Tuesday, December 27, 2005

I am superman and I can do anything

I'm all for putting aside a book that doesn't click in the first 100 or so pages. That happened in the last few days with Still Life With Crows by Preston and Child. The authors tend to write books about nasty killings that appear supernatural but are later explained in scientific terms. This worked really well in Relic and others, but the steam is running out in this one. The recurring main character Pendergast is simply unbelievable. His knowledge is deep in too many places, his senses are too powerful and he is always smarter than every other character. It just gets a little boring. He is also a deadly combatant, of course. He is even more cartoonish than James Bond whose knowledge was generally limited to weapons, women and wine. It was all the easier to put this one down when I have Plot Against America waiting. I should say that I generally like these authors, but this one just felt a little weak and the inherent ridiculousness of Pendergast's character was too obvious in the weak and uninteresting plot.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

1. Sounds like Jack Ryan on steroids. Yuck.

2. I am in awe of your strength. I can almost never bring myself to stop a book in a middle (Portrait of the Artist, being an unfortunate example of a time when I DID give up...thank goodness I had Babo).

Tripp said...

Oh really? You must learn to toss aside books you don't care about finishing. If you don't like it, don't read it. There are too many books you will never get to before you turn into worm food, so you should only read the ones you like.

Anonymous said...

I feel some obscure sense of guilt. Can't explain it really. That may be why I am so picky about what I will read.