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guppyur's review against another edition
2.0
Interesting and ambitious ideas betrayed by lazy, sloppy writing and execution.
There's a lot I want to like about this book. I am usually a sucker for what I think of as "Alice In Wonderland" type books -- ones where a protagonist is thrust into a world the rules of which they don't comprehend. You know the type -- Gaiman's Neverwhere is the one that springs to mind, but there are scores of examples across all kinds of media. That's what this is. Unfortunately, it's a big letdown.
The Crooked Letter is the first entry in Sean Williams' series and concerns itself with Hadrian and Seth, a pair of "mirror twins," or twins who are reflections of each other, right down to one of them having his heart on the wrong side of his chest. They are, of course, special and distinct from other twins, because blah blah blah plot device. (I have never heard of "mirror twins" and I assume the author made up the concept but I haven't bothered to check.) The book splits time between their perspectives as they attempt to stop the world from being completely destroyed.
Almost immediately, although I don't think it was intended, we learn to hate the protagonists, because both of them are irritating, whiny, immature babies. Along the way we meet a wide cast of otherworldly characters, whose primary functions are generally either to attempt to kill one of the protagonists or to keep other characters from doing so.
In classic bad book trope fashion, our would-be heroes "just know" things with alarming frequency. Sometimes events transpire the apparent importance of which is underscored via repeated references, yet are then not explored. Entire characters are introduced to no apparent purpose beyond cryptic mutterings. The climax contains a deus ex machina most notable for its blatancy. All of this is packaged in uninspired prose.
I really can't recommend this and don't intend to continue the series. Two stars for the strength of the ideas that do work.
There's a lot I want to like about this book. I am usually a sucker for what I think of as "Alice In Wonderland" type books -- ones where a protagonist is thrust into a world the rules of which they don't comprehend. You know the type -- Gaiman's Neverwhere is the one that springs to mind, but there are scores of examples across all kinds of media. That's what this is. Unfortunately, it's a big letdown.
The Crooked Letter is the first entry in Sean Williams' series and concerns itself with Hadrian and Seth, a pair of "mirror twins," or twins who are reflections of each other, right down to one of them having his heart on the wrong side of his chest. They are, of course, special and distinct from other twins, because blah blah blah plot device. (I have never heard of "mirror twins" and I assume the author made up the concept but I haven't bothered to check.) The book splits time between their perspectives as they attempt to stop the world from being completely destroyed.
Almost immediately, although I don't think it was intended, we learn to hate the protagonists, because both of them are irritating, whiny, immature babies. Along the way we meet a wide cast of otherworldly characters, whose primary functions are generally either to attempt to kill one of the protagonists or to keep other characters from doing so.
In classic bad book trope fashion, our would-be heroes "just know" things with alarming frequency. Sometimes events transpire the apparent importance of which is underscored via repeated references, yet are then not explored. Entire characters are introduced to no apparent purpose beyond cryptic mutterings. The climax contains a deus ex machina most notable for its blatancy. All of this is packaged in uninspired prose.
I really can't recommend this and don't intend to continue the series. Two stars for the strength of the ideas that do work.
humvee's review against another edition
2.0
Not engaging....DNF
One would think that with a world ending cataclysm, battles with evil forces, etc. this would be a compelling story. Yet I did not find it so compelling. I stuck with it for 40% of the way, but I'm just feeling no compunction to continue on. I don't particularly like either brother, and their whining and their demands. Therefor their journeys didn't matter to me. The crazy settings were occasionally interesting, but not enough to make me want to continue. So I did not finish. I'm giving up on Sean Williams' Cataclysm series. I liked a collection of his short stories. I'm hoping the next novel of his I pick up engages me.
One would think that with a world ending cataclysm, battles with evil forces, etc. this would be a compelling story. Yet I did not find it so compelling. I stuck with it for 40% of the way, but I'm just feeling no compunction to continue on. I don't particularly like either brother, and their whining and their demands. Therefor their journeys didn't matter to me. The crazy settings were occasionally interesting, but not enough to make me want to continue. So I did not finish. I'm giving up on Sean Williams' Cataclysm series. I liked a collection of his short stories. I'm hoping the next novel of his I pick up engages me.
hooptron's review against another edition
4.0
I checked this book out of the library and read it the first time about a year or so ago. I intended to read the others but I promptly forgot both title and author. I remembered that the plot had something to do with twins causing the end of the world and that the authors last name fell either at the very end or the very beginning of the alphabet.
