So, this was from a standing debate with a friend over the quality of self-published works. My friend (a self-published author himself) posited that the quality is just as good as traditionally published work, citing a list of authors who started off self-publishing and they got famous. Literary giants like E.L. James, that is.
Riddle was on that list so when his latest showed up on Netgalley, I figured I’d check him out. Sure enough, I stand strong on my position. Riddle, like James, like other similar authors, may have a very good understanding of the current market, but he’s probably never going to be accused of being a great writer. Because he isn’t, not really, more like an author. Someone who can come up with the sort of ideas that get the general audience all steamed up and then cobble it together into a book, one flat serviceable sentence at a time. As this techno-thriller proves so perfectly. The idea behind it is huge and bombastic, straight out of Michael Bay’s catalog and movie adaptation-ready. A man accused of a crime he didn’t commit is sent back in time because apparently that’s what they do to criminals in that reality. Yeah, it’s one of those things that totally doesn’t hold up to overthinking. So there he is, with the dinos (and there’s sadly not enough of it), while back in his timeline his young daughter is fighting to solve the murder and prove her father’s innocence. The twist is that her father is actually behind the technology that enables time-traveling and it was meant to be something different originally, but there it is. Enter some pseudo-scientific babble, lots of business jargon, some dubious time-traveling logistics and paradoxes and a bunch of suspense, et voila, you got yourself a book. A much too long of a book for the quality of writing, but at least it reads quickly, due to its whambam thriller-pace. Cardboard characters all around, the set is practically flammable with them. Nothing special, but lots of things in it that sell. An imminently marketable feature. Not something to love. Probably just waiting to be adapted into something starring Chris Pratt. Read at your own discretion. Thanks Netgalley.
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