Peter M. Last

RANTS AND RAMBLES

• • I want to make clear that my job when I review books is to discuss both strengths and weaknesses of the books in question. It seems that weaknesses and inconsistencies are the easiest to discuss and pick apart and so tend to dominate my discussion. Nevertheless, any particular rant (and, yes, they can be long-winded) does not necessarily have special bearing on my overall opinion. Please refer to my overall star rating for my unified opinion of the book as a whole.
  • Green reopens the story of Thomas Hunter thirty-six years after the events of White…or does it begin the whole thing? Originally promoted as book 0 of the saga, it has subsequently been changed to book 4/book 0, a mind bender to be certain. I cannot image how a novel can be both the first and last book in a series, so let’s examine each instance separately. It functions best as the end of the series, but even in this instance it is flawed. It appears to draw on events from several spinoff series and solo books making it less book four of a self-contained series and more the culmination of a network of related books. (I say that it appears to draw on content from the other books because I have only read some of them and know content from those volumes bleeds into Green. I cannot speak for the other books, but there were definitely references which I did not get). This would be fine had the book been promoted appropriately, but as the fourth volume in a series it fails because there is no way to understand it by only reading the first three. If Green is considered to be the first book of the series, as it was originally marketed, the problems only intensify. Reading the original three books (plus several others) is required for a fundamental understanding of the story and world so there is absolutely no way this book could appropriately function as the first of the series.
  • Ted manhandles the characters, stripping away their relatability and realism, all at the hands of his allegory. The allegory of the series was obvious from the beginning, but Ted married it to the story competently for the first three books. In this volume, however, characters say and do things which make no sense in context or are against their established personalities. It is obvious these actions and words exist simply to parallel Biblical and religious truths. I appreciate allegory, but when it does not make sense on a fundamental level involving the characters, it becomes stilted and corny.
  • Minor Spoilers: For some reason, Ted thought it would be a good idea to introduce vampires as villains in this series. It was not a good idea, was pitifully executed, and I cannot fathom the editor who did not tell him that this was probably the worst idea of his entire writing career.
  • Spoilers: Ridiculous contrivances are frequently used as plot devices and make the book feel fragmented and not cohesive. A good example is the books of the histories which have always been purported to be a significant plot device across the series (their actual importance is questionable because they rarely show up; much more is told to the reader about their power than is ever explored in the series). In Green, a host of new powers are attributed to them. Apparently if four of the books are collected, they can be used to time-travel, not a power alluded to by the previous three novels. Not surprisingly this very thing happens within about twenty pages making this a sloppy plot device to progress the story. Apparently collecting all seven of the books would allow a person to re-write the rules of the books which sounds like a lazy attempt to breathe new life into a stagnant series, but this fact is never mentioned again.
  • Spoilers: Saving the best for last, we will now tackle the ending of the book. There are actually two endings to the book, the original one (for book 0) and one written later which is supposed to turn Green into book 4. This second ending is better solely because it wraps up the series. It is not a good conclusion and feels tacked on, probably because it was contrived solely for readers who did not like the original ending. Nevertheless, it is at least consistent with the feel of the rest of the novel and does not leave loose threads in a series already closed a book earlier. The original ending, while a valiant attempt at a unique idea, ends up being a travesty, one last sucker punch to the original trilogy. Providing a second meaning to the name “The Circle” it sends Thomas back to the events of the first book. In fact, the last chapter of Green is the same as the first chapter of Black. This implies one of two things. First, that the series is an infinite time loop, perhaps the least satisfying ending to a series and a concept which has been overused. Or two, Green actually is book 0 and the beginning of the series. This creates the already identified problems of why it requires the original three books, and others, to make sense. Either way, the ending of the book is about as satisfying as the beginning and middle. Which is to say it is a mess.