The Ink Black Heart by Robert Galbraith
I gave up on this audio book about half way through. Skipped forward to the last chapter, and felt no regret for having done so... Then used my right as Audible member to return a book that proved not to my taste, and got my 'credit' back to use on another one instead.
In this case, I would have done well to read more reviews before I bought the book. But I'd read the previous ones in the series, and appreciated those enough to be curious about this new one too... Looking at more reviews written by others now, I find those to vary a lot, though; and I'm afraid I must agree with the critical ones.
If you're still curious about this book, I suggest you try it in text - not as audio. I bought it as audio myself because I happen to be in a subscription period with Audible at the moment (there was another book recently I wanted, and one or two more of interest to me coming up soon) - and also because it's a very long one.
However, at the centre of the mystery in this novel is a computer game; and what I had not caught up on beforehand was that this means the story includes lots and lots of in-game or Twitter conversations between a horde of @-pseudonyms (also using #hashtags). The murder case detectives Strike and Robin are working on involves digital spying - i.e. spending a lot of time participating in a game in digital disguise, following text conversations between players and trying to work out who is who, and relationships between them. And all this, in detail, we as readers are forced to listen in on as well... I'd probably find that tiresome enough even in text, but it's definitely not a book suited for being read aloud - with every name pronounced in front of every sentence [(@X to @Y etc] to clarify who is saying what to whom; even if just exchanging curses (lots of those!) or "lol". Bits and pieces in between (with the detectives "in real life") sometimes did raise a bit more interest for me; but finally it just came to a point where I felt I couldn't stand another 17 hours or so of "twitter chats", and couldn't care less who might be who in the end. (When I jumped forward to read the final chapter before I quit, that was really just to check how it ended for detectives...)
Quotes from some other reviews on the Audible website:
"Robin and Strike parts are as solid as ever. However - huge parts of the book are filled with soulless, superfluous, and plain horrible Twitter gibberish."
"Great story well narrated but the endless twitter feeds and moderator channel chats were tedious and hard to follow on audio."
"Repeated name tags on and on and on… truly irritating…"
"Too many game references for me as an older listener."
Thanks for the warning. I shall avoid this one!
ReplyDeleteJC, I'll give her that she's "keeping up with the times" (more than I can say for myself), as we do tend to spend more and more of our time online (and criminals do make use of that as well...) Maybe people who spend more time in computer games find it easier to relate to. (?)
DeleteYes, thanks for the warning! I have yet to read my first book by her written under the Galbraith name, and up until now, I was really interested. Now I am not so sure anymore.
ReplyDeleteI am a "gamer" myself and used to moderate game forums for EA for years, but even I would not want to read (let alone listen to) endless in-game exchanges between players and moderators.
You know, this reminds me a bit of how I felt slightly bored by the descriptions of Quidditch games in the Harry Potter books. Those were the only parts I never fully embraced, but I must say that the game transfers really well onto film.
Meike, I think on the whole I liked the first book in the Strike series best. That one was more of a classic mystery. The later ones seem to me to have become increasingly complicated - and also longer, and darker. Well, I guess that reminds of the Harry Potter books as well! ;) What these more realistic adult novels lack, though, is the 'comic relief' of the HP books. (Which helped even with the Qudditch games - lol)
DeleteI returned a book that was the 6th in a series that I was caught up in. the first five I could not put down, the 6th I could not read, but the 7th was perfect once again. mine was the subject matter, and the subject matter here is one i would return also
ReplyDeleteSandra, I've had similar experiences with other series, so I won't "prejudge" in this case either. I think with the next one (if there is a next one) I'll wait a bit and read more reviews before I decide whether to read it or not, though.
DeleteI haven't read any of the Strike books - they seem to have passed me by. Thanks for the info. - I shall certainly give this one a miss when/if I finally get round to the series. I'm not a Harry Potter fan, having only ever read one book, so perhaps she's not my kind of author, though I know I'm being judgemental in saying that.
ReplyDeleteCarol, the crime novels and the Harry Potter books are really vastly different from each other, even if occasionally a detail, or the author's strategy in building a story may make one want to compare, just because one knows she wrote them both. I'm a big HP fan myself, I've long since stopped counting how many times I've re-listened to the whole series read by Stephen Fry. (I also have the books in print, and the films on DVD - and also the Fantastic Beasts films). I remember not being all that impressed by the first HP book the first time I read it - but with book four I was "hooked", as then it was obvious that it was all ONE story, not just a series of books with the same characters. The last three I each bought in print on their respective first day of release and read more or less non-stop... ;-)
DeleteI've read the other Cormoran Strike books and enjoyed them. I enjoyed the DVDs too. But, Ink Black Heart?? Awful. There is an attempt to be innovative by including Twitter comments. That's good. I felt that the editor or the publisher was just being kind when they accepted this novel. It's too wordy. Half of it could be left out and nobody would notice. A truly boring book.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment Louise. I'm afraid I can only agree...!
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