Legion

First of all, I apologize for my absence. I never intended to leave this blog unattended for such a long span so shortly after having created it.But simultaneously attending college and having a job tend to do that to one´s plans, and to me they have proved to be an exhausting combination.

I wonder, however, if part of the reason I had not updated  was also that I had this review waiting for me here. How do you review something this short? I mean... Anyone even remotely interested can pick the book and just read it all and be done with it. No great loss, whether you end up liking it or not...

But enough of that. 

For what its worth, I really liked Legion. In terms of characterization, dialogue and prose it was flawless, even if not outstanding. It had me reading page after page. It definitely was entertaining. But for all that, I can´t help feeling the short story form killed what would have otherwise  been a greater novel. I say this mostly because the execution of the plot really falls short in basically every possible way, thought in pacing above all. Everything just feels... hurried. More like a prologue or even a summary of the story than the actual story.

And come to think of it, if I recall correctly, there is a tv series in the making based on the aftermath of the book, so...

Palimpsest

In essence, Palimpsest is a book reading a bit like poetry about a mythical sexually-transmitted city (yeah, you read it right!), and how four ordinary strangers happen upon, and are therefore affected by, it. Or, well, technically, how it happens upon them. You see, everyone who gains access to Palimpsest has tattooed, in some part of their body,  a map representing an area of the city they can visit without help. To visit other areas, however, one must have sex with people who have the place one wishes to mapped on  their skin. It doesn't help matters that the city is incredibly addicting, often being described as more real than the waking world, and far more beautiful. Thus, the city often indirectly (and its citizens often directly) wrecks the lives of all those who find it.