Plot: In a city where probability storms can cause children to turn to glass, streets to rearrange, and extra limbs to grow, anything can happen at any time. Rail and Moa, two ghetto thieves, find an ancient artifact that could bring them immense riches - but they have to hide it from their thief-mistress first. They meet up with a golem while on the run and together they struggle to stay out of the hands of the tyrannical Protectorate.
Comments: This is probably considered a fantasy book, though in the end you find a scientific answer to everything. I liked it, but my appreciation slowly ebbed the further along I got in the story. It turned out okay, but I didn't enjoy the ending.
The characters are surprisingly easy to imagine (for once), and the story line was easy to follow. I was constantly trying to find a connection between the Faded and our modern day world, but once I gave up on that, the book was a little less confusing. I think Chris Wooding does a pretty good job of making you feel a certain way about events and characters, but if Moa's tearful, silent pleading to Rail towards the end (if you read it, you'll know what I mean) was meant to endear me to her pitiful self, it failed utterly. I actually felt contemptuous towards her, like how the rich and protected feel towards the ghetto-people. And when Rail agreed, I felt almost as mad at him for falling for it.
The plot is creative and highly original, and I appreciate the complexity of the Fade and the technologies and settings Wooding describes. However, I think he could have chosen a better ending - unless there will be a sequel. Then, the ending might be okay. But if this is where it ends, I don't like it. I don't think the story should end this way.
Rating: I'm rating this book a six out of ten.
No comments:
Post a Comment