Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Pub Date: July 3, 2012
"A drowning, a magician's curse, and a centuries-old secret."
1537. A man hurries through city streets in a gathering snowstorm, clutching a box in one hand. He is Johann Faust, the greatest magician of his age. The box he carries contains a mirror safeguarding a portion of his soul and a small ring containing all the magic in the world. Together, they comprise something unimaginably dangerous.
London, the present day. Fifteen-year-old Gavin Stokes is boarding a train to the countryside to live with his aunt. His school and his parents can't cope with him and the things he sees, things they tell him don't really exist. At Pendurra, Gavin finds people who are like him, who see things too. They all make the same strange claim: magic exists, it's leaking back into our world, and it's bringing something terrible with it. (Synopsis from Goodreads.)
Advent was a book I looked forward to reading for its wonderfully strange world seeped in mythology. The world was intriguing and made me think odd creatures and magic really could be lying in wait at the far corners of the earth. As much as I wanted to love the story, however, I just couldn't get into it. It started extremely slow, with pages and pages about Gavin traveling to his aunt's house and then meeting the people in Pendurra. Although there was the mystery of why Gavin was seeing something that no one else could, I feel like the questions this brought up were dragged on for far to long without any answers.
I think this book could have been cut down to half its length and still hold the important points of the story. The mysteries were initially interesting and the prose beautiful, but my curiosity fizzled out as I had to slog through pages of unimportant events.
The chapters in Advent alternate between Gavin's perspective in the present and Johann Faust's perspective in the past. I found myself constantly skimming the sections on Faust, as they bored me. I just couldn't get into his story, and wanted to get back to solving the mysteries in Gavin's life. I did really enjoy Horace, and wish Treadwell would have fleshed out his character and his relationship with Gavin more.
Advent did pick up at the end, but that was too late for me. Do not write it off, though, for others have picked up this book and loved it. If you like mythology and lovely prose, you may very well enjoy this book where I didn't.
Spot on, Allison. I felt the same when I read it; it kind of took a while to pick up the pace. It's a good read, but it takes a hell of an investment of time.
ReplyDeleteThat is true. I am normally a patient person, but I've just gotta have some action in the stories I read or I won't stay interested!
DeleteHow many pages is it? I felt the same way reading Dan Brown's The Terror. It could've been cut to half the length.
ReplyDeleteI read it on my Kindle... but Amazon says it is 464 pages. Yep, definitely could've been cut in half, I think.
DeleteJudging by the Goodreads description, it sounds really intriguing. I hate when books feel like they're bloated. What was the editor doing? That's how I felt about all the Twilight books (should I be admitting I read those? haha). Nice review. Hope you had a great weekend. :)
ReplyDeleteHa Ha. I totally agree with you on this Mike.
DeleteThanks, Michael! haha, well I admit to reading the Twilight books, though I am ashamed of it now. It's hard to say when you don't know what the book went through before publication... perhaps the editor cut it down a ton already!
DeleteI like the sound of the story concept. Perhaps this is a case of less is more? Maybe the book needed some better editing.
ReplyDeleteLee
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Well as an editor-in-training, I'll say it is hard to tell when we don't know how much the editor improved the manuscript already. They can only do so much while still keeping it primarily the author's manuscript.
DeleteI like the idea of the story, but I think Faust would bore me too. Give me fast modern action!
ReplyDeleteHear, hear! (Though I'll take medieval action too. Or fantasy action. Or sci-fi action. Just give me action. :)
DeleteI have a hard time finishing novels that make me slog through pages of boring description. While that may be great for others, I need action to drive the plot. That's too bad that this novel didn't quite work out for you Allison. It does sound like an interesting read from the description.
ReplyDeleteWell the publicity people for this book certainly did a good job with the synopsis and back cover copy, that's for sure.
DeleteI'm so thankful for honest reviews, seriously. I like how you explained what worked for you and what didn't. That helps readers decide whether it would be a good fit. :)
ReplyDeleteGlad you appreciate that. I do find it hard to review a book when it just didn't work for me, because I know the effort that goes into writing one!
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