Just bought as I suspect it will be the OU Book of the Month for May and it was in the charity shop v. cheap (£1.50!) and doesn't even look like it's been read!

Hmmm....lots of people love this book and, at times, I really loved it too. So much so that I am loathed to give it a low score. That said, I don't think I have ever been so pleased to finish a book. The second half of it was almost painful and returning to it each evening felt very much like I was being hauled to a distant relative's for afternoon tea when I would rather be playing outside with my 'real friends'.

But why? Well, the reason I loved the book at the beginning was the delight I felt at each different story and the parts where they intersected. I enjoyed looking at the different styles of writing and particularly enjoyed the spelling in the Orison Sonmi story (plus I happen to think that Mitchell is probably correct in his prediction of syntax in the future on this one,particularly with the spelling of night as nite....but i digress...).

So why did it go wrong? Firstly, the overlaps became largely predictable (e.g. the old comet birthmark) and secondly, the 'oh-look-i-happen-to-have-a-copy-of-the-next-story-in-writing' theme meant that by the second half I no longer thought of the stories as 'real people' more as bits of paper. Hence, I didn't care whether Luisa Rey lived or not if she was only a story. And knowing that there was only 40 more pages of the Ewing and Zedelghem story meant that I knew there wouldn't be much scope for anything amazing to happen so - again - I read it with a very loose eye.

In the end I just wanted the thing finished like never before!

Not sure on next plans - will get passed on someway for definite. I just hope the next person is one of those who love it in the way most people have!

RELEASE NOTES:

Left on a table by the cafe on the canal - the one that sells gorgeous cream tea and scones!