Helpful Score: 1
One of favorite books ever, though I only recently discovered it. A post-apocalyptic England, more than 2,000 years after the "1 Big 1," when the world is no more advanced than a second Iron Age and written English has changed considerably, become more phonetic and simpler. The characters are outstanding, the world is completely believable, the language is addictive and delightful, and any intelligent reader willing to put a little effort into understanding the many layers of this telling and the nuances of the book's language will be amply rewarded. I gave this book one committed read, and it is now obsessing me.
I reeelie dizliked this buk. Eet wuz ecstreemlee dizapoynting.
It is written completely in phonetic language. I couldn't get into the plot because the language was so distracting. I suffered through 70 pages and the story was just going nowhere.
It is written completely in phonetic language. I couldn't get into the plot because the language was so distracting. I suffered through 70 pages and the story was just going nowhere.
I enjoyed Alas Babylon very much, years ago, and the post-apocalyptic setting of this book looked interesting. It appealed to me so much that I suppressed my irritation with the weird spelling of practically every word in the account. After all, the narrator was supposed to be writing in a society that had lost most of what it used to know, and in fact, not many people in it could write at all.
However, before much of anything at all had happened, story-wise, the struggle of trying to figure out the presumed pronunciations of so many words (a necessary preliminary to understanding them) became not worth the effort, so I gave up in the middle.
There is no doubt that this is a very original book--made all the more so by those weird spellings--but I wish the author had considered some literary ruse that would allow him to abandon these spellings after a few pages and go back to more or less the modern ones. He could still have kept his wording, which was also unusual and the book would have been, for me, readable.
English spelling has many inconsistencies, but this book has reinforced my belief in the value of not switching to phonetic spellings. Inconsistent or not, the spellings that we now have, more or less standardized, allow us to read and take in the meaning without bothering to figure out how to pronounce every word. They work in much the way that Chinese characters do.
Riddley Walker had me pausing over and over again because I couldn't even get used to the way it spelled common contractions such as the one for "we will," and there were other less common words, for which knowing how they were meant to be pronounced still left me with no clue as to their meaning. With this latter type of word, one is simply left wondering whether it is really an English word that should be recognizable, or if it is some new word supposed to have been coined since the disaster that practically destroyed all civilization.
I feel a little bit sorry that I will never know whether or not the book's story line is truly original and interesting, unless I someday read comments on it written by a more patient soul. I can live with that.
However, before much of anything at all had happened, story-wise, the struggle of trying to figure out the presumed pronunciations of so many words (a necessary preliminary to understanding them) became not worth the effort, so I gave up in the middle.
There is no doubt that this is a very original book--made all the more so by those weird spellings--but I wish the author had considered some literary ruse that would allow him to abandon these spellings after a few pages and go back to more or less the modern ones. He could still have kept his wording, which was also unusual and the book would have been, for me, readable.
English spelling has many inconsistencies, but this book has reinforced my belief in the value of not switching to phonetic spellings. Inconsistent or not, the spellings that we now have, more or less standardized, allow us to read and take in the meaning without bothering to figure out how to pronounce every word. They work in much the way that Chinese characters do.
Riddley Walker had me pausing over and over again because I couldn't even get used to the way it spelled common contractions such as the one for "we will," and there were other less common words, for which knowing how they were meant to be pronounced still left me with no clue as to their meaning. With this latter type of word, one is simply left wondering whether it is really an English word that should be recognizable, or if it is some new word supposed to have been coined since the disaster that practically destroyed all civilization.
I feel a little bit sorry that I will never know whether or not the book's story line is truly original and interesting, unless I someday read comments on it written by a more patient soul. I can live with that.
I enjoyed Alas Babylon very much, years ago, and the post-apocalyptic setting of this book looked interesting. It appealed to me so much that I suppressed my irritation with the weird spelling of practically every word in the account. After all, the narrator was supposed to be writing in a society that had lost most of what it used to know, and in fact, not many people in it could write at all.
However, before much of anything at all had happened, story-wise, the struggle of trying to figure out the presumed pronunciations of so many words (a necessary preliminary to understanding them) became not worth the effort, so I gave up in the middle.
There is no doubt that this is a very original book--made all the more so by those weird spellings--but I wish the author had considered some literary ruse that would allow him to abandon these spellings after a few pages and go back to more or less the modern ones. He could still have kept his wording, which was also unusual and the book would have been, for me, readable.
English spelling has many inconsistencies, but this book has reinforced my belief in their value. They allow us to read and take in the meaning without bothering to figure out how to pronounce every word before we can understand a sentence. Riddley Walker had me pausing over and over again because I couldn't even get used to the way it spelled common contractions such as the one for "we will," and there were other less common words, for which knowing how they were meant to be pronounced still left me with no clue as to their meaning. With this latter type of word, one is simply left wondering whether it is really an English word that should be recognizable, or if it is some new word that has arisen since the disaster that practically destroyed all civilization.
