Review of Logistics. A Christmas Story
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David Northcutt
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Review of Logistics. A Christmas Story
[Following is a volunteer review of "Logistics. A Christmas Story" by Chris Coppel.]
Logistics - A Christmas Story by Chris Coppel, concerns Holly Hillman, thrice-orphaned and raised in difficult circumstances, who overcomes these personal challenges to become CEO of Marshall Whiteman Logistics, a Manhattan-based company which oversees the transport of 25% of all the world’s manufactured goods. She is a modern Scrooge, motivated by the pursuit of money and power and more than willing to achieve both by exploiting workers and limiting her personal relationships. Her life changes for the better when she encounters a mythic character and learns that all the Christmas characters and events as told in the 1823 poem, Twas the Night Before Christmas are real.
Coppel inventively juxtaposes two seemingly unrelated concepts in the title of Logistics but this promise of a creative and entertaining story fails due to multiple flaws in Coppel’s narrative style and lack of character development. The reader is introduced to a magical dimension and offered pseudoscientific origin stories for Santa Claus, flying reindeer and elves. But technobabble is not a good substitute for magic in a story like this and the explanations given to make magical events seem “real” are so ridiculous they would make a sixth-grader laugh. Holly’s expertise in logistics is clumsily used to bring the story to a quick, overly simplistic resolution.
Coppel does not believably describe any of his characters’ dialog or activities. His heroine is an adult woman who heads a globe-spanning company but who talks and acts like a child. She stamps her foot and sticks out her tongue when angry and makes “hic” noises when inebriated. We know Holly only loves power, not because we observe her actions but because the author literally tells us, in third party narrative voice. This flat, declaratory writing style runs throughout the book and might work if used in a traditional fairy tale. Unfortunately, this doesn’t seem to be a deliberate style choice, just poor writing. There are few physical descriptions of any of the characters. By the end of the book, the reader still won’t have much idea what any of the characters look like, including Holly. We never really care what happens with Holly because she never seems like a real person. Transitions between scenes are abrupt and characters appear with no real background provided.
Logistics contains capitalization and punctuation errors and many factual errors which simple internet searches could have corrected. Coppel scatters brand names throughout (iPad, Kaluha, Starbucks) in a lazy attempt at realism, but these are only further distractions for the reader. His prose is so turgid, clumsy and clichéd that it appears no editor reviewed this book prior to publication. If in fact there was an editor involved, he or she should immediately apologize and seek work elsewhere.
For these reasons and many others too numerous to detail, I’m rating this book 1 out 4 stars. The only audience for this book that I can imagine would be attendees of creative writing classes in need of a work to critique.
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Logistics. A Christmas Story
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Logistics - A Christmas Story by Chris Coppel, concerns Holly Hillman, thrice-orphaned and raised in difficult circumstances, who overcomes these personal challenges to become CEO of Marshall Whiteman Logistics, a Manhattan-based company which oversees the transport of 25% of all the world’s manufactured goods. She is a modern Scrooge, motivated by the pursuit of money and power and more than willing to achieve both by exploiting workers and limiting her personal relationships. Her life changes for the better when she encounters a mythic character and learns that all the Christmas characters and events as told in the 1823 poem, Twas the Night Before Christmas are real.
Coppel inventively juxtaposes two seemingly unrelated concepts in the title of Logistics but this promise of a creative and entertaining story fails due to multiple flaws in Coppel’s narrative style and lack of character development. The reader is introduced to a magical dimension and offered pseudoscientific origin stories for Santa Claus, flying reindeer and elves. But technobabble is not a good substitute for magic in a story like this and the explanations given to make magical events seem “real” are so ridiculous they would make a sixth-grader laugh. Holly’s expertise in logistics is clumsily used to bring the story to a quick, overly simplistic resolution.
Coppel does not believably describe any of his characters’ dialog or activities. His heroine is an adult woman who heads a globe-spanning company but who talks and acts like a child. She stamps her foot and sticks out her tongue when angry and makes “hic” noises when inebriated. We know Holly only loves power, not because we observe her actions but because the author literally tells us, in third party narrative voice. This flat, declaratory writing style runs throughout the book and might work if used in a traditional fairy tale. Unfortunately, this doesn’t seem to be a deliberate style choice, just poor writing. There are few physical descriptions of any of the characters. By the end of the book, the reader still won’t have much idea what any of the characters look like, including Holly. We never really care what happens with Holly because she never seems like a real person. Transitions between scenes are abrupt and characters appear with no real background provided.
Logistics contains capitalization and punctuation errors and many factual errors which simple internet searches could have corrected. Coppel scatters brand names throughout (iPad, Kaluha, Starbucks) in a lazy attempt at realism, but these are only further distractions for the reader. His prose is so turgid, clumsy and clichéd that it appears no editor reviewed this book prior to publication. If in fact there was an editor involved, he or she should immediately apologize and seek work elsewhere.
For these reasons and many others too numerous to detail, I’m rating this book 1 out 4 stars. The only audience for this book that I can imagine would be attendees of creative writing classes in need of a work to critique.
******
Logistics. A Christmas Story
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Latest Review: Terms of Service by Craig W. Stanfill
