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Redemption in Indigo
Jan. 26th, 2014 08:37 amI decided to give up on reading Redemption in Indigo. This modern fairy tale lost it's glitter for me around the middle. There's too many characters, almost zero conflict, and despite reviews that call it humorous, I wasn't really finding it so. The story starts out with the story of Ansige, a glutton whose wife has run home to her parents. These first chapters are lovely and rich. Ansige is a dolt of a man, and his wife, Paama, rescues him from his mishaps. Somewhere Ansige leaves after getting his head stuck and Paama comes into possession of a cooking spoon called the Chaos Stick that a trickster figure wants back. But this figure also wants to court Paama's sister by using some other guy's poetry and somehow minor tricksters are inhabiting the bodies of children and I dunno because I had reached chapter 18 and it wasn't the halfway point yet and it felt like very little had happened.
Redemption in Indigo is highly rated and has won at least one award, but it's main drawback is that the tale comes across as if it should be spoken, not written, and as such comes across as heavily padded. The strength of the first few chapters that are so rhythmic and conversational becomes a weakness as every detail is drawn out. It's true that the chapters are short (18-20 pages on my Kobo) but after Ansige leaves, each page tap became a struggle. It was not a quick read at all. Paama is a bland protagonist, her only qualities seem to be excellent cooking skills, kindness and imperviousness to the powers of chaos. There's just not enough to make me want to spend anymore time on it, unless I need a sleep aid :D The sad thing is that I can see how the author is using her background in physics to embellish a larger tale, but I can't get past the style to get there.
Redemption in Indigo is highly rated and has won at least one award, but it's main drawback is that the tale comes across as if it should be spoken, not written, and as such comes across as heavily padded. The strength of the first few chapters that are so rhythmic and conversational becomes a weakness as every detail is drawn out. It's true that the chapters are short (18-20 pages on my Kobo) but after Ansige leaves, each page tap became a struggle. It was not a quick read at all. Paama is a bland protagonist, her only qualities seem to be excellent cooking skills, kindness and imperviousness to the powers of chaos. There's just not enough to make me want to spend anymore time on it, unless I need a sleep aid :D The sad thing is that I can see how the author is using her background in physics to embellish a larger tale, but I can't get past the style to get there.
