It’s a good thing that Tobias Bucknell has a good site up for Crystal Rain, because Tor’s website is still crappy beyond belief, and YHB had entirely forgotten which book this was. The title was providing me with no clue whatsoever, and I had returned the actual book to the library shortly after reading it, which was in ... um, June? Late May? No, June, I think. I am behind in many things, but further behind in Book Reports than most things.
Anyway, now that I remember which book it was (one-armed sailor fights the Aztec Alien Lords with the eventual help of Futuristic Tech and so on and so forth), I can’t remember if I enjoyed it. I remember that it was annoying in large measure. I remember that it was entertaining, at least somewhat. I remember not liking the characters much, but I remember thinking that bits of the plot were really clever. I remember thinking that the deus ex machina was kind of wittily presented, but that it was a bit of a flaw that the book needed one. I remember considering not finishing the thing quite early in the book, but then once I settled in I read the rest quite greedily, and then (I think) complaining about the ending once it was done.
What I can’t remember is the balance of it. Did it tip over into the good end of things? Was it towards that other end? I know it wasn’t great, and I would remember if I thought it were awful, but I don’t remember if the thumb was inclined to be up or down.
The problem with that (and there is one, you see) is that my lack of memory on this point is fairly likely to lead me to read the book again, sometime. Oh, I’ll come across it in the library, or just as likely in a library book sale, and I’ll think to myself oh, right, the one-armed sailor fights the Aztec Alien Lords with the eventual help of Futuristic Tech and so on and so forth, and I’ll pick it up and take it on home, and then I’ll settle into the tub with it and open it up and then I’ll remember, about fifty pages in. And maybe it’ll turn out that I liked the thing, on the whole, and that’ll be all pleasant and nice. Or maybe it’ll turn out that it made me cranky, and then I’ll be cranky all over again.
And this, Gentle Reader, is why I should blog my books as soon as I finish them.
chazak, chazak, v’nitchazek,
-Vardibidian.