Karen.d's Doorstep Challenge

[karen.d]

So far in 2012 I have read the following doorstep books (titles with 500 pages or more)

 

My Rating:

 

* Didn't like it

 

** It was ok

 

*** Liked it

 

**** Loved it

 

***** A Must Read

 

 

'Fall of Giants'- Ken Follett ** (941 Pages)

 

'Time's Legacy'- Barbara Erskine * (520 Pages)

 

'The Passage- Justin Cronin *** (766 Pages)

 

'World Without End'- Ken Follett (Unfinished)

 

'Don Quixote' -Cervantes (Unfinished)

 

''Game of Thrones'- George R.R Martin (Currently Reading)

Edited September 26, 2012 by karen.d

[karen.d]

Apologies if you have already read them, but here are my reviews for each of the books so far:

 

'Fall of Giants'- Ken Follett

 

Publisher: Macmillan

 

ISBN: 978-0-330-53544-1

 

Length: 941 Pages

 

What the 'blurb' says: 'Five families are brought together through the world-shaking dramas of the First World War, the Russian Revolution and the struggle for votes for women.

It is 1911, and the coronation day of King George V. Thirteen-year-old Billy Williams begins his first day of work in a coal mine.

The Williams family is connected by romance and enmity to the Fitzherberts, aristocratic coal-miners, Lady Maud Fitzherbert falls in love with Walter von Ulrich, a spy at the German Embassy in London. Their destiny is entangled with that of Gus Dewar, ambitious young aide to U.S President Woodrow Wilson. Two orphaned Russian brothers soon become involved, but Grigori and Lev Peshkov's plan to emigrate to America falls foul of war, conscription and revolution.'

 

Opening Line: '22 June 1911- On the day King George V was crowned at Westminster Abbey in London, Billy Williams went down the pit in Aberowen, South Wales.'

 

What's good with this novel?

 

The opening to this novel is gripping. It was so gripping, that during about the first 100 pages, I couldn't put this book down. When Follett focuses on the purely character elements of the story, the writing is brilliant.

I found the conflict between the miners and the issue with the safety within that work environment, very interesting. I also liked the elements which talked about votes for women.

 

What's wrong with this novel?

 

Whilst I found the character focused elements within this novel gripping, I felt that 'Fall of Giants' was too bogged down with war strategy and indepth description about war. At times, I almost felt as if Follett was glamourising a war which, in my opinion, was useless anyway.

 

I was also disappointed to find that even though Follett sets the multiple characters within 'Fall of Giants' successfully, I felt that he did not maintain equal attention to them throughout the novel. During most of the novel, the story focuses on one or two of the characters which were heavily involved in war or politics then at the end, Follett hastily concluded the stories of the remaining characters.

 

The pace of this novel is unsatisfactory also. Whilst the beginning of the novel was well paced, I found the rest of it to be slow and at times, rather boring. To be honest, I was desperate to end this novel, because it could not hold my attention throughout its 941 pages and I couldn't wait to start something new. I was also disappointed with the ending of this novel.

 

Is this worth a read?

 

If you enjoy novels which focus heavily on war, you may enjoy this. If you are looking for a novel which more character driven, you will be disappointed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

'Time's Legacy' by Barbara Erskine

 

Publisher: Harper Collins

 

ISBN: 978-0-00-730229-1

 

Length: 520 Pages

 

Opening Line: 'An icy wind whipped in across the shallow water bringing with it the first breath of autumn.'

 

What's good about this novel?

 

I found the opening segment of this novel showed great promise. I found how the author attempts to introduce a debate on the complexities of religion, to be interesting. I also found the plot within the past to be compelling.

The central character Abi also showed promise. Being a Reverend, she isn't a stereotypical protagonist, so I found this approach to be refreshing.

 

What's wrong about this novel?

 

In my opinion, the potential of this novel is ruined by many different things. The writing within this novel is well paced, but it is also packed with of cliches which annoyed me.

I also found the plot within the present day to start off well, but then rapidly change from being over dramatic, to down right ridiculous. The ending itself takes away any legitimate debate that Erskine is trying to illustrate throughout this novel, which I think is a shame.n my opinion, I think that Erskine has been a bit too ambitious with the weave of time in this novel. 'Time's Legacy' would have been much more effective and enjoyable, if the plot had just one linear storyline in the past.

Although the main character Abi is quite well formed, I found that most of the the characters within this novel, mainly within the present, to be mostly 1 dimension and merely puppets to move the plot along.

 

Is this worth a read?

 

It frustrates me that I can't give this book a better review, because it has the potential to be a very good read. As it is, 'Time's Legacy' is a novel that you could read if you want to switch your brain off for a while and not care about whether a book is realistic or not. For me though, 'Time's Legacy' is a very disappointing read.

Edited July 9, 2012 by karen.d

[karen.d]

'The Passage' By Justin Cronin (Contains Spoilers!)

 

Publisher: Orion Books

 

ISBN: 978-0-7528-9784-4

 

Length: 766 Pages

 

Opening Line: 'Before she became the Girl from Nowhere- the One Who Walked In, the First and Last and Only, who lived a thousand years- she was just a little girl in Iowa, named Amy, Amy Harper Bellafonte.'

 

 

Being a door stop sized novel, I was bit hesitate about reading this novel. However, the cover alone pulled me into giving this a go.

I wouldn't say that I was completely disappointed by this novel, but I certainly wouldn't say that this was the best book I have ever read.

'The Passage' is a book that is hard to get into for starters. It took me over 200+ pages, before I could comprehend where this book might be going. The set up is rather slow and a few times I contemplated abandoning this altogether. However, I would recommend to anyone who is/contemplating reading this novel, is to stick with it, the story gets better.

What I would say with this novel, is that I think that this would translate better on film rather than on paper. Whether or not Justin Cronin had a film in mind when writing this novel, I do think that the vast landscape and multi layered story plot might be better explained on the big screen. A lot of dialogue could have been better though. Sometimes I didn't feel like the characters where real people talking and the speech felt a little disjointed.

 

 

Spoiler (I can't seem to get the spoiler function working...sorry!)

 

 

One thing I found particularly annoying (apart from the endless use of the word 'Flyers'), was that on numerous occasions, Justin Cronin sets up relationships between characters, investing a lot of the reader's time getting to know these characters, only for Cronin to then inexplicably kill the character off! It felt like Cronin was making all of the events up as he went, rather than having a purposeful journey he wanted to take his readers on. Twists and turns are sometimes good in novels, but when it gets to the point where the reader has no idea where the story is going, can be rather off putting.

 

 

 

 

I also felt this novel was an amalgomation of many things (books and films) that I have seen before. In all fairness, a lot has been done in the apocalyptic/monster genre in the case of films and literature, so there is many more places for 'The Passage' could go with it. However, I felt that this was original enough, to keep my interest.

[karen.d]

I'm about to start reading 'World Without End' by Ken Follett, and I can't believe how tiny the writing is! This is going to take me a while to finish....