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Title: Empty Cities of the Full Moon by Howard V. Hendrx, Howard V. Hendrix ISBN: 0441009379 Publisher: Ace Books Pub. Date: 06 August, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3
Rating: 2
Summary: Disappointing Read
Comment: This story drifts along at a leisurely pace, never quite getting exciting, never quite getting mysterious. If it pleases you to be able to relax with a book where you never wonder what is going to happen next, I highly recommend this book. Actually, I would also recommend this book to anyone who is used to reading good science fiction / near future apocalypse type material. This book will remind you how good other books were and can be.
If this is the kind of story you're interested in, but you want more exciting writing pick up William Gibson or better yet almost anything by Neal Stephenson.
Rating: 1
Summary: Where's the story?
Comment: Writ large, Empty Cities of the Full Moon is a very standard, no-surprises story of people wandering around the United States following an apocalypse caused by altered prions which send most people on a course of shamanic-derived behaviors leading to their death. There are a few minor variations - the shapeshifting Werfolk who survive the pandemic, and a man from an alternate universe - but otherwise its plot doesn't really provide any excitement or stimulation.
Similarly, the characters are very one-dimensional. There are the naive young lovers; the scientist; the engineer; the mystic; the fanatic (several of those, actually), and so forth. None of them really have a "story arc" through which they clearly grow or evolve. They're acted on, they're not really the driving forces in the story.
Midway through the novel it hit me: Empty Cities does little more than demonstrate that Hendrix has carefully researched a wide variety of topics, presenting them all in great (sometimes excruciating) detail and in round-robin fashion. This leads to numerous, lengthy expository passages which, frankly, bored me and often had me skipping ahead by several sentences to see if there was any good stuff coming. As far as I could tell, there wasn't, really.
To the extent that Empty Cities tries to distinguish itself, it attempts this by trying to merge science, metaphysics and spirituality: To provide a scientific explanation for the outre behavior of the Werfolk and the mystical phenomena of the last days and the days after. I just didn't buy any of it, since it seemed like Hendrix was just handwaving as fast as he could, and his explanations were about as dull as I could possibly imagine them. Any effort to suspend my disbelief was just not "sold" at all well. I would have found the novel more plausible had it been presented as straight fantasy rather than as SF.
The novel is a letdown in other ways, too. the alternate universe angle is basically a red herring (though I found this traveller John Drinan's story - such as it was - more interesting than anyone else's). Alternating chapters occur in 2232-2233 and 2265-2266, thus robbing the collapse of civilization of any tension it might have had. Much of it occurs off-stage, anyway. The plots and plans of the purported "heavy" seem too abstract to have much emotional weight, and his downfall occurs (of course) because he deliberately puts himself in harm's way (though the convenient presence of omniscient and omnipresent forces help push things along). Plus, our heroes are constantly meeting people whom they know or have heard of, most of whom conveniently survived the pandemic; it exceeded credibility.
Empty Cities of the Full Moon is one to avoid, as it fails to be either fun or exciting, and undercuts its potential to be thought-provoking (what might have been its saving grace) by being long-winded and pedantic at every turn. Aargh.
Rating: 1
Summary: Why do I finish books that after 100 pages are still awful?!
Comment: I had great hope for Mr. Hendrix drawn as I am to apocalyptic fiction (science or otherwise). I consider myself to be above average in intelligence, and I'm insulted when an author for no good reason strings together words and concepts like an insane shopping list. Truly, I think Hendrix even made up some of his words to add to his soup. Read pages 339 & 341 as a MILD example of this slop.
Why through-out this book does Hendrix refer to some cities by their names with no embellishment or adjectives but can't leave well enough alone with others? An example is on page 324. Baltimore isn't just Baltimore it's "... the EMPTY city of Baltimore". Oh I see now, NONE of the other cities in America under his scenario are "empty" - they're all brimming with people except for Baltimore. Also Atlanta is "... ghost city" ooooo.
Other annoying examples: Page 329 referring to "the city of toppled pillars". How poetic. This isn't ancient Greece it's Washington,DC which some of your characters who survived civilization's destruction remember by that name - we're talking 30 odd years not 3,000. Why on page 371 does Hendrix suddenly refer to Johannesburg as "Joburg"? It's so annoying. On page 391 Hendrix has Lupe (who had been to NY pre-pandemic)refer to "Manhattan's green front yard - what used to be called Battery Park". No, it still IS called "Battery Park" using that weird, descriptive track that Hendrix loves should mean that he should refer to EVERYTHING in post-pandemic America with the words "used to be ...". Page 404 Hendrix notes that the travelers see "the monument the oldsters call the Statue of Liberty". Oh come on Howard! It's only been 3O years. I'm sure the civilized people of Grand Bahama remember the name of the statue. Why not say that the oldsters call this big city "New York"? Again on page 409. Sister Tawanna seems to know the Flatiron Building. Why not what "used to be" known as the Flatiron Building. Very, very sloppy editing.
I have never reviewed a book on Amazon before. How such poor, derivative material can be published amazes me. Please, save your money. You want "end of the world" stuff? Go out and buy "The Stand" by Stephen King. Without doubt the best book of its type ever written.
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Title: Pattern Recognition by William Gibson ISBN: 0399149864 Publisher: Putnam Pub Group Pub. Date: 03 February, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
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Title: Nekropolis by Maureen F. McHugh ISBN: 0380791234 Publisher: Eos (Trade) Pub. Date: 12 November, 2002 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Altered Carbon by Richard K. Morgan ISBN: 0345457684 Publisher: Del Rey Pub. Date: 04 March, 2003 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: The Chronoliths by Robert Charles Wilson ISBN: 0812545249 Publisher: Tor Books Pub. Date: June, 2002 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: In the Country of the Blind by Michael Flynn ISBN: 076534498X Publisher: Tor Books Pub. Date: March, 2003 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
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