Red Dwarf By Ebbe Roe Smith

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Re: Red Dwarf By Ebbe Roe Smith

Post by kailhofer »

Greg and Dan are correct about the long part. I read at a fair pace, and it still took a bit over two hours to take it in.<br><br>The detective tale is good, and I did not figure out the mystery before the end. (I fixated on Lop Side, the literal "Red" Herring.) I also liked the classic showing of the killer's hand at the end by having someone imitate one of the characters.<br><br>I have to give credit on excellent vocabulary choices in giving the world an alien "feel" to it. It took me a while to get used to "Wedrevolution" and the like, but once I got it, I liked it.<br><br><br>On the minus side, the mention that shidoans don't like to capitalize their words didn't wash with me. Tide puts capital letters on everything else just fine. It was as if the author was trying to talk to us, instead of the character, and I wasn't ready for that kind of "breaking the fourth wall."<br><br>Description was somewhat sketchy. I mean, I really don't have any idea what Red looked like, and some of the things he did were difficult to picture--especially the "checking the screens" he does at the party. The planet the actors came from was hard to imagine from the verbal clues, as well as the Hub and other settings.<br><br>This was a little disappointing, since this world was rich with interesting bits and settings. Usually if an author spends that kind of time defining a universe, he or she wants you to know what it looks like, too.<br><br>There were also some success strings of unidentified dialog which were a little hard to follow.<br><br><br>All in all, I'd give it a thumbs up, inspite of my quibbles. <br><br>Nate
Last edited by kailhofer on August 16, 2004, 06:05:01 PM, edited 1 time in total.
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