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Loading... The Angel's Gameby Carlos Ruiz Zafon
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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. Realy enjoyed this gothic novel - part mystery, part thriller and a touch of horror. Predictable in parts but thoroughly entertaining. (  ) thejohnsmith | Dec 28, 2009 |  love his writing. great style/prose. don't like the genre. too horror-ish. And I wasn't scared or in awe of it, for some reason. Liked his first novel much more. I doubt I'll read any more of his books because of the genre. (  ) binadaat | Dec 22, 2009 | Summary: Close to despair, David receives a letter from a reclusive French editor, Andreas Corelli, who makes him the offer of a lifetime. He is to write a book unlike anything that has ever existed—a book with the power to change hearts and minds. In return, he will receive a fortune, and perhaps more. But as David begins the work, he realizes that there is a connection between his haunting book and the shadows that surround his home. ( ) vsandham | Dec 17, 2009 | absolutely amazing book. really enjoyed it. (  ) ymummy | Dec 16, 2009 | I really enjoyed Zafon's first book, The Shadow of the Wind, so I looked forward to The Angel's Game. I was not disappointed. The story of David Martin reminded me of an epic, where the protagonist has to face many trials, see through deceptions, and ultimately reach his goal. All things come at a cost, for this is not fairy tale where everyone lives happily ever after. But I found myself reading with anticipation, hoping he would find what he was looking for. David is caught up in a deal with the devil, or at least a very demonic character. I can't think of this book as strickly a mystery, or thriller, or horror novel. Zafon uses many ideas from these genres and never settles for one type of story. His characters are likeable yet human on one hand, or on the other hand, the characters can be archetypes of evil and good. I can't wait for Zafon's next book. ( ) jotoyo | Dec 15, 2009 | 
 “Faust” this isn’t. Ruiz Zafón’s flamboyant pulp epic is something altogether sillier, a pact-with-the-devil tale whose only purpose is to give its readers some small intimation of the darker pleasures of the literary arts, the weird thrill of storytelling without conscience.  The early pages of the novel, focusing on the travails of a writer coming of age, call to mind Mario Vargas Llosa's Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter. But we are not in the nuanced world of literary fiction; calamities pile up on poor Martin's head as they only can in a genre novel. He writes a book for his friend, another aspiring writer, only to see it praised by the same critics who pan his own novel; his girl abandons him and marries his best friend; and he is diagnosed with a brain tumour. The Angel's Game draws the reader into nothing more than a world where people who read, write, or collect books are shown to be special; it peddles narcissism. On the pretext of transporting readers to another time and place, it contracts their world. While much of this novel is highly enjoyable, at some latter point the tongue withdraws from the cheek. In wrapping up a host of absurd sub-plots, somewhere in there the writer loses his sense of humour. When the book ceases to be self-conscious about its own manipulations, it stops being fun. This won’t bother some readers; some will happily dive into the mysticism up to the neck. But others will miss the drollery and sophistication with which the novel began, and for these readers Zafón’s straight resolution will disappoint.
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(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:23 -0400)
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