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Heart of Gold review
Jan. 11th, 2007 07:05 pmVia Christmas presents, I am backtracking to the start of Sharon Shinn's back catalogue, which brings me to her second novel, Heart of Gold (I haven't got the first one yet). It's good, but very obviously an early novel when compared to this year's publications, which I have been devouring as soon as they were out in hardback.
Heart of Gold is split into two sections - the first gives an incredibly detailed overview of the alien society in which the story is set, emphasising the cultural issues over and over again in order to batter home the message about racial intolerance. It's not very subtle and the metaphors are rather cliched, with not enough plot and character development to mask the blows of the sledgehammer. So, when the focus shifts unexpectedly to a thrilling tale of high adventure and an improbable romance between the two main characters, it all seems rather abrupt and unconvincing. The ending was a little rushed for my taste, and the waste of the first half of the book made it seem as if the development of the protagonists happened far too quickly.
However, I still enjoyed it, though I'm certain I wouldn't have been nearly as keen to buy every book ever written by the author if I'd read this one first. I'm still interested to read the rest, but I'm even more looking forward to the next one in the current series.
Heart of Gold is split into two sections - the first gives an incredibly detailed overview of the alien society in which the story is set, emphasising the cultural issues over and over again in order to batter home the message about racial intolerance. It's not very subtle and the metaphors are rather cliched, with not enough plot and character development to mask the blows of the sledgehammer. So, when the focus shifts unexpectedly to a thrilling tale of high adventure and an improbable romance between the two main characters, it all seems rather abrupt and unconvincing. The ending was a little rushed for my taste, and the waste of the first half of the book made it seem as if the development of the protagonists happened far too quickly.
However, I still enjoyed it, though I'm certain I wouldn't have been nearly as keen to buy every book ever written by the author if I'd read this one first. I'm still interested to read the rest, but I'm even more looking forward to the next one in the current series.
