Vardan Partamyan

I like dystopian literature, particularly John Christopher and Hugh Howey, so I was looking forward to reading the latest offering in this genre, and this book blended the dystopian view with science fiction, promising a good read.

The book is written in the first person narrative and, like many others that are written this way it makes it difficult to give any real depth to the characters we read about. Unfortunately this means that the lack of personality to be found in the main lead results in the reader not being able to connect with them early on in the novel, and had me feeling he wasn’t really trying to put things to rights in his ‘job’, but rather the opposite, he was just trying to stir things up to cause trouble and see how far he could push the establishment. This lack of distinctiveness is not just reserved for the main lead, but bleeds into the other characters we meet, even the bad guy is pretty much a cookie cutter version of any other that we read about in this type of book; it’s not that he is badly written, in fact none of the characters are badly written it is just that he, like the main lead, has no qualities written into him that make him stand out, or the reader connect with either of them.

As much as I was disappointed by the characters in the novel, and their lack of presence, I was pulled into this world by the descriptions of the people that had no other reason to be there, other than providing background. Their grey and fearful world did a great deal to make up for the lacklustre main characters. However, the descriptive passages didn’t make me take pause and think of the world we could possibly be living in now, and I think this is because the action took place somewhere other than our planet, making it easier to dismiss the dark elements as being somewhat alien to our perception. The premise of this novel was good, and I think with a little polishing and maybe a bit of fleshing out this would have been a great read. The pace is almost break-neck and, maybe, this is the reason the back stories were lost. I would have enjoyed this novel more if the pace had slowed down somewhat to match that of the world it was set in, which in turn would have allowed the Author breathing room for their character development and a little more world-building. There were a lot of good ideas in this novel and, I would like to read some more of this Author to see how they handle other subjects; maybe this genre is just not their forte.

I would recommend this to people who enjoy reading sci-fi novels more than the dystopian genre, as I felt this lost its way somewhat by trying to combine these two genres on a different planet rather than stick to the one we circle the sun on. It would be an interesting read for those who are maybe looking into dipping a toe into the dystopian genre, and one that would be a quick travelling read too.

Originally reviewed on: http://catesbooknuthut.wordpress.com/2013/08/12/review-i-the-provocateur-vardan-...



This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
… (altro)

This short story takes place in the same universe as [book:The After/Life|17468541]. The earth is a post-nuclear war wasteland. Some time has passed from the end of the previous story to the start of this one. There is a reference to the primary characters from The After/Life, but this can absutely be read on its own.

With such a short story, it's difficult to recap without giving away too much, but the focus is on an old man who has survived in solitude in the desert wilderness. He has a standard routine that gets him through every day until something disrupts it.

I chose to read this because I enjoyed the writing and storyline of After/Life. Old Man and the Flower, however, didn't recapture the elements that made After/Life so great. The very end was of the story provided a nice lift but wasn't enough prior to that.… (altro)

I like dystopian literature, particularly John Christopher and Hugh Howey, so I was looking forward to reading the latest offering in this genre, and this book blended the dystopian view with science fiction, promising a good read.

The book is written in the first person narrative and, like many others that are written this way it makes it difficult to give any real depth to the characters we read about. Unfortunately this means that the lack of personality to be found in the main lead results in the reader not being able to connect with them early on in the novel, and had me feeling he wasn’t really trying to put things to rights in his ‘job’, but rather the opposite, he was just trying to stir things up to cause trouble and see how far he could push the establishment. This lack of distinctiveness is not just reserved for the main lead, but bleeds into the other characters we meet, even the bad guy is pretty much a cookie cutter version of any other that we read about in this type of book; it’s not that he is badly written, in fact none of the characters are badly written it is just that he, like the main lead, has no qualities written into him that make him stand out, or the reader connect with either of them.

As much as I was disappointed by the characters in the novel, and their lack of presence, I was pulled into this world by the descriptions of the people that had no other reason to be there, other than providing background. Their grey and fearful world did a great deal to make up for the lacklustre main characters. However, the descriptive passages didn’t make me take pause and think of the world we could possibly be living in now, and I think this is because the action took place somewhere other than our planet, making it easier to dismiss the dark elements as being somewhat alien to our perception. The premise of this novel was good, and I think with a little polishing and maybe a bit of fleshing out this would have been a great read. The pace is almost break-neck and, maybe, this is the reason the back stories were lost. I would have enjoyed this novel more if the pace had slowed down somewhat to match that of the world it was set in, which in turn would have allowed the Author breathing room for their character development and a little more world-building. There were a lot of good ideas in this novel and, I would like to read some more of this Author to see how they handle other subjects; maybe this genre is just not their forte.

I would recommend this to people who enjoy reading sci-fi novels more than the dystopian genre, as I felt this lost its way somewhat by trying to combine these two genres on a different planet rather than stick to the one we circle the sun on. It would be an interesting read for those who are maybe looking into dipping a toe into the dystopian genre, and one that would be a quick travelling read too.

Originally reviewed on: http://catesbooknuthut.wordpress.com/2013/08/12/review-i-the-provocateur-vardan-...



This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
… (altro)

I enjoyed this very much! It was a very interesting take on the apocalypse and how a small group of survivors attempt to carry on. This sort story begins with our main character as a school age boy, at school when nuclear bombs fall. He and others in the school are whisked down into a bomb shelter. There, they attempt to reconstruct the semblance of a normal society. A power struggle and the question of whether or not they are the only remaining survivors begin to eat away at the stability of their undergound society.

The author's tendency to parenthetically tip the reader off to what's coming later in the story is the only complaint I had about the writing, which was terrific. It was exclusive and conveyed the things out the story very well.

Combined with a story line that held my interest consistently, this is a story that I highly recommend.… (altro)