From bc72246da9a872ec433fde5870cd232b8f3876ec Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Julio Biason Date: Mon, 16 Sep 2019 13:14:53 -0300 Subject: [PATCH] How the heck this file was not commited? --- content/reviews/books/chthon.md | 44 +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 44 insertions(+) create mode 100644 content/reviews/books/chthon.md diff --git a/content/reviews/books/chthon.md b/content/reviews/books/chthon.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a94fb5f --- /dev/null +++ b/content/reviews/books/chthon.md @@ -0,0 +1,44 @@ ++++ +title = "Chthon - Piers Anthony" +date = 2019-09-13 + +[taxonomies] +tags = ["books", "reviews", "en-au", "piers anthony", "scifi"] ++++ + +[Goodreads Summary](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23352267-chthon): +Chthon was Piers Anthony’s first published novel in 1967, written over the +course of seven years. He started it when he was in the US Army, so it has a +long prison sequence that is reminiscent of that experience, being dark and +grim. It features Aton Five, a space man who commits the crime of falling in +love with the dangerous, alluring Minionette and is therefore condemned to +death in the subterranean prison of Chthon. It uses flashbacks to show how he +came to know the Minionette, and flash-forwards to show how he dealt with her +after his escape from prison. The author regards this as perhaps the most +intricately structured novel the science fantasy genre has seen. It was a +contender for awards, but not a winner. + + + +{{ stars(stars=2) }} + +A lot it is said about this book about its narrative structure, starting in +the "present" and then doing flashbacks explaining some point (sometimes) and +then showing the future in "flash forwards". The thing is, "flash forwards" +don't feel like "flash forwards"; the simply appear as if the future is the +present and the present became a flashback. + +Also, the flashbacks sometimes are not explanative and a bit too long. The +very first one doesn't explain anything about the current state of the story, +and it is so long you have to wonder if the story actually moved back or it is +talking about something else. + +There is also some weird jumps in the story that made me feel like I skipped a +whole page for some unknown reason, and I had to track back, see that I didn't +skip anything and the story simply did a (small) jump in the plot. + +The characters are really bland. One of the topics, the fact that a race +actually feels hate as love (and no, that's not a spoiler, 'cause you don't +know who I'm talking about), is actually really bad explained and explored -- +and the weird fact that, as the author puts in the post words in the end, that +was the origin of the book.