Adam's Empire

I enjoyed this book, although it is very different to what I normally read. I tend to go for literary fiction, whereas this is much more plot driven than I'm used to. To my mind, literary fiction uses form (structure, prose, characterisation) itself as a part of the creation. Plot driven novels don't place a great emphasis on form, but take those elements as given, set their characters in motion and describe the events as they unfold. The consequence of Adam's Empire being so focused on plot was that when it became slow or predictable, I quickly found I stopped enjoying it. Fortunately this only happened in book 3 and the second part of book 5, both of which I found rather predictable and thus somewhat tedious to read. Unfortunately, show more book 5 is the final book of the novel and so it didn't end on a high point for me.

The prose is mostly clear and describes the action well. Only very occasionally is it witty or lyrical, however. The greatest stylistic weakness is really the dialogue, which is often pretty heavy on exposition and often seems unrealistic or clunky. The characterisation is also rather weak, with most of the characters not developing much, and some of the characters' attributes seemingly evaporating as the story progresses. As a consequence, each of them - maybe apart from Adam himself - could be summed up by one word by the end of the story - mad, gullible, impulsive, etc.

I chose to take the problematic politics of the novel as reflective of the time in which it was set. It's certainly the case that women didn't have many choices open to them at that time other than manipulation, compromise or destitution, however many readers might have put the book dow non the basis that it is misogynistic, which would certainly be a fair response, I think. The treatment of Indigenous Australians is stronger, and the depiction of racism, while sometimes harrowing, didn't generally feel gratuitous or exploitative.

I can't seem myself picking up the sequel to this book, but I did enjoy the brief departure from my normal reading habits. show less

Adam's Empire