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Wednesday, January 17, 2018

Alcatraz Versus the Scrivener's Bones by Brandon Sanderson

Alcatraz Versus the Scrivener's Bones (Alcatraz, #2)Alcatraz Versus the Scrivener's Bones by Brandon Sanderson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I wasn't going to read this book. The first Alcatraz was so awful that I wanted to white-out Brandon Sanderson's name on the cover. It felt like false advertising. But after a few weeks I found myself thinking about the characters and the story, and less about the quirky writing style. Somewhere in there I decided to give it one more try.

It was better the 2nd time. First and foremost, Sanderson seemed to both limit and condense his interruptions so they were easier to ignore. Second, underneath the problematic exterior Sanderson was back at his craft of world building and developing characters, and his natural talent is still there covered up by a really bad artistic decision.

I enjoyed this book, and he may just have won me over to reading the whole series, although it is tenuous. We will find out with the next book.

While I don't like the constant narrator interruptions, I do have two things to say about them. One, they are funny. It's not that they are bad reading, they are just out of place, like a stand-up comedian at a funeral. Two, I realized that the voice doesn't match. The narrator is supposed to be Alcatraz telling his story, but when you listen to the quirkiness of the narrator it doesn't match the voice of the Alcatraz inside the story. Maybe the narrator voice is the more mature, grown-up Alcatraz, but I struggle just as much to see that. My opinion is that the narrator is actually just good ol' Brandon Sanderson letting lose and being himself, which is awesome. (He actually took a shot at Garth Nix! Loved it! I like Garth Nix too by the way...) The narrator voice just doesn't work for me in this book.


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