ARA Review by Chaotic_Reading of Small Purple Cube
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Chaotic_Reading
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ARA Review by Chaotic_Reading of Small Purple Cube
[Following is an OnlineBookClub.org ARA Review of the book, Small Purple Cube.]
Small Purple Cube is about Lee Kane, who is teleported to a futuristic city in the past. While there he helps save a ship that belongs to a discriminated against race of alien people. Meanwhile, Max Lowery, as well as a good portion of the NYPD, try to track down a murderer.
Let me start by saying, I am not one for murder mysteries, but I do love a good sci-fi story. That being said, I figured I would give this book a shot. However, after reading the book, I’m a little nervous about writing this review. I did not enjoy the book at all, and found it difficult to get into, if I ever really did. I read it slowly compared to other books I have read, and I just felt bored the entire time.
I almost stopped reading it a few different times, the first time being on page 62 when Kane sleeps with a 17 year old prostitute. I didn’t care that she was an alien, or the reason Kane discovered The Orb, the entire encounter was unnecessary to the overall storyline of the book. One of the other things that frustrated me with the book was that every time Kane encountered a female — or any of the male characters do really — they are women with perky breasts and a pretty face. This was even said about Pasina, who is