run away. Even for an ex-CIA guy, that is a hard-to-swallow pill.
It is too bad because as I said the story would have had potential.
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