As you may or may not remember, my first comments on The Secret of Lost Things were less than glowing. Unfortunately, I have no intention of repealing any of those comments. For a 349 page book, I feel unsatisfied. I knew when I bought it, it was a risk, since it was not my usual fantasy genre choice. And, man, did it whoop me in the ass.
After 4 chapters, I couldn't decide if my inability to get interested was just a slow start or the fact that I give non-fantasy books less of a chance to draw me in. Well, turns out, it was just a lackluster novel. Not terribly offensive, just boring. However, people by offensive, obnoxious, stupid, or disgusting characters.
I found out at the end in the Author's Notes that she borrowed quotes and stuff from famous authors (Shakespeare, etc.) that her characters said with no reference within the novel. And some of the random existential commentary was also taken from similar sources. What the hell?
There were quotes from and about Melville, but those were all explicitly so. (And the book revolved around a lost manuscript of his, so it made sense..) But the other quotes (and some were given reference, just not all within the book itself) seemed just to be randomly tossed in to beef up the otherwise sleep-inducing tome.
Lessons learned:
- write something that is at the very least interesting.
- write interestingly, that is develop some sense of style. if this proves impossible, write cleanly so that the reader isn't tripped up by errant adverbs or tense switching.
- make the majority (or half?) or your characters likeable or at least understandable in their motive and feelings. otherwise the reader isn't going to give a damn if the albino is pushed to his death in the middle of the bookstore by the possibly asexual, obsessive compulsive guy who can't relate to real people.
- not all authors from Australia (or whatever country you're currently enthralled with) are worth reading.
- make the reader feel, after completing the entire book, like they have arrived somewhere, like they have learned something valuable, like they journeyed with the characters. not like they just wasted their time learning what not to do in their own novel.
Wow. I'm not reading THAT book.
ReplyDeleteThe thing about the author taking quotes from other sources and not accrediting them is stupid. And by stupid, I mean I'm going to write a whole play where the characters just say things from other authors. But it'll only be one line from other authors at a time, that way I don't have to credit it.
Ex.
MAN- It is the east, and [WOMAN's name here] is the sun!
WOMAN- I'll get [MAN's name here] back tomorrow, tomorrow is another day.
MAN- But old men do not go gentle into that good night. They rage, rage against the dying of the light.
WOMAN- Is this the face that launched a thousand ships? That burned the topless towers of Ilium?
MAN- Harry Potter!
Ah, that was fun. What a great piece of literature that would make.
"- make the reader feel, after completing the entire book, like they have arrived somewhere, like they have learned something valuable, like they journeyed with the characters. not like they just wasted their time learning what not to do in their own novel."
ReplyDeleteThough that is quite a helpful tool for us who DO pursue to write our own novels, it is not helpful to those who doesn't give a rat's bootay about writing. Also, if it sucked that much, we can totes get published too. Forealz. That DOES make me feel better. Thanks, Allya!!
Also, Cerasi: dude, the "Harry Potter" bit cracked me up. I'm so glad I wasn't at work. LOL.