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A review by branch_c
Camera Obscura by Lavie Tidhar
3.0
I wanted to like Tidhar's The Bookman, first in this series, and in the end I did, with some reservations. It seemed like there was more emphasis on throwing a lot of interesting ideas together than in developing cool characters and plot. But overall I did like it, and I hoped the sequel would justify the steampunkish promise shown in the original.
Well, this is the sequel, and unfortunately for me, it's justified my reservations instead. Camera Obscura again had some interesting ideas, and I especially liked both the beginning and the ending. The middle, however, was just too grim and plodding for my taste. The horrific aspects seemed to be there just for the sake of people who enjoy reading about such things, rather than to give the reader insight into the characters and their motivations. I realize there was supposed to be an air of dark mystery about this eccentric cast, but maybe because of that I never felt that I knew them, and thus couldn't really empathize with them. And while I like steampunk concepts, and I like lots of frantic action, with (temporarily) unexplained occurrences at every turn, in this case it was as if we were just slogging through the motions, and it just wasn't a fun ride.
Anyway, I give the author credit for thinking big and constructing a complex and logical plot, but I guess I was hoping for more than that from this series.
Well, this is the sequel, and unfortunately for me, it's justified my reservations instead. Camera Obscura again had some interesting ideas, and I especially liked both the beginning and the ending. The middle, however, was just too grim and plodding for my taste. The horrific aspects seemed to be there just for the sake of people who enjoy reading about such things, rather than to give the reader insight into the characters and their motivations. I realize there was supposed to be an air of dark mystery about this eccentric cast, but maybe because of that I never felt that I knew them, and thus couldn't really empathize with them. And while I like steampunk concepts, and I like lots of frantic action, with (temporarily) unexplained occurrences at every turn, in this case it was as if we were just slogging through the motions, and it just wasn't a fun ride.
Anyway, I give the author credit for thinking big and constructing a complex and logical plot, but I guess I was hoping for more than that from this series.