Finally, last week I saw the book on the library shelf. A second read made me realize that it is not quite as exciting as I remembered. The plot is interesting but jumbled and it took me a little while to get into it. Its a fun enough read if you have some time on your hands but I can't say it will rank high on my "must own this book" list. Partially because I will read almost anything and partially because I did like the ending, I still intend to read the second and third, hoping that the books get better.
Finally, last week I saw the book on the library shelf. A second read made me realize that it is not quite as exciting as I remembered. The plot is interesting but jumbled and it took me a little while to get into it. Its a fun enough read if you have some time on your hands but I can't say it will rank high on my "must own this book" list. Partially because I will read almost anything and partially because I did like the ending, I still intend to read the second and third, hoping that the books get better.
mkpatter's review against another edition
3.0
Apparently I can't put half stars on here, but I would give this one a 3.5. It's a very ambitious series, the world and the rules and physics and imagination it took to come up with the Realms is astounding, and very, very creative. The one place where I think this novel falls down though is definitely in the characters. They're really more ciphers than people, which I GUESS makes sense given where this all ends up, but I'm not sure if I want to continue reading about the Twins. I mean, they're so boring that even the author got them mixed up at least once. I'm still going to give the next book a go, because I have been pretty spoiled with character studies lately, but really, no one character was really that compelling.
thiefofcamorr's review against another edition
3.0
I wanted to love this. I adore all of Sean Williams books, and yet this one didn't grab me as much as the others have. I own the other ones, so I'll read on, and hopefully I'll be pleasantly surprised.
dtaylorbooks's review against another edition
4.0
Pyr sent this over to me quite a bit ago and I'm woefully behind in reviewing it. Thankfully this is the second to last title I have left. I liked the way THE CROOKED LETTER sounded with the mirror twins and all the different bits of mythology getting thrown into the book and it piqued my interest. Enter said amount of time later and I finally got around to reading it.
Initially I was a little put off by the thickness, mainly because I'm inherently put off by thick books because they're such a time commitment and I'm really bent on not DNFing books this year so if I ended up not being thrilled with it, well, that's one hell of a slog. Luckily the print is normal so it really didn't take me forever to read and it really got the point quickly. Within the first fifty pages the world's already gone a bit sideways but I didn't know the extent of it until a bit later. Not much later but beyond the fifty page mark. The book opens with a fight between the brothers that really sets up their relationship but then they're torn apart and you're forced to get to know them as individuals and they really do stand out from each other. So between the characters and the world it had my attention.
I really liked the world(s) Williams created and how familiar they were but were still foreign at the same time. The concept was that many people, after they died, went to the second realm where they experienced a new level of existence mutually exclusive to the first realm, or the one we live in. Earth's myths and legends were loosely based on the creatures and stories from the second realm and a lot of the facts were lost in translation because a lot of it just couldn't be translated. There are elements of the second realm that just don't transfer to the human one. The third realm is more of an afterlife as we know it, where if you die in the second that's where you go. And then there's the underworld and the semi-world that the Nail, who's trying to merge the first and second realms so he can wreak havoc on the worlds, occupies that exists in this kind of active limbo. It's not as complicated as I'm making it sound, if I'm even describing it correctly, but it's all incredibly detailed and there was never a moment where I couldn't picture what was going on in my head regardless of how foreign and fantastical the worlds were.
I also liked how individual Hadrian and Seth became over the course of the story and how Ellis, even with her twist, was still the Ellis that I kept seeing in flashbacks. Her personality never really deviated despite her transformation. And the same goes for Seth and Hadrian. They grew as characters but despite everything they were going through they remained individuals within a drastically changing world instead of bending to its will. They were all incredibly real and I was actually invested in their stories. I cared about them and I wanted to know where they ended up and whether their mission was successful or not.
The middle kind of sagged a bit, especially with Seth's story because he didn't seem to be moving at the same pace as Hadrian. His wheels were spinning more and his storyline was more about personal transformation and character development despite being in a whole new world. Hadrian's story was more plot-driven and since I prefer that kind of story I was a bit more endeared to his storyline than Seth's. There was a bit more action, less stalled travel and more adversarial encounters that, for me, made it more interesting.
