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I have trouble with this book.
I love Rincewind. And I love Rincewind the most when Death shows up. Hence Death is like my favourite character too (it's DEATH). I alwyas wanted to read this book. So I first tried the german translation, it's bad, I gave up, several times and then I forgot about it. But then on Easter Sunday I was like "ha would feel like a joke to listen to it now" and I got the Audiobook. But the quality of the Audio book is super disturbing. It's really bad. Like it has been recorded 1980's and then copied from an old radio. It was also badly read. I did not like the narrator at all. But it was impossible to read, so it had to be the audiobook. BUT YOU JUST CAN'T DO DEATH JUSTICE ON AN AUDIOBOOK (well you could, if you rerecord and use special effects, maybe)

But then I also realized that Mort is just very all over the place. Some jokes are great yes (if you are not too distracted by the quality and you can actually understand something), but at some point in the end, the storyline gets super messy. Like oldschool 1980's comedy messy. And with the bad audiobook i did nearly give up until I decided I will push through the last hour.

I hope at some point they will rerecord it. It's such a waste, honestly.

Rosamunde Pilcher meets Tatort. Etwas deutscheres konnte ich mir kaum vorstellen. Unzusammenhängende Erzählung, komisches Verhalten von ungefähr allen Charakteren vereint in einer bizarren Fridays 4 Future Erzählung. Ich habe irgendwann dann nachrecherchiert und gute Interpretationszusammenfassungen gefunden. Die Symbolik fand ich am Ende ziemlich smart, ich wäre aber von selbst überhaupt nicht draufgekommen. Ich war viel zu abgelenkt von diesen komischen Plot und Charaktern. Es macht auch mehr Sinn wenn man bedenkt, dass der Autor normalerweise Theaterstücke schreibt. Genauso war dann auch dieses Buch verfasst. In Akten vor kaum wechselnden Kulissen, mit überdrehten Verhalten der Charaktere und einem kleinen Mikrokosmos, der eigentlich das große Ganze darstellt.

Am Ende mochte ich die Wolken. Er hätte einfach das Wolkenbuch schreiben sollen, das fand ich am besten. Der kleine Sohn wäre auch ziemlich kuhl gewesen, wenn er denn irgendwie Sinn gemacht hätte. In einem Thriller zum Beispiel. Aber in dem Buch war er super wasted (Ich hab aber die ganze Zeit drauf gewartet das er sagt "Ich sehe tote Menschen)

What an "out of the regular" experience this book was. Especially the blend of genres. It was like a new kind if cocktail that created an abstract taste you had never had before.

So here is my bit of review. I work with children that turn into violent teenagers and that feel very much like Alex. There were two outstanding truths I could find this book was build on. A) violence always leads to more violence. We have come a far way to create the "most" peaceful society in history ever however and that is b) teenagers will probably always be seen as more "brutal" or "shocking" by older generations, because they divert from the "regular" standard, but most of them will grow up to be okay again. Not always, not everyone but many.

When I read of Alex and his gang, I was reminded of my muslim and russian boys who always tell me of their gang fights, how they feel awesome and powerful, how they view guns and knifes and what kind of allure those things have. I was also reminded of neonazi groups and soccer hooligans. We always ask us, how can it be that these violent cells come to be. I don't think clockwork orange doesn't have an answer to this, however it shows us that it's always been apart if society, a conflict between the old and the young and the society has to try and find answers for it. For me as a professional these are important questions.

The weird blend of seriousness and comedy worked well here. Whenever it got brutal it also got comedic. Sexual abuse? Let's add some cat induced slapstick comedy to brighten the mood. For me, it worked. I am not getting out of this book traumatized. It helped reduce the drama, abstract the story so much that you could focus on the underlying questions while also having a good time. I saw the abuse and the violence, but in the way it was written, I did not need to get overly emotional invested about it. Because, that's what Burgess also wanted to give to the reader "do not always dramatize youth violence". Handle it witch care and seriousness, but it is not necessary to talk about the doom to the world. I really appreciated it.

I also felt that the point was to take care to continue working on a peaceful society. If the outer sourroundings do not use violence like the "milicents" then the teenagers won't pick it up. If the "care worker" would have honestly been there for Alex and not threaten him and have a close connection with him, maybe it would have made a difference. If the parents would have actually cared, and looked after Alex after he became involved with violence the first time, maybe that too would have made a difference. (Here is the small side insert: poverty is shitty, stop the poverty, give children all equal life chances and education. Thank you.)

Yes, yadda, the language. The language is annoying, but it also dims the violence. I tried the first 30 pages to get it on my own. And gave up, because I did not get what was happening. Then I got a wikipedia entry with the translations and looked up every word, and in another 30 pages, I learned the language and could read the book without interruption. Annoying, sure, but also worthy if you take the time, and want to read that book.

