The Sword and Laser discussion
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Empire State
2012 Reads
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ES: Almost done - EDIT: now done
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Just finished the last 10%ish of the novel and it didn't get any better. I found also there was a few deus ex machina moments but considering it was imitating old serials this shouldn't have been a surprise. I'd love to hear others opinions. I may at a later time revisit the last 20% and see if a second reading may provide a different perspective on what I read previously. Like I said in my OP, it could be I've missed something.
I had a similar reaction.I thought the first half of the book was OK.
Not great but OK. It needed an editor and a lot
more polish. The ending was too convoluted for my taste.
I thought it would have made a better film script then book.
One additional note. I've seen people refer to quantum theory in relation to this book. I think what they are really referring to is the Multiverse theory(MWI part specifically I'm guessing).http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiverse
In a very oversimplified form this thoery states that every place in a universe where there are multiple possible actions that can occur there is a existing universe that corresponds to each action. So if you are at a traffic light and your run a red light then there is a universe where you didn't and a universe where you ran the red light but were hit by oncoming traffic or a universe where you simply stopped your car, got out of it and abandoned it at the intersection. Mr. Christopher takes great liberties with this theory and makes it his own for better or worse. Probably best not to correlate the MWI with this novel at all by the time Christopher is done with it.
Brian Greene does a good job explaining it
http://video.pbs.org/video/2168433605/
I got the impression that Christopher was using multiverse theory as it's employed by superhero comics, rather than the science version.But maybe someone who knows anything about superheros could weight in?
For me it's hard to dislike this book, it was boring, I never felt anything for most of the characters or Empire State, but I love all the ideas in the book: Steampunk superhero, Noir detective story and multiverse, everything sounds great, but in some part it failed, it might be the writing, or the storytelling or something else...In the long run I thing that Christopher will write something really awesome, but this wasn't it. I'll be looking forward to his next books
Napoez3 wrote: "For me it's hard to dislike this book, it was boring, I never felt anything for most of the characters or Empire State, but I love all the ideas in the book: Steampunk superhero, Noir detective sto..."Still haven't finished, but this is about how I feel at the halfway point as well. So many fun ideas that appeal directly to the things I love, but delivered in a somewhat lackluster and unpolished way. It's basically the book someone like me would write -- where every ten seconds, I think of some other thing I like and feel the sudden need to cram it into the story. I agree that with experience under his belt and perhaps with the attention of a more accomplished editor, there is a great book to come.
I agree with just about everything everyone has said so far. I wanted the book to get better, but it just got worse. Towards the end I couldn't wait to finish, just so I'd be done.
No one who has posted so far has been very enthusiastic about it, myself included. It wasn't a terrible book, and I didn't hate it, but almost every time I sat down to read it, my mind started wandering. Like Napoez3, it's full of things I should love, but it just didn't do it for me. Probably because the only character I really liked or found interesting was Captain Carson, and that just wasn't enough.Interestingly, the book I started shortly after finishing Empire State has me enthralled. Double Whammy is based around something that holds absolutely no interest for me--bass fishing tournaments. And yet I'm loving it, mostly because the characters are so interesting. So it's kind of opposite to Empire State.
Following in the footsteps of Tora and Napoez3, this book had a lot of things I liked. I've never really read a Noir detective story quite like this but I enjoyed the.. feel, of it. But I never really felt invested in any of the characters. To the point I even felt most of the time like the "better" parts for me were just one's that felt like I was closer to the end.
Couldn't agree more...it had all the ingredients for a great dish, but just left a bland taste in the mouth.now I'm hungry
Tora wrote: "Interestingly, the book I started shortly after finishing Empire State has me enthralled. Double Whammy is based around something that holds absolutely no interest for me--bass fishing tournaments."Double Whammy is one of my favorite books ever! I reread it every 4-5 years and have given away enough copies that I think I've created a local Double Whammy cult.
My problems were with the writing style which failed to execute the noir feeling. The several concept weren´t linked together, the character one dimensional and there motivation lacked substance. The explanation for the setting was lazy, the action dull and at the end he jumped just around, trying not to be predictable, throwing logic out of the window. I had to force myself to read the book to the end. A disappointing read!
I felt throughout most of this book that I could care less about the major characters. I've felt (view spoiler)[that there hasn't been a huge reason for me to care if they saved the empire state world or not. (hide spoiler)] I spent a good part of this book back tracking because I was easily lost by the plot and the writing. I don't know. I've been bored with it but that probably has a lot to do with me not caring for the major characters. I can tell from some of the other forum posts that there are others who enjoyed this more than I. As Mike Myers playing Barbara Streisand would say, "Discuss".
EDIT: My final thoughts are in my review.
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...