Helpful Score: 1
I went into this book with some expectation that it would be better than "Fallen Skies," which left me greatly disappointed with the sketchy characterizations. This book, however, continued that disappointment. Most of the characters in this book suffer from two dimensions (at most). Some, like Sarah Cole, remained one-note throughout. What struck me most was that both Mehuru and Frances were not pitiable in the deserving sense (as the premise surely demanded), but pitiful in the contemptuous sense. I couldn't care one way or another how their lives turned out. Mehuru's reasons for loving Frances so deeply were not convincingly drawn. And while I understand that Gregory wanted to illustrate the captive conditions that Frances suffered, she was so weak and so unsympathetic in her inaction & submission that I despised her for most of the book.
Starting around page 250, I gave up on trying to enjoy it and instead decided to appreciate the detail of the Bristol atmosphere (the only evocative portion of the entire book - even the descriptions of the hellish slave holds seemed generic) and laugh out loud at the insane bouts of dialogue and erratic behavior of the characters (i.e., meek and mild Frances embarking on a wide-eyed, disheveled screaming fit at Josiah about the duplicity of the Merchant Venturers).
Gregory didn't seem engaged with these characters at all, though an interview segment at the end of the book implies that she was. But the treatment of the characters seems at arm's length or, at best, haphazard. For instance, Sarah disappears for about 100 pages of the book, although the majority of the action takes place inside the house where, presumably, Sarah is still living. At the end, Frances lays in bed, heavily pregnant, and arouses no suspicions due to a convenient array of bedclothes. Perhaps Gregory intended these absurd oversights as a way to show how disengaged the characters had become with each other, but it just so happened to disengage this reader as well. By the end I was as listless as the pathetic, throat-clutching Frances. But the book read fast (a week) and I heckled it to hold my interest, so the entertainment value was high.
I hear her Tudor novels are good, so I'll stick with this author for another go. Even if the history is crap, maybe it'll be more entertaining. But so far, it's 0 for 2.
Starting around page 250, I gave up on trying to enjoy it and instead decided to appreciate the detail of the Bristol atmosphere (the only evocative portion of the entire book - even the descriptions of the hellish slave holds seemed generic) and laugh out loud at the insane bouts of dialogue and erratic behavior of the characters (i.e., meek and mild Frances embarking on a wide-eyed, disheveled screaming fit at Josiah about the duplicity of the Merchant Venturers).
Gregory didn't seem engaged with these characters at all, though an interview segment at the end of the book implies that she was. But the treatment of the characters seems at arm's length or, at best, haphazard. For instance, Sarah disappears for about 100 pages of the book, although the majority of the action takes place inside the house where, presumably, Sarah is still living. At the end, Frances lays in bed, heavily pregnant, and arouses no suspicions due to a convenient array of bedclothes. Perhaps Gregory intended these absurd oversights as a way to show how disengaged the characters had become with each other, but it just so happened to disengage this reader as well. By the end I was as listless as the pathetic, throat-clutching Frances. But the book read fast (a week) and I heckled it to hold my interest, so the entertainment value was high.
I hear her Tudor novels are good, so I'll stick with this author for another go. Even if the history is crap, maybe it'll be more entertaining. But so far, it's 0 for 2.
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