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cebege's review
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
wozardy's review
5.0
'Lunch with a Soldier' by Derek Hansen was the first book I read in 2020, and GODDAMN was it fantastic, but what else can I come to expect when reading Derek Hansen? He is a genius. (A master of words, a master of the storyline, a master of characters, master of plot twists).
But moving on. ‘Lunch with a Soldier’ is not the first Derek Hansen novel I’ve read - this book is the final book in his ‘Lunch with…’ series, but I haven’t actually read them chronologically, which I actually can highly recommend to anybody looking to read his books - DO NOT READ THEM IN THE GIVEN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER, please! (I will talk about the ‘right’ or, in my opinion, best order later). I actually only ever picked up this series due to a recommendation from my mum. His third novel, ‘Lunch with the Stationmaster’ is her absolute favourite book, so I had ordered it off a second-hand online bookstore for her birthday. After she read it again (after having lost her copy for like 10 years), she practically forced me to read it. And I am very glad she did - it’s really not like anything I’ve ever read in my life. Most books either have an original or interesting storyline or well-written characters that you care about - usually you sacrifice a bit of one for the other. But not in Derek Hansen’s work - he manages to write characters that I care what happens to, and who feel fully tangible. They are interesting characters as well - some are really flawed, yet we still care about them - some are decent, yet we hate them, some are downright awful, yet we still care. But in addition to the epic people that exist in the realm of Derek Hansen, his plotlines and plot-twist (and even style of writing) is absolutely crazy good. I mean, now I’ve read almost everything he’s ever written, when reading his books, I sit on the edge of my chair waiting for all the characters storylines (his books are almost always written from multiple seemingly unconnected perspectives) to suddenly connect in some OH MY GOD! Fireworks of WTF moments. Not gonna say anymore though, since I don’t want to spoil anything.
Okay, I will stop going on about this man’s creative brilliance - and actually start talking about the content of this novel. ‘Lunch with a Soldier’ is set in proper, rural Australia - I’m talking big spiders, verandas, birds and dirt Australia. I thought this set was pretty interesting to start off with since I’m Australian, yet I’ve never had big enough balls to face the spiders or even had the opportunity to go into proper rural Australia. The main character of this book is Neil, who is the youngest of the four men who meet up for coffee, and definitely the most cynical. That definitely set me up with high expectations for what Neil was going to dredge up from his past. The storyline was super interesting, (though at times the protagonist did spend quite a while describing scenery which was a little slow at times), and I really liked the Lindsey = good/bad dilemma. LOVED the ending. Excellenté.
5 STARS.
ps: THE Chronology of the 'Lunch With..' series - I can't be bothered to explain why, but trust me when I say that you should read them in this order:
1. Lunch with the Stationmaster
2. Lunch with the Generals
3. Lunch with the Mussolini
4. Lunch with a Soldier
PPS: That order might be wrong for you, I just thought it was cool to hear the story in that order.
But moving on. ‘Lunch with a Soldier’ is not the first Derek Hansen novel I’ve read - this book is the final book in his ‘Lunch with…’ series, but I haven’t actually read them chronologically, which I actually can highly recommend to anybody looking to read his books - DO NOT READ THEM IN THE GIVEN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER, please! (I will talk about the ‘right’ or, in my opinion, best order later). I actually only ever picked up this series due to a recommendation from my mum. His third novel, ‘Lunch with the Stationmaster’ is her absolute favourite book, so I had ordered it off a second-hand online bookstore for her birthday. After she read it again (after having lost her copy for like 10 years), she practically forced me to read it. And I am very glad she did - it’s really not like anything I’ve ever read in my life. Most books either have an original or interesting storyline or well-written characters that you care about - usually you sacrifice a bit of one for the other. But not in Derek Hansen’s work - he manages to write characters that I care what happens to, and who feel fully tangible. They are interesting characters as well - some are really flawed, yet we still care about them - some are decent, yet we hate them, some are downright awful, yet we still care. But in addition to the epic people that exist in the realm of Derek Hansen, his plotlines and plot-twist (and even style of writing) is absolutely crazy good. I mean, now I’ve read almost everything he’s ever written, when reading his books, I sit on the edge of my chair waiting for all the characters storylines (his books are almost always written from multiple seemingly unconnected perspectives) to suddenly connect in some OH MY GOD! Fireworks of WTF moments. Not gonna say anymore though, since I don’t want to spoil anything.
Okay, I will stop going on about this man’s creative brilliance - and actually start talking about the content of this novel. ‘Lunch with a Soldier’ is set in proper, rural Australia - I’m talking big spiders, verandas, birds and dirt Australia. I thought this set was pretty interesting to start off with since I’m Australian, yet I’ve never had big enough balls to face the spiders or even had the opportunity to go into proper rural Australia. The main character of this book is Neil, who is the youngest of the four men who meet up for coffee, and definitely the most cynical. That definitely set me up with high expectations for what Neil was going to dredge up from his past. The storyline was super interesting, (though at times the protagonist did spend quite a while describing scenery which was a little slow at times), and I really liked the Lindsey = good/bad dilemma. LOVED the ending. Excellenté.
5 STARS.
ps: THE Chronology of the 'Lunch With..' series - I can't be bothered to explain why, but trust me when I say that you should read them in this order:
1. Lunch with the Stationmaster
2. Lunch with the Generals
3. Lunch with the Mussolini
4. Lunch with a Soldier
PPS: That order might be wrong for you, I just thought it was cool to hear the story in that order.
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