I feel a little bit sorry that I will never know whether or not the book's story line is truly original and interesting, unless I someday read comments on it written by a more patient soul.
However, before much of anything at all had happened, story-wise, the struggle of trying to figure out the presumed pronunciations of so many words (a necessary preliminary to understanding them) became not worth the effort, so I gave up in the middle.
There is no doubt that this is a very original book--made all the more so by those weird spellings--but I wish the author had considered some literary ruse that would allow him to abandon these spellings after a few pages and go back to more or less the modern ones. He could still have kept his wording, which was also unusual and the book would have been, for me, readable.
English spelling has many inconsistencies, but this book has reinforced my belief in their value. They allow us to read and take in the meaning without bothering to figure out how to pronounce every word before we can understand a sentence. Riddley Walker had me pausing over and over again because I couldn't even get used to the way it spelled common contractions such as the one for "we will," and there were other less common words, for which knowing how they were meant to be pronounced still left me with no clue as to their meaning. With this latter type of word, one is simply left wondering whether it is really an English word that should be recognizable, or if it is some new word that has arisen since the disaster that practically destroyed all civilization.
I feel a little bit sorry that I will never know whether or not the book's story line is truly original and interesting, unless I someday read comments on it written by a more patient soul.
This book is deliberately difficult to read, written in the "future" orthography of a post-apocalyptic, largely illiterate society. At first, I enjoyed the puzzle of sorting out the meanings, and needing to focus on the words made me pay more attention. The book is sprinkled with clues as to the nature of the apocalypse, largely as a part of the corrupted and misunderstood religion they follow, and it was fun to try to figure out what had happened and how that influenced the resulting society.
HOWEVER, about halfway through, the book loses track of the already-weak plot. Most of the second half of the book is devoted to the narrator spouting pseudo-religious epiphanies that sound like the most stoned person you've ever met (the heart of the wood is the heart of the stone, and the one big one wants to become two... wow...). In the first half of the book, the narrator was acting in a lot of ways that didn't make sense, largely involving sudden urges to travel to different towns, despite the extreme danger of doing so. In the second half, even the pretense of self-motivation is lost, and the character appears to be following some pre-ordained path, but the reason for these compulsions or the goal which they are directed toward is never shown. The big reveal doesn't actually affect any of the action at all.
I get the feeling that there was an intent to this book that simply didn't come through, i.e. Riddley is symbolically recreating the events of some other epic story, but as it stands, I found the difficult reading to be the most interesting part of the book.
HOWEVER, about halfway through, the book loses track of the already-weak plot. Most of the second half of the book is devoted to the narrator spouting pseudo-religious epiphanies that sound like the most stoned person you've ever met (the heart of the wood is the heart of the stone, and the one big one wants to become two... wow...). In the first half of the book, the narrator was acting in a lot of ways that didn't make sense, largely involving sudden urges to travel to different towns, despite the extreme danger of doing so. In the second half, even the pretense of self-motivation is lost, and the character appears to be following some pre-ordained path, but the reason for these compulsions or the goal which they are directed toward is never shown. The big reveal doesn't actually affect any of the action at all.
I get the feeling that there was an intent to this book that simply didn't come through, i.e. Riddley is symbolically recreating the events of some other epic story, but as it stands, I found the difficult reading to be the most interesting part of the book.
I enjoyed Alas Babylon very much, years ago, and the post-apocalyptic setting of this book looked interesting. It appealed to me so much that I suppressed my irritation with the weird spelling of practically every word in the account. After all, the narrator was supposed to be writing in a society that had lost most of what it used to know, and in fact, not many people in it could write at all.
However, before much of anything at all had happened, story-wise, the struggle of trying to figure out the presumed pronunciations of so many words (a necessary preliminary to understanding them) became not worth the effort, so I gave up in the middle.
There is no doubt that this is a very original book--made all the more so by those weird spellings--but I wish the author had considered some literary ruse that would allow him to abandon these spellings after a few pages and go back to more or less the modern ones. He could still have kept his wording, which was also unusual and the book would have been, for me, readable.
English spelling has many inconsistencies, but this book has reinforced my belief in the value of not switching to phonetic spellings. Inconsistent or not, the spellings that we now have, more or less standardized, allow us to read and take in the meaning without bothering to figure out how to pronounce every word. They work in much the way that Chinese characters do.
