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Sharakael's Reviews > The Stranger
The Stranger (The Labyrinths of Echo, #1)
by
by
** spoiler alert **
I feel odd to be giving this book 4*, since normally I'd only give this kind of reading 2*...
Let's see... the main character was, to put it for better or worse, a Marty Stu. He's special with powers and talents which no one else in Echo seemed to have, and blessed with unusually good luck which got him out of sticky situations or delivered the solution to the current problem right into his hands. In other words, he hardly had to work for the achievements he accomplished in this novel. The only thing he failed to get was the girl, so I guess there's some sort of a balance there.
Despite how much of a Marty Stu the main character was, he didn't annoy me for some reason... I guess it's probably a wish-fulfilment. Everyone has, at one point or another, dreamed of finding out that s/he's special and not just an everyday joe... and Max Frei sort of provided a fulfilment of that fantasy.
The thing which saved this novel for me, I think, are the characters and settings/world. I actually like the supporting characters, and enjoyed reading their conversations. ...I can only mourn the things that would had been lost in translation, as I have a feeling they're more entertaining in the original Russian.
And personally, I adore a well-built world/setting, and I found that reading and learning about Echo was enjoyable. I like how the details of the world was revealed bits by bits; the book never did an info/history dump on its readers.
I like the structure of the novel too... instead of 1 long story that spanned the whole book, instead you get 'cases', so in that sense this novel is more like a collection of short stories. And maybe that's a reason why reading this novel felt simply like reading the daily life of Max Frei. You don't get the tension of a reading a full-length mystery novel... instead you get smaller doses of mystery which served to introduce the world and its characters, and seeing how they spend their time in between solving mysteries.
Overall this was a chance purchase which I didn't anticipate liking... will be ordering the next books in the series soon.
Let's see... the main character was, to put it for better or worse, a Marty Stu. He's special with powers and talents which no one else in Echo seemed to have, and blessed with unusually good luck which got him out of sticky situations or delivered the solution to the current problem right into his hands. In other words, he hardly had to work for the achievements he accomplished in this novel. The only thing he failed to get was the girl, so I guess there's some sort of a balance there.
Despite how much of a Marty Stu the main character was, he didn't annoy me for some reason... I guess it's probably a wish-fulfilment. Everyone has, at one point or another, dreamed of finding out that s/he's special and not just an everyday joe... and Max Frei sort of provided a fulfilment of that fantasy.
The thing which saved this novel for me, I think, are the characters and settings/world. I actually like the supporting characters, and enjoyed reading their conversations. ...I can only mourn the things that would had been lost in translation, as I have a feeling they're more entertaining in the original Russian.
And personally, I adore a well-built world/setting, and I found that reading and learning about Echo was enjoyable. I like how the details of the world was revealed bits by bits; the book never did an info/history dump on its readers.
I like the structure of the novel too... instead of 1 long story that spanned the whole book, instead you get 'cases', so in that sense this novel is more like a collection of short stories. And maybe that's a reason why reading this novel felt simply like reading the daily life of Max Frei. You don't get the tension of a reading a full-length mystery novel... instead you get smaller doses of mystery which served to introduce the world and its characters, and seeing how they spend their time in between solving mysteries.
Overall this was a chance purchase which I didn't anticipate liking... will be ordering the next books in the series soon.
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Reading Progress
February 13, 2012
–
Started Reading
February 18, 2012
– Shelved
February 18, 2012
– Shelved as:
unique-fantasy
February 18, 2012
– Shelved as:
short-stories
February 18, 2012
– Shelved as:
detectives
February 18, 2012
–
Finished Reading
