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Review: The Court of the Air
9/1/10 12:29I am rather disappointed in my book club's January selection. The Court of the Air, by Stephen Hunt. It suffers from a very common shortcoming, but one usually found in film and comics rather than prose: it has almost no character development.
No, the focus of this book isn't the characters, it's the world those characters populate. Indeed, Mr. Hunt spends so much time developing his admittedly unique blend of steam punk and fantasy setting and various races that he forgets to develop his actual characters. Molly and Oliver are the two leads in this book, yet we know next to nothing about their personalities.
( I'll chose interesting characters over interesting world every single time. )
I wonder what my fellow book club members will think of this one? This is the third fantasy I've read with the club, and I've noticed fantasy book month meetings tend to be smaller than the sci-fi ones. In regards to my opinion of the three fantasies in question, this is the 2nd bomb. (The first was Book of the Dun Cow. UGH.) At least Inda was wonderful. They can't all be great, everyone can't like everything, I suppose.
I WANTED to like this one. *grumble* I hope I can manage to finish it before the meeting, b/c I probably won't if I don't. (My eloquence! Let me show you it!)
No, the focus of this book isn't the characters, it's the world those characters populate. Indeed, Mr. Hunt spends so much time developing his admittedly unique blend of steam punk and fantasy setting and various races that he forgets to develop his actual characters. Molly and Oliver are the two leads in this book, yet we know next to nothing about their personalities.
( I'll chose interesting characters over interesting world every single time. )
I wonder what my fellow book club members will think of this one? This is the third fantasy I've read with the club, and I've noticed fantasy book month meetings tend to be smaller than the sci-fi ones. In regards to my opinion of the three fantasies in question, this is the 2nd bomb. (The first was Book of the Dun Cow. UGH.) At least Inda was wonderful. They can't all be great, everyone can't like everything, I suppose.
I WANTED to like this one. *grumble* I hope I can manage to finish it before the meeting, b/c I probably won't if I don't. (My eloquence! Let me show you it!)
