I was offered an advance copy of this book in exchange for posting a review by this date. I read some of the book, but didn't get through the entire tI was offered an advance copy of this book in exchange for posting a review by this date. I read some of the book, but didn't get through the entire text before time ran out. What I read I enjoyed. The tension was well-crafted. The characters were well-delineated and varied. The character who seems to be the main villain is intriguing and I want to know more about her. Setting the story in the aftermath of earthquakes destroying a town seems fascinating.
I don't much like the technique of showing time passing by time-stamping chapters. If six days pass, tell me six days pass. Don't make me flip backward in the book to see when the previous chapter occurred and then do math. Maybe this lends some sense of police procedure--and this story is about police in Christchurch--but I still don't like it.
But the plusses greatly outweigh the minuses....more
I received an advance copy of this book in return for posting a review of it on Amazon.com and on Goodreads.com on or before June 24, 2020. The lengthI received an advance copy of this book in return for posting a review of it on Amazon.com and on Goodreads.com on or before June 24, 2020. The length of this book prevented my reading the entire book before my review was due. I read the first eight chapters, which is about ten percent of the whole. My review covers only what I read.
I wanted to like this book. It purports to be a sweeping novel with many colorful characters. Certainly the “many characters” part is right. I don’t know who the main character is, since many of the first eight chapters deal with different characters. They include: an imprisoned would-be prostitute, an influential but controversial explorer, a rich student, a rich tomgirl, a rich drunk, and the rich tomgirl’s mother. I assume that the story threads of all these characters and more will eventually intertwine.
The build-up to momentous doings seems methodical and clear. The world of the story is not the nineteenth century I’m familiar with from learning of history; it’s an alternate history. So the countries, the geography, the past events, and even the types of animals found in particular places are different than our world. Some of the parallels to our world seem obvious. Others weren’t obvious to me. There are several maps at the beginning of the book, which will probably help a reader in navigating the story, but I didn’t read far enough to need to consult the maps and didn’t examine them closely.
The writing is straightforward and clear. It is workmanlike and undemanding. This seems to me to be a reasonable choice for a story with so many characters and plot-threads. A plain style without any flourish is one less complication for a reader to deal with. But it also seemed flat and uninvolving.
What I disliked about the eight chapters I read was that it all seemed so cliched. Many of the characters, the rich ones especially, seemed like stock characters from a run-of-the-mill soap opera. Others seemed like stock characters from standard thrillers. None of them did, said, or thought anything surprising or intriguing. The alternate world of the book, while potentially interesting, seemed like so much window-dressing—much the same as our world, just with the names changed. I kept waiting and hoping for a reason to feel engaged by the characters or their stories. The further I read, though, the more my hope dimmed. But I only read the first eight chapters, so maybe I would have become engrossed by something eventually. The story seemed to have potential for great excitement, and that was the way the book was presented to me initially, but if that potential is realized, I didn’t reach that part.
The story begins in the 1870s, but several modern-sounding phrases uttered by the characters seemed out of place to me. None of the cultures presented seemed out of the ordinary. I have the sense that the author wanted to emulate the sort of richness and atmosphere George R. R. Martin brings to his Song of Ice and Fire series. If that was the intent, The Sand Sea falls short.
The most interesting story aspect in the section I read was the plot thread of an ancient prophecy that seems about to be fulfilled. Yes, I know, a complete cliché. But even cliches can turn out to be engrossing if treated with an original angle. Perhaps The Sand Sea fulfills that potential in the ninety percent of the book I didn’t read. What I did read didn’t seem to indicate that the author would ever take such an opportunity. I hope I’m wrong, but I probably won’t find out, since I don’t have enough interest to continue reading.
I’m sure this book will appeal to readers who like an adventure tale and don’t mind that it involves characters with a high percentage of cardboard. Daytime soap opera fans should easily fall into its pacing, staging, and the level of emotional involvement evoked. I hope the author turns the cliches on their heads as the story progresses, but I caught no signals that would happen. ...more
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