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Gosh, I completely missed that - where was it?
I read this in an evening last week - a couple of the big London bookshops were carrying advance copies. And, as you said, maybe the problem is that I whizzed through it at high speed and didn't give it enough time to be appreciated... Well, I did really enjoy it, and thought most of it was a great deal of fun. I thought there were some marvellous bits in it (as you say, Millie/Christopher is great - Millie is great in general actually). I liked all the business in the servant's hall, etc.
I did find that I spotted a few plot twists well ahead of time (Anthea), which was a bit disappointing but I think more a result of my having read every DWJ book ever than anything else...
But I did regret a few things about it - I didn't like the way that Conrad's magical ability was revealed to him at the end (not really a spoiler as it is made clear to the reader) - thought the device with the photos was a bit redundant - surely Gabriel De Witt would just have spotted it or something - Christopher can see it, can't he? I also thought it was wrapped up too neatly at the end. And, and, well, I don't think DWJ is at her best when writing in the first person. Conrad lets us see a little of what is going on inside him, but not really enough, precisely I think because it's him telling us. Haven't articulated that feeling very well. Hrm.
I think I agree in general with you, Deva, that it didn't feel very organic. I read in a Q and A session somewhere that DWJ often has an image or scene to start with, and works out from there, so perhaps this story had fewer images than some and needed to be worked out a bit more?
That all sounds as if I am a bit fed up about it. I'm not. I felt a bit flat about Year of the Griffin when it came out, but it was the only DWJ I had with me last year in Oxford and I read it loads and now I love it, so... |
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