Brian Paone
Author of Yours Truly, 2095
Works by Brian Paone
A Haunting of Words 1 copy
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Statistics
- Works
- 10
- Members
- 38
- Popularity
- #383,442
- Rating
- 3.4
- Reviews
- 4
- ISBNs
- 14
Some things to make known: I am a massive ELO fan. Massive. And I love love love their 1981 album Time. It's not their best, but it's a favourite of mine. And I've always been intrigued by the backing story that is somewhat discernible when listening to the full album.
And, it should be stated that Paone doesn't, overall, do a horrible job of stitching together a story. That's not to say he does a wonderful job, but not a horrible. I guess the word I'm looking for here is "passable".
First of all, the writing really has no zip to it. It's very much a plodding construction of this happened, then this happened, then this happened. There seems to be little or no effort to inject any form of suspense into the story beyond what Jeff Lynne already did 34 years ago on the album. Any inherent suspense comes from the fact that Jeff Blue has been shot ahead 114 years to 2095 and he wants to get back to try and repair his relationship with his soon-to-be-ex-wife, Julie.
The rest of the novel feels as though the author contorted the story and dialogue simply so he could toss one more reference to ELO in there, be it a line of dialogue, a character name (he gets most of the band members of ELO in there), or a snatch of lyric. For example, It's either real / or it's a dream / There's nothing that is in-between turns into something like, "It's either real or it's a dream. There's nothing in between, right?"
This happens through the entire book. He also tucks in or name-drops a bunch of other bands, such as Yes, Pink Floyd, and Genesis. In fact, he even has prostitutes offering "ummagumma" sex--that is, guaranteed disease-free sex.
Which ends up setting up a paradoxical situation in the novel. Somebody uses the term "ummagumma"...and Jeff has already established that Pink Floyd exists in this fictional world (going so far as to have a character list off the final post-1981 albums for Jeff). Yet, when someone uses a word that is an actual Pink Floyd album title, he ignores it. Makes no reference to it.
And what of ELO themselves? I essentially had to assume that this band did not exist, otherwise, poor old Jeff would be walking around endlessly wondering why the entire future was based on their songs. Drinks called "Nightrider" and "Summer and Lightning" and bars called "Sidewalk Dancer" (a reference from the song, From The End Of The World, etc.)
And the science? Good lord, don't get me started. It's crap. It's not even logical crap, it's just crap.
Finally, I gave up counting how many times the author used the same damn device: Jeff Blue, needing to give the reader a little backstory, goes into thinking mode. Once the reader has the information, then he snaps back to the here and now when whomever was with him states, "Jeff, are you listening to me?" or some such shit.
Overall, I found myself as frustrated at this novel as I was with the abomination that was Kevin J. Anderson & Neil Peart's Clockwork Angels. When will authors realize that, if writing a story from an album, just write the damn story! The fact that it's based on an album of songs is reference enough, you don't need to shove that shit down our throats.
Now, in case you were wondering if I actually went in expecting this novel to be the next Shakespeare or Dickens or hell, even the next Bradbury or Asimov, the answer is no. I didn't expect this to be a stellar read, but I didn't expect it to be quite this boring and bland. Musical references don't make up for crap writing.
Bottom line: You'd better be an absolutely rabid ELO fan, and not so much a connoisseur of good storytelling. Ugh.… (more)