3
Empire State
(Read 2013)
This book was
semi-steampunk, somewhat of a hero novel, a little bit of mystery and whole lot
of crazy. I felt like I was reading in a stupor the entire time and I don’t
think the entirety of the novel was even consistently interesting...but it was
a unique read.
The beginning threw
me through a loop because it is highly disjointed and where as multiple
viewpoints can work when they exist in the same literary universe, here I felt
like I was little lost because things didn’t seem to fit with what was said and
I only really started to get used to it when I semi-convinced myself I was
reading two books instead of one. It was definitely weird.
Moving onto the book
itself...it wasn’t bad really. It isn’t the most amazing book I’ve read in my
entire life or even in that year, but it was little astonishing. The story came
together towards the end, and it reminds of those films that you just sort of
suspend disbelief of and keep watching in hope that the end explains it all. In
fairness, it did, but I guess I wasn’t wholly satisfied with the ending I got.
It is also fair to
comment that this is the first book I’ve read which could be aptly described as
being a mystery novel because it quite successfully left me lost and confused
without being completely out of the loop. But I think the combination of
everything made me a little bit overwhelmed at a time when I didn’t have the liberty
of frequent or even intense reading so I’d often forget bits here and there.
Overall, it wasn’t a
bad book. I bought it on a whim in waterstones, and I don’t regret that
purchase because it was definitely different to anything I’ve read before...for
better and for worse. I think I ever try another mystery novel I’ll try
something more mystery based. I’d say this book was sold as a modern-day hero
book (in NYC) but that wasn’t really what I got.
In a word, my
sentiment is "confused". Even now, a good few months on, I’m not 100% sure what I
think of it.
