Emil Rivera Rivera itibaren Filiatra 243 00, Yunanistan
http://jam3an14.wordpress.com/2009/03...
"What I learned from this book".... well in a nutshell that not all modern books on sale in Waterstones are necessarily shit. I pretty much never read anything 'new' and featured in the Guardian arts section because (as if this latter were not enough) invariably they are actually utterly facile and only had attention paid to them because the author was a recent graduate of the CW course at UEA (more often than not middle-aged, female and lesbian. And ok yes I did find HOTEL WORLD a big disappointment, Ali Smith). I just think that modern writers don't tend to be very intelligent these days. Anyway, so I read THIS IS THE COUNTRY for work, fairly begrudgingly. And I really enjoyed it. It is one of those books where things are brought to you in a bit of a haze, like being on a waltzer in a heavy mist - cahracter interaction, conversations and feelings are described but rarely anything concrete is: therefore you feel as though you have been tagging along throughout the story holding on the character's sleeve but unseeing, as though pre-cataract op. Things are dream-like and yet despite this still utterly human; the characters are real and you somehow know that Jazz's earrings are the ones you get from Elizabeth Duke, and that their cheap electric doorbell has tiny cement splashes over it. So I would recommend this book to anyone who thinks modern publishing amounts to Lionel Shriver and that bloody endless burble of Alexander McCall Smith books. It's not going to rival the greats, and ok, one of the characters is called Jazz, but it does mean that I now occasionally go to Waterstones for something other than to buy birthday cards.
I really do like this series, but I hope that this is the last book. I think I have hit my limits on 18th century dragon riders. I liked this particular book maybe better than I liked the last one. This one is set in Australia whereas the other was set in Africa. However, I still wasn't as enthusiastic as I was in the beginning of the series when everything was in England and Scotland.
Cavan loved this book. I'd like to read it myself and remember to suggest it to my other kids Tommy and Sophia.