Books

My old review of Jeff Vandermeer's Authority:

This book was equal parts boring and frustrating. Annihilation set up an interesting mystery while letting us experience the creep factor of Area X. Authority took us out of Area X and never let us back in. It suffered from three major problems.

1. Teasing the mystery without giving us anything. If Area X is a 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle, Authority gave us maybe 2 or 3 piece to work on. And every time it brought up the mystery or made us think we were about to get an answer or even a new question--nothing. Just more "yep it sure is mysterious."

2. No action until the last few pages. So much boring inaction. Conversations that lead to nothing, the MC endlessly ruminating. There were two genuinely unsettling moments but the book needed far more of these.

3. The MC was awful. He's supposed to be a "fixer." He thinks of himself as understanding how people think and always being three moves ahead. Yet in Every. Single. Scene. He is baffled to find that the other person has out maneuvered him. It's like he thinks "I'm just going to put my hand in this nest of fire ants because if I'm not scared of them, they'll respect me. Ow my hand!" [Surprised Pikachu face.] I couldn't root for this moron.