The Bloodstained Man
by Christopher Rowley
Netherworld (2)
science fiction
copyright 2010
read in December 2013
rated 5/10: readable, but only if there's nothing else
Well, what can you expect, when the front cover says, "heavy metal pulp" ?!
Apparently, it's "a new line of novels combining noir fiction with fantastic art..." That's one view.
Soooo...
No adult -- or wannabe adult -- reads comics. No way. It's all about "graphic novels". Which, like comics, may be good or bad. But what do you do when you are ready to move past graphic novels ? You read some heavy metal pulp...
It's a novel, there are words. With the added comfort of regular pictures. I have no problem with that, pictures can add to the story.
The Bloodstained pictures were drawn by someone who had not bothered to read the book.
There are the evil dudes with metal stuff in their faces... No metal studs in the pictures. There's the evil woman with straight, shoulder-length hair... The artist has cut and curled her hair.
Good grief. Pulp ? Absolutely.
The story is not too bad. Simple, violent, crude, illogical and unbelievable. Nothing wrong with that. I quite enjoyed it.
The beginning flows on from book one. No worries, there's lots of explanation of what went before. Not clear explanation... or perhaps it's just book two (this book) which lacks clarity. Again, no worries.
There's a lot of over the top, comic book action... Not great literature, but fun.
Pity about the ending.
Absolute cliffhanger. With no point. Other than to make us read book three, to see if a main character really was, unexpectedly, killed.
The answer is either yes, bugger. Or no, so what was the point.
Except that I don't care enough about the characters to bother reading book three.
Lightweight, entertaining, violent nonsense.
The story is weak but entertaining enough to be read. The ending may have been dictated by the marketing department. The lack of matching the art to the story -- is absolute rubbish. Pity about that.
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Problems ? Solved
1 comment:
That's why I post to this blog:
I selected this book and prepared to read. Hang on, I thought, this looks familiar... A quick blog search and yes, I read it in 2013, two years ago. Was it any good ? Judging by my rating -- no.
I read my original review.
Oh. That bad. Okay.
No need to start reading. Enough information in my review to remind me of my opinion... Enough information to convince me that I don't want to read this book a second time !
Good value from my original post :-)
On to a different book...
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