I took a lot out of this. I even want to watch the movie now. So good stuff.

I question the sanity of the author. Why the fuck did she decide to start the book like that? After she lost already 50% of her readers struggeling through the first book, she starts the second book like that???

- no familar character you can connect to
- complete diffuse storry-telling for the first 30 pages, then info dumb and another 50 pages of diffuse story-telling
-2nd person form (You opened your eyes... etc.)
- complete unrecognizable Harrow character

there is nothing you can connect to in the beginning of the second book. You question all the information you got in the end of the first book. And everyone starting this book struggles so hard. It was complete unnecessary. I needed to scream at my friend until I made it to page 100. And then it was another 280 pages until FINALLY things started to make sense and fell into place.
and let's be honest, we all knew it was Gideon telling the story. She could have just kept that form, there was no need at all to hide this away. At least then it would not have lost the humor you were used to in Gideon. It was also not a big secret. If Gideon would have sarcastically screamed at Harrow for all the shit she did, at least it would have been super amusing

oh and also, please remember all those unbelievable unnecessary page fillers, no one needed? And were just added to idk confuse people??? or bring back dead characters???

Does the author not want to keep readers engaged to sell the most possible numbers of book three? We read the book with our book club. We started with 10 people for Gideon. Only 5 made it through. Then we read Harrow and only 2 made it through, everyone else gave up. I mean, if you have to put in so much effort, you do not read this book for entertainment anymore. Then you can just read Ulysses tbh.

The end is worth it, and if you liked Gideon you really should keep reading. BUT GOD AM I ANGRY FOR THE BEGINNING.

I have no idea what to do with this.

The idea was intriguing, creative and powerful. However, I could not get along with the prose. I had to force myself through. Although it is a plot centered, dark book, which i normally would like, because it hit the right spots, I was completely detached from the story, because my non-native english self cannot deal with english slang. I know how important black slang (if that is the word for it) is for black culture, but it was pure struggle for me. All my brain did was constantly correcting the wrong grammar. Additionally, i had to stress through the book, because I read it for a challenge. So it might also be that I did not give it the time it deserves. That's why I decided not to rate it.

I think it is a book worth recommending, if you like dark plot heavy, fast paced stories. The characters do work, but because the book is short, they are not really fleshed out. And I think it's hard to connect with them and care for them. And the character I cared for was then taken out of the story halfway through.

Sometimes the plot was all over the place. But since i was so detached and struggled through the writing, that could be on me, because I could not follow the flow of the story at all.
It felt very black and white, very packaged brute emotions and like art that tries to process rage, and for that, it works.

I also believe that this would work very well on screen. Something similiar to "the walking dead". And there, the characters would shine.

Maybe i will reread the book one day without pressure and just take it slow. But right now, if i read another sentece that omits subjects or verbs I am probably going to lose it.

The sad thing is, this could have been the perfect and most awesome book. It could have even been my favourite book. It had everything, complex world, intense plot, innovative concept. tragic and dark aesthetic.

It was creative and innovative and felt fresh. Like it finally broke through an invisible wall in Sci-Fi Land to create a new exciting thrilling story, with a new world to explore.

But there were issues for me.
First of all, the action scene were no fun. They were badly written. I was not able to follow the movement. If you write action scenes you need to be precise, but this is what the book is most lacking in, detailed precision. I zoomed out all the time and just flew over the words until things calmed down and I knew what was going on again. There was not any content to be missed in the action scenes anyway, because you just needed to know the consequences. The stakes were not high in that regard.

Additionally, there were plot holes. Worst case for me was the set up with the set up for the Ninth House and certain actions of characters in the book. If there is no clear motive for the characters and they just act according to what you want your plot to go like, it feels like cheap writing, hidden away by big words (pretty regular concept of writing books in my native language and there is nothing more hateful and bad then doing that). So it might seem like super smart plotting, but really it wasn't. The writing was moulded so it fit, so you could not call on the plot twist. But it could have been everything in the end, whatever fitted the author the most. That is not well done plotting.

Additionally the writing is so vague at points, that you have no idea what the author meant. Did the character do something by their own free will or was it something they were forced to do. That drove me nuts. It was suggestive and let on to a lot of speculation on my end, which then did not deliver and it turned out to be the most easy option from the very beginning and would not have needed to waste so much time thinking critically about.

Nontheless, it was a great book. And an exciting read and it deserves the 5 stars for the entertainment and the innovation. I am thrilled to read on, and i hope that all the above points are mostly debut author mistakes and Muir will grow with the series as an Author. I love that she was bold enough to bring something new on the table. I has so much good content mixed in, especially with the magic, that i would not want to miss any of it. And i cannot wait until i want to reread again and find all the little easter eggs I missed the first time.