Now I've read Will before, and to my surprise quite liked him. So when I found this at a garage sale I was pleased, a bit of light reading, something to pass the time away from the computer...
But it was disappointing. Very disappointing. Exactly what I had feared when I read his first book. Jocular, filled with the kind of banter that perpetually falls flat, almost as if it were trying too hard to be funny. Large themes handled with small characters and witless dialogue.
The premise is that an editor (Edwin de Valu) for a publishing house (Panderic) publishes a piece of rubbish called "What I learned on the Mountain", a self help book that will cure everything from obesity, smoking, self image, finances, etc, only this self help book works and the plot centers around the mayhem that ensues. There's potential here.
And I read it and I read it, hoping it would get better, a satire on the Self Help and New Age movement, the satirical observations only slimly veiled, (The "Chicken Broth" series, for example), the occasional stabs at insight all but damned, then, when realizing it wouldn't get better, at best peaking at "Mildly amusing, but I've started it now and had better finish...."
Examining the cover. Published by Penguin, he's come up in the world, a plain red-white striped cover, this from the back jacket:
"Light Blue for big ideas Green for crime Orange for fantastic fiction"
Fantastic in this instance obviously means "In no ways related to reality....' and is in no way is to be interpreted as a reflection on the quality.
The funny thing is, he can write. He can clearly express good ideas, there are good ideas in the book, but their development, the dialogue, the characters, all, well...
Never mind. Ironic in that while satirizing the publishing industry for publishing any drek provided it sells, the prose in this book sets forth to prove the point
Despite it's attractive cover I'd give it a single rotten banana peel. Don't slip up and buy it.