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mithilareads's review
3.0
I received a free copy of this book via NetGalley. Thank you!
The Planck Factor is quite an easy read. It didn't take me much time to complete the book.
The language seemed a bit too daily-languageish. I'm not complaining about it though. There were only a few instances of this anyway.
The concept of a story within a story seemed novel in the beginning. At least until that point where it seemed that the life of the main character of the book resembled the story she was writing. Beyond that the need for the additional element of a story within a story seemed unnecessary. I started skimming through the additional story once it became evident that the main character was writing her novel based on her life.
The ending was a big abrupt. The scene with the extremist group was too short for my liking.
The Planck Factor is quite an easy read. It didn't take me much time to complete the book.
The language seemed a bit too daily-languageish. I'm not complaining about it though. There were only a few instances of this anyway.
The concept of a story within a story seemed novel in the beginning. At least until that point where it seemed that the life of the main character of the book resembled the story she was writing. Beyond that the need for the additional element of a story within a story seemed unnecessary. I started skimming through the additional story once it became evident that the main character was writing her novel based on her life.
The ending was a big abrupt. The scene with the extremist group was too short for my liking.
lilyn_g's review
3.0
When I got The Planck Factor, I thought I was getting a thriller with a solid science base. What I feel like I got instead was the insufficiently scripted screen play version of a good book. A mass market ‘science’ thriller for people who think that science is a word the CDC shouldn’t be saying.*
The Planck Factor had a few issues that really could have been rectified with stronger editing. The needless repetition, for one, got on my nerves rather swiftly. “Millions, even billions” was said a stupid amount of times. And while I understand what the author was trying to do in working the story within a story, it never quite worked for me. It stopped feeling clever and just started feeling too convenient. Actually, that “too convenient” was something that I felt with more than just the double story element.
I’ll admit that The Planck Factor irritated me, but I’m adult enough to admit that its mostly because I didn’t get what I was expecting rather than the story being just outright bad. The story was middling. I made it to the halfway point easily, but after that my interested petered out and it became me forcing myself through it. When you’ve read stuff from authors like James Rollins who are perfect at mixing facts and fiction in a way that keep your head spinning (at least until book 4 or so, at which point everything is just a repackaged version of the previous book), your standards for the genre are probably a bit higher than a book like this can possibly live up to.
Jessica was my favorite part of The Planck Factor. Even if I didn’t particularly care for the story she was involved in, I did feel sorry for her. So, that’s saying something. The dialogue was, whilst not exciting, believable enough. And finally, to end on a positive note, I have to say that the (very) end did surprise me a bit. Because that character is on the page so little, I had basically forgotten about him. (Had to flip back to the first chapter again just to verify!)
Overall, I can't recommend it, and can't say I'll ever seek out the writer's works again in the future, BUT I can see how some readers enjoyed it.
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from Netgalley for review consideration.
*I shamelessly borrowed the first half of this line from Michael Hicks when we were talking about the book.
The Planck Factor had a few issues that really could have been rectified with stronger editing. The needless repetition, for one, got on my nerves rather swiftly. “Millions, even billions” was said a stupid amount of times. And while I understand what the author was trying to do in working the story within a story, it never quite worked for me. It stopped feeling clever and just started feeling too convenient. Actually, that “too convenient” was something that I felt with more than just the double story element.
I’ll admit that The Planck Factor irritated me, but I’m adult enough to admit that its mostly because I didn’t get what I was expecting rather than the story being just outright bad. The story was middling. I made it to the halfway point easily, but after that my interested petered out and it became me forcing myself through it. When you’ve read stuff from authors like James Rollins who are perfect at mixing facts and fiction in a way that keep your head spinning (at least until book 4 or so, at which point everything is just a repackaged version of the previous book), your standards for the genre are probably a bit higher than a book like this can possibly live up to.
Jessica was my favorite part of The Planck Factor. Even if I didn’t particularly care for the story she was involved in, I did feel sorry for her. So, that’s saying something. The dialogue was, whilst not exciting, believable enough. And finally, to end on a positive note, I have to say that the (very) end did surprise me a bit. Because that character is on the page so little, I had basically forgotten about him. (Had to flip back to the first chapter again just to verify!)
Overall, I can't recommend it, and can't say I'll ever seek out the writer's works again in the future, BUT I can see how some readers enjoyed it.
Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book from Netgalley for review consideration.
*I shamelessly borrowed the first half of this line from Michael Hicks when we were talking about the book.
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