- Tibetz
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- Exalted Mythic Member
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Posted by: ROBERTO jh
Posted by: Tibetz
Posted by: Onyx81
Did you honestly expect me to type out a few page summary?
I was highlighting the more important parts of the story. That's what a summary is supposed to do.
I won't deny that people can have opinions but, this is an opinion I can't understand. And maybe you've read better books that are more bound to reality.
I just don't understand when the book actually has what you are denying it has.
There are very few that meet all my definitions of quality. Ender's Game and World War Z are the only ones I can think of. It doesn't take much for me to enjoy a book. I enjoyed Cryptum. I just look at it objectively as a bad example of writing. To me, a good book is something that can meet any one of my three main criteria. The best books I've ever read are, in order, Ender's Game, World War Z and Metro 2033. They all have incredible political, spiritual and/or philosophical themes, and have (at worst) interesting plots and characters that serve to further those themes.
Perhaps my problem with Cryptum is that it is too linear. It feels like half of the book is filler just tacked on to make the book longer. But when I simply am not interested in what happens next, only what happens at the end, why would I want to read?
That's literally the entire focus of the book. None of the thematic elements are made expressly obvious, that's what makes a book deep, is discovering the hidden messages for yourself, and that goes double for the characters. I heard a good one from another sci-fi author that Faber is an allegory for Dick Chaney (sp?). How power so easily corrupts even the most righteous of cause; "the path to Hell is paved with good intentions." And how even the most advanced of all civilizations, no matter how sophisticated, are still chained by human flaws.
I guess really the entire Forerunner civilization can be considered an allegory for the U.S.A.
Anyway, I respect your own opinion, but you must understand I get annoyed when someone's opinion is based around something, as it were in this case, that the person thinks isn't there, that totally is. Forgive me for the ranting, I just don't see how the book doesn't meet your criteria.While I understand the point of that theme (one I had considered), it doesn't change that the story Bornstellar tells in Cryptum alone (the rest of the trilogy may redeem this) carries no investment for me, and is generally just useless blabbering amidst a wonderfully rich universe.
I said before, the universe around Bornstellar was far more interesting than what Bornstellar was doing. The book was trying to force me to care about him and his story, when all I wanted to do was know more about the broad universe.