Riddley Walker had me pausing over and over again because I couldn't even get used to the way it spelled common contractions such as the one for "we will," and there were other less common words, for which knowing how they were meant to be pronounced still left me with no clue as to their meaning. With this latter type of word, one is simply left wondering whether it is really an English word that should be recognizable, or if it is some new word supposed to have been coined since the disaster that practically destroyed all civilization.
I feel a little bit sorry that I will never know whether or not the book's story line is truly original and interesting, unless I someday read comments on it written by a more patient soul. I can live with that.
However, before much of anything at all had happened, story-wise, the struggle of trying to figure out the presumed pronunciations of so many words (a necessary preliminary to understanding them) became not worth the effort, so I gave up in the middle.
There is no doubt that this is a very original book--made all the more so by those weird spellings--but I wish the author had considered some literary ruse that would allow him to abandon these spellings after a few pages and go back to more or less the modern ones. He could still have kept his wording, which was also unusual and the book would have been, for me, readable.
English spelling has many inconsistencies, but this book has reinforced my belief in the value of not switching to phonetic spellings. Inconsistent or not, the spellings that we now have, more or less standardized, allow us to read and take in the meaning without bothering to figure out how to pronounce every word. They work in much the way that Chinese characters do.
Riddley Walker had me pausing over and over again because I couldn't even get used to the way it spelled common contractions such as the one for "we will," and there were other less common words, for which knowing how they were meant to be pronounced still left me with no clue as to their meaning. With this latter type of word, one is simply left wondering whether it is really an English word that should be recognizable, or if it is some new word supposed to have been coined since the disaster that practically destroyed all civilization.
I feel a little bit sorry that I will never know whether or not the book's story line is truly original and interesting, unless I someday read comments on it written by a more patient soul. I can live with that.
I enjoyed Alas Babylon very much, years ago, and the post-apocalyptic setting of this book looked interesting. It appealed to me so much that I suppressed my irritation with the weird spelling of practically every word in the account. After all, the narrator was supposed to be writing in a society that had lost most of what it used to know, and in fact, not many people in it could write at all.
However, before much of anything at all had happened, story-wise, the struggle of trying to figure out the presumed pronunciations of so many words (a necessary preliminary to understanding them) became not worth the effort, so I gave up in the middle.
There is no doubt that this is a very original book--made all the more so by those weird spellings--but I wish the author had considered some literary ruse that would allow him to abandon these spellings after a few pages and go back to more or less the modern ones. He could still have kept his wording, which was also unusual and the book would have been, for me, readable.
English spelling has many inconsistencies, but this book has reinforced my belief in the value of not switching to phonetic spellings. Inconsistent or not, the spellings that we now have, more or less standardized, allow us to read and take in the meaning without bothering to figure out how to pronounce every word. They work in much the way that Chinese characters do.
Riddley Walker had me pausing over and over again because I couldn't even get used to the way it spelled common contractions such as the one for "we will," and there were other less common words, for which knowing how they were meant to be pronounced still left me with no clue as to their meaning. With this latter type of word, one is simply left wondering whether it is really an English word that should be recognizable, or if it is some new word supposed to have been coined since the disaster that practically destroyed all civilization.
I feel a little bit sorry that I will never know whether or not the book's story line is truly original and interesting, unless I someday read comments on it written by a more patient soul. I can live with that.
However, before much of anything at all had happened, story-wise, the struggle of trying to figure out the presumed pronunciations of so many words (a necessary preliminary to understanding them) became not worth the effort, so I gave up in the middle.
There is no doubt that this is a very original book--made all the more so by those weird spellings--but I wish the author had considered some literary ruse that would allow him to abandon these spellings after a few pages and go back to more or less the modern ones. He could still have kept his wording, which was also unusual and the book would have been, for me, readable.
English spelling has many inconsistencies, but this book has reinforced my belief in the value of not switching to phonetic spellings. Inconsistent or not, the spellings that we now have, more or less standardized, allow us to read and take in the meaning without bothering to figure out how to pronounce every word. They work in much the way that Chinese characters do.
Riddley Walker had me pausing over and over again because I couldn't even get used to the way it spelled common contractions such as the one for "we will," and there were other less common words, for which knowing how they were meant to be pronounced still left me with no clue as to their meaning. With this latter type of word, one is simply left wondering whether it is really an English word that should be recognizable, or if it is some new word supposed to have been coined since the disaster that practically destroyed all civilization.
I feel a little bit sorry that I will never know whether or not the book's story line is truly original and interesting, unless I someday read comments on it written by a more patient soul. I can live with that.
Simply could not read it. Gave me a headache just trying to decipher the grammar and language. Plus it was written by a Brit, which didn't help either. I really tried since it's supposed to be a 'classic', but I can't stand Shakespeare either and it was ten-times as hard to read.
