The idea of this Doctrine of Ethos being the key to controlling the Universe and that Reed can somehow harness its power and become a God if he places half of the doctrine in each child just blew my mind. On another level though, Middlegame reminds me of nothing I’ve ever read before. His actions and motivations are unnatural and more than a little creepy, but yet fascinating at the same time. On one level, it reminds me of Frankenstein, with James Reed using his alchemical skills to create children that can help him achieve his goal. I love how wild and original the overall concept of the novel is. That said, however, even though I didn’t love the read because it confused me a few too many times for my liking, there were quite a few things I did enjoy. The plot is very complicated and twisty, and then time starts to twist as well, which made everything all the more complicated, and at a certain point, my brain just screamed “Enough!” On top of that, I felt like the pacing was slow in places which didn’t help since the book is over 500 pages long.
I can’t put my finger on exactly why it wasn’t a great read, but part of it was because I just felt like I had to work way too hard to keep everything that was going on straight in my mind.
That said, however, I unfortunately didn’t love it nearly as much as I was expecting to. This was my first time reading one of McGuire’s novels, but after seeing so many stellar reviews for the author’s Wayward Children series, I fully expected to love Middlegame. If that isn’t enough to pique your curiosity, Middlegame also features alchemy, time loops, and its fair share of ruthless killers. It features twins separated at birth who somehow have the ability to telepathically communicate with one another, as well a man who wants to use the twins to help him carry out his ambitious and perhaps delusional plan to become a god and control the universe. It reads like equal parts science fiction and fantasy, and is a wild ride from start to finish. Seanan McGuire’s latest novel Middlegame is a very ambitious novel. FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley.
0 kommentar(er)