Also I wish the editing were a touch better only because there were a couple of times where the brothers weren't kept straight. I would start reading a chapter and it would say it's about Seth to start only to have Hadrian's name pop up as a POV a couple paragraphs down. The book was really good about POV transitions so these were rather jarring. Especially since the brothers occupy two different worlds to have it start as one POV only to have it really be another had be wrenched from one world to another. Even more jarring. It happened enough to be noticeable (maybe twice) but nowhere near enough that it bothered me all that much.
THE CROOKED LETTER is a great blend of apocalyptic and fantasy that mixes a slew of mythology with the destruction of the world and isn't heavy-handed about it. The characters are some of the most authentic I've ever come across and while the middle is a little saggy, it's easy enough to get through with all that's going on. There's a lot here to appeal to a wide range of people with a myriad of different tastes. I'd recommend it to anyone who loves fantasy, especially, but if you're into the whole it's the end of the world as we know it, you might want to try it out too. It may surprise you.
Initially I was a little put off by the thickness, mainly because I'm inherently put off by thick books because they're such a time commitment and I'm really bent on not DNFing books this year so if I ended up not being thrilled with it, well, that's one hell of a slog. Luckily the print is normal so it really didn't take me forever to read and it really got the point quickly. Within the first fifty pages the world's already gone a bit sideways but I didn't know the extent of it until a bit later. Not much later but beyond the fifty page mark. The book opens with a fight between the brothers that really sets up their relationship but then they're torn apart and you're forced to get to know them as individuals and they really do stand out from each other. So between the characters and the world it had my attention.
I really liked the world(s) Williams created and how familiar they were but were still foreign at the same time. The concept was that many people, after they died, went to the second realm where they experienced a new level of existence mutually exclusive to the first realm, or the one we live in. Earth's myths and legends were loosely based on the creatures and stories from the second realm and a lot of the facts were lost in translation because a lot of it just couldn't be translated. There are elements of the second realm that just don't transfer to the human one. The third realm is more of an afterlife as we know it, where if you die in the second that's where you go. And then there's the underworld and the semi-world that the Nail, who's trying to merge the first and second realms so he can wreak havoc on the worlds, occupies that exists in this kind of active limbo. It's not as complicated as I'm making it sound, if I'm even describing it correctly, but it's all incredibly detailed and there was never a moment where I couldn't picture what was going on in my head regardless of how foreign and fantastical the worlds were.
I also liked how individual Hadrian and Seth became over the course of the story and how Ellis, even with her twist, was still the Ellis that I kept seeing in flashbacks. Her personality never really deviated despite her transformation. And the same goes for Seth and Hadrian. They grew as characters but despite everything they were going through they remained individuals within a drastically changing world instead of bending to its will. They were all incredibly real and I was actually invested in their stories. I cared about them and I wanted to know where they ended up and whether their mission was successful or not.
The middle kind of sagged a bit, especially with Seth's story because he didn't seem to be moving at the same pace as Hadrian. His wheels were spinning more and his storyline was more about personal transformation and character development despite being in a whole new world. Hadrian's story was more plot-driven and since I prefer that kind of story I was a bit more endeared to his storyline than Seth's. There was a bit more action, less stalled travel and more adversarial encounters that, for me, made it more interesting.
Also I wish the editing were a touch better only because there were a couple of times where the brothers weren't kept straight. I would start reading a chapter and it would say it's about Seth to start only to have Hadrian's name pop up as a POV a couple paragraphs down. The book was really good about POV transitions so these were rather jarring. Especially since the brothers occupy two different worlds to have it start as one POV only to have it really be another had be wrenched from one world to another. Even more jarring. It happened enough to be noticeable (maybe twice) but nowhere near enough that it bothered me all that much.
THE CROOKED LETTER is a great blend of apocalyptic and fantasy that mixes a slew of mythology with the destruction of the world and isn't heavy-handed about it. The characters are some of the most authentic I've ever come across and while the middle is a little saggy, it's easy enough to get through with all that's going on. There's a lot here to appeal to a wide range of people with a myriad of different tastes. I'd recommend it to anyone who loves fantasy, especially, but if you're into the whole it's the end of the world as we know it, you might want to try it out too. It may surprise you.
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