Stewart
Active Member
Currently I'm reading The Rule of Four by first time writers Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason and, almost 200 pages into it, I'm bored. The writers are naive in their attempts to produce fiction and, with what is a good idea, they have spoiled it by spending more time looking at the ins and outs of studying at Princeton.
It's not the spending time at college that's boring - it's the characters. They are flat and don't do anything. They struggle to create conflict. And the blame there must lie with the authors as they struggle to create conflict. So, it's not a book I'll recommend.
I was interested to know though, if I was the only one who thought this about the book. It seems that I'm not and it has gathered more bad reviews over good ones. The point is that the majority of people who claim that the book was bad are doing so because it is, to quote them, not The Da Vinci Code.
The Rule of Four is a coming of age novel with a historical mystery intertwined as a subplot. The Da Vinci Code is a pulp thriller with a historical mystery as the main plot.
What is wrong with these people who live for hype? Ultimately, if they believe everything - or anything - that is hyped, then they will be disappointed.
So, overall, this has just been a moan - a) for hype monkeys; those who buy anything as long as it is hyped or endorsed; and b) those ignorant readers who can't tell the difference between style and genre.
It's not the spending time at college that's boring - it's the characters. They are flat and don't do anything. They struggle to create conflict. And the blame there must lie with the authors as they struggle to create conflict. So, it's not a book I'll recommend.
I was interested to know though, if I was the only one who thought this about the book. It seems that I'm not and it has gathered more bad reviews over good ones. The point is that the majority of people who claim that the book was bad are doing so because it is, to quote them, not The Da Vinci Code.
The Rule of Four is a coming of age novel with a historical mystery intertwined as a subplot. The Da Vinci Code is a pulp thriller with a historical mystery as the main plot.
What is wrong with these people who live for hype? Ultimately, if they believe everything - or anything - that is hyped, then they will be disappointed.
So, overall, this has just been a moan - a) for hype monkeys; those who buy anything as long as it is hyped or endorsed; and b) those ignorant readers who can't tell the difference between style and genre.