3 DNF books: Alice's Farm: A Rabbit's Tale, The Genius Plague, West of January

[thistlechaser]

Alice's Farm: A Rabbit's Tale by Maryrose Wood. DNF 22%

I loved the first chapter of this book so much. The start of what I thought was a talking animals book. The rabbits were so perfectly rabbit-like! I loved it! Unfortunately then the book shifted to focus on the kid. A very young kid, too young to understand much of anything. (His father got a "golden parachute" at work, and the kid spent half the book searching for a physical parachute...) That might have been fun for a kid to read, but for adult me, not so much at all.

Then, to make matters worse, in the few chapters about the rabbits, they stopped being rabbit-like at all. Sigh. DNF 22%.

The Genius Plague by David Walton. The story was interesting (one of those giant mushrooms, the ones that cover miles underground, branches out and starts to take over animals and people), but the main character was so unrealistic and unlikeable, I couldn't keep reading. He got expelled from three colleges, but wanted to work for the NSA. The NSA requires a college degree, but because he was so special, they hired him anyway. Then he hacked their computer system, which should have gotten him tossed in prison, but he didn't even lose his job. Then, moments later, he had another encounter with their security people and ended up with "automatic weapons shoved in his face", and there was zero repercussions to that, too.

Plus the women characters were just... not realistic people. One woman HATED the main character for literally not one single reason, and yet she gave MC and his brother a ride around town, multiple stops, for no reason. Then the brother coughed blood in her face, and there wasn't even mention of a reaction from her at that (this being a book set in the modern world, hello HIV?).

The women were just props for this man who, no matter how much he fucked up everything, only succeeded at everything he wanted. DNF 22%, but I really should have stopped sooner.

West of January by Dave Duncan. First off, check out the original cover of this book.


I LOVED LOVED LOVED this book at first. There's no information, just a cold opening. It was such a guess as to what the heck was going on! The story started with a bunch of Neanderthal-ish tribes, herding animals. Lots of clues as to what really was going on were slowly offered to the reader. The first quarter or so of the book was really interesting, then as we got to learn more about the world and the various cultures in it, my interest was killed. There was nothing at all subtle about the world building (like in one culture, every single woman was super-obesely fat, in another, every single person was child-like), and the story was just so slow slow slow slow. I skimmed a few pages, looking for the next clue, then skimmed more... then thought about skimming a whole chapter when I decided I just didn't care about the story anymore. DNF 59%

Partial book credits:
Point reached in DNF books: 22% + 22% +59% = 103%
Previous abandoned book total: 506%
New total: 609% (six books)

Comments

[jeane nevarez (from livejournal.com)]

I'm baffled by your description of the third one- at what point did someone ride an orca? Makes me laugh. Although I immediately thought of a book I recently read, in which a woman goes swimming with a dolphin and the main character thinks she's in love with it, becomes jealous and wants to kill said dolphin. Really weird.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

I saw that review of yours! I had NO idea what to say about the book, it seemed so odd. (Especially since apparently dolphins really do things like that...)

The third book was such a trip. Started with the Neanderthal-ish tribe, went to "flower children of the sea" where they did indeed ride orca-like creatures, then went to a mining tribe where they kept slaves, and then to another culture before I dropped it.

I tried not to write too much about the book, because the most wonderful thing was having no idea what was going on, but it's really hard to review and not say anything about the plot.

I wish I could recommend it, but the plot came down to "main character fucks his way around the world", and all the women characters were things to have sex with, morbidly obese, or in some way just another tool for the MC.

[jeane nevarez (from livejournal.com)]

Oh man, I came across a book with a "plot" like that before- it was set in ancient Aztec times and supposedly showing all the different strata of society by following this one character as he went from being a nobody to an important person- except on about page 10 I got tired of all the womanizing. Including his sister. Ugh. I ditched that one.

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

Yeah! That's exactly how this was. Showed all of the world's society... by the main character sleeping his way through them all.

Thankfully nothing with siblings though, ugh.

[isiscolo.livejournal.com]

That West of January book cover is awesome!

[thistle-chaser.livejournal.com]

It's classic!