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A review by elizabethlk
The Diamond Lens by Fitz-James O'Brien
1.0
I went into reading this with genuine interest in the premise, and I felt pretty hopeful. To say this was a letdown is a bit of an understatement honestly. I hated this.
The premise is incredibly interesting. I was interested in the idea of a mid-nineteenth century microscopist looking for the perfect microscope. I didn't even dislike it right away. The first few pages seemed to have a fairly standard writing style for the time, and I was still interested in seeing where it went. When he visited a medium to communicate with a long dead scientist, I was still interested in where it went. Where it went is... he kills his Jewish roommate (because science, because he's Jewish, because he just knows his roommate is a murderer for no reason other than his being a thief and Jewish). After he makes the murder look like a suicide, he creates the perfect microscope. He looks at a water droplet. He spends a million years describing what he sees, but terribly so you can't picture it at all. Then he sees this little microscopic lady that he spends just as long describing, to the same effect. Then he falls in love with the little microscopic being for no real reason, which leads to an incredibly unsatisfying ending.
Bad ending. Anti-Semitic. Awful descriptions (I can live with lengthy descriptions if I can at least picture what you're describing). I recommend this for no one.
The premise is incredibly interesting. I was interested in the idea of a mid-nineteenth century microscopist looking for the perfect microscope. I didn't even dislike it right away. The first few pages seemed to have a fairly standard writing style for the time, and I was still interested in seeing where it went. When he visited a medium to communicate with a long dead scientist, I was still interested in where it went. Where it went is... he kills his Jewish roommate (because science, because he's Jewish, because he just knows his roommate is a murderer for no reason other than his being a thief and Jewish). After he makes the murder look like a suicide, he creates the perfect microscope. He looks at a water droplet. He spends a million years describing what he sees, but terribly so you can't picture it at all. Then he sees this little microscopic lady that he spends just as long describing, to the same effect. Then he falls in love with the little microscopic being for no real reason, which leads to an incredibly unsatisfying ending.
Bad ending. Anti-Semitic. Awful descriptions (I can live with lengthy descriptions if I can at least picture what you're describing). I recommend this for no one.