William P. Messenger

I read Shattered Triangle by William Messenger some time ago and forgot to post a review so this will be my recollection combined with a minimal amount of notes I took. While I gave a middle of the road rating it could easily, for me, have been lower.

I generally don't mind background in a story, I am not one of those who must always have action and violence the entire way through a novel. This, however, even considering the background serves as the background for a series (trilogy?), was too detailed. The information given could have been given far more efficiently and effectively.

Once the procedural started it still did not compel me to make time to read it. If how a book stays in your memory serves as a good indication, and it usually does, I remember just wanting to get through it. No more and no less. Unless a novel is just terrible, which this one was not, I want to give the book a chance all the way to the end. I will stop short of saying I regret finishing it, there were moments of interest, but between questionable characterization, some implausible events, and what appeared to have been social/political statements from the author disguised as opinions of the characters I was so happy to be able to never have to open it again. Needless to say I won't be reading the other volumes.

I usually have some idea what types of people would like a book but I can't seem to think of any easily definable group. Not readers of a specific genre or author, not readers who like character-driven novels (I am one of those and this was too much fluff for me). There will be plenty who like this book but I simply can't recommend it to any particular group or sub-group. If you like games of chance then you might want to take a chance on this one. I did and was disappointed.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via Edelweiss.… (meer)