Farnham's Freehold in The Alternative Worlds

Sep 27, 2008 Ubik rated it did not like it

Terrible! I admit I didnt get even halfway through (page 119 in fact), but I just couldnt endure one more second of weak caricatures of characters, shitty dialogue, and scenes that raise the ick factor to well over 10 for me.

Im definitely NOT a prude, and definitely not against incest in a story. Hell, the Flowers in the Attic series is still a alltime favorite of mine. But unlike Flowers, where the incest was both justified and told with care, here its as if its just A-OK! This was the paragra Terrible! I admit I didnt get even halfway through (page 119 in fact), but I just couldnt endure one more second of weak caricatures of characters, shitty dialogue, and scenes that raise the ick factor to well over 10 for me.

Im definitely NOT a prude, and definitely not against incest in a story. Hell, the Flowers in the Attic series is still a alltime favorite of mine. But unlike Flowers, where the incest was both justified and told with care, here its as if its just A-OK! This was the paragraph where I decided I was done:

(the daughter Karen speaking to her father):

I didnt come here to ask you to marry me. Not even to seduce you though I might as well say, having said so much that you can have me if you want me. I think you've known that for years. What??!!!? Its that last part that really disgusted me. Yes, now that they (think theyre) the only people left, I can understand drastic measures being taken, but that these were acceptable thoughts years earlier? Wow.

As the pages went on, I wrote off character after character (except Doctor Livingstone -- their cat) until I was down to just Karen. I quit when I finally decided to write her off as well seeing that she considers it just fine to admit that she is sexually attracted to her father, and his reaction just being "OK, sure". Duke was OK, but I could see him following the same road as his father. Barbara was a wackjob (no wonder her marriage failed), the mom is just a shell of a character, Joe the black servant isnt really bad, but it just bothers me that he was so intentionally written the way he was given what we know the outcome to be, and Hugh? Jesus! Completely despicable. Intelligent for sure, but incredibly unlikable. And the worst thing of all about his character is that he had no clear values or personality. One minute he's threatening to kill his son and the very next without even skipping a beat, everything is hunky dorey. Another example is that he, above all others in the group practically coddles Joe, but when Joe admits to being shy and doesnt feel at home like the rest of the family with being naked and creepy around each other all the time, he realistically threatens to banish him into the woods! This isnt a case of "unreliable narrator" (its written in third person anyway save for Barbara's "diary"), its just plain bad writing if you cant make up your mind who your character is or how is supposed to feel from moment to moment. Ugh! ...more

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