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psoglav's review against another edition
3.0
My Rating: ★★★ 3/5
* Storyline ★★★ 3/5
* World Setting ★★★ 3/5
* Writing Style ★★★ 3/5
* Characters ★★★ 3/5
* Storyline ★★★ 3/5
* World Setting ★★★ 3/5
* Writing Style ★★★ 3/5
* Characters ★★★ 3/5
jfr_1985's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
hopeful
informative
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
videoglee's review against another edition
4.0
I absolutely loved this book. It was quite amazing, but some parts I found to be a little bit boring. (That's why I gave four stars instead of five.)
The premise, that of a guy trying to make the world a better place by making sure Hitler was never born, then waking up in that new world and seeing that it hasn't actually improved, and trying to get history back to how it used to be may seem not so amazing, but let me tell you, it was amazing.
What I found really interesting, was the way the author used other means than merely pages of 'normal' written text, but also something I thought was a screenplay.
The book itself is, for me, a reminder that not just one factor plays a role in a particular event, and just eliminating that particular factor won't make everything alright.
The premise, that of a guy trying to make the world a better place by making sure Hitler was never born, then waking up in that new world and seeing that it hasn't actually improved, and trying to get history back to how it used to be may seem not so amazing, but let me tell you, it was amazing.
What I found really interesting, was the way the author used other means than merely pages of 'normal' written text, but also something I thought was a screenplay.
The book itself is, for me, a reminder that not just one factor plays a role in a particular event, and just eliminating that particular factor won't make everything alright.
mossyuniform1999's review
challenging
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.5
daniellevereads's review against another edition
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
I seriously considered DNFing this book in Part 1 as there were some plot points that drove me mad, and I really didn't enjoy the chapters written like scripts. But ended up enjoyingish Book 2 in the end.
dl2001's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
ivorgeoghegan's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
4.25
mildemakrel's review against another edition
adventurous
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.75
bettermetal's review
2.0
This book didn’t need to be this long. The first 150 pages is just set up for the alternate history plot. But even then - the actual plot of the book is not complicated at all, you could recap it in the shortest time. Yet the book is just filled with passages that seem to serve no purpose. It was so boring I just couldn’t wait to be done with it.
The second problem is that a lot of the book was just unreadable to me. English is not my first language and while I don’t have a problem with the language itself I did have a problem with all the (pop?) culture references Fry has put there. I checked a translated copy – it has 171 (!) footnotes just explaining trivia that Fry had put there to be the smartest most clever person in the room. I mean it’s not an episode of QI, come on, 171 footnotes. And while I do speak English I unfortunately do not speak German. And a lot of passages set in the past for some reason contain it. It doesn’t make any sense. The characters talk to each other in German which we read about in English yet there are parts of speech that are not translated. I am fine with translating a word or two here and there but with whole sentences I just didn’t bother. Again, unreadable.
The characters are flat and uninteresting. The main character Michael Young is immature, arrogant, stupid and just unlikable. But I guess he has to be to even consider such a stupid thing as blindly changing history (being a history major even). It is believable in a way that the characters being what they are would do the things they are doing, it’s all in character. But it is just not interesting to read about.
I did not actually mind reading 1st person POV as I thought I would. It actually suited Michael’s character – all those I, I, I, me, me, me.
Barely two stars just for the 3rd last part of the book. The plot moved faster and was alright but it’s not worth it to read the whole thing just for that.
I’m happy to be done with it.
The second problem is that a lot of the book was just unreadable to me. English is not my first language and while I don’t have a problem with the language itself I did have a problem with all the (pop?) culture references Fry has put there. I checked a translated copy – it has 171 (!) footnotes just explaining trivia that Fry had put there to be the smartest most clever person in the room. I mean it’s not an episode of QI, come on, 171 footnotes. And while I do speak English I unfortunately do not speak German. And a lot of passages set in the past for some reason contain it. It doesn’t make any sense. The characters talk to each other in German which we read about in English yet there are parts of speech that are not translated. I am fine with translating a word or two here and there but with whole sentences I just didn’t bother. Again, unreadable.
The characters are flat and uninteresting. The main character Michael Young is immature, arrogant, stupid and just unlikable. But I guess he has to be to even consider such a stupid thing as blindly changing history (being a history major even). It is believable in a way that the characters being what they are would do the things they are doing, it’s all in character. But it is just not interesting to read about.
I did not actually mind reading 1st person POV as I thought I would. It actually suited Michael’s character – all those I, I, I, me, me, me.
Barely two stars just for the 3rd last part of the book. The plot moved faster and was alright but it’s not worth it to read the whole thing just for that.
I’m happy to be done with it.
rpych2's review against another edition
2.0
I wish I liked this book more, because I love Stephen Fry as an actor. But it started off so slow, like the first 200 pages were difficult to get through. After that was fine, but nothing that really blew me away and made the rating jump up for me. I wish I gave up on it, but the concept was so interesting that I was hoping it would get better. Unfortunately it was a bit too late and it didn’t redeem itself, so I was pretty disappointed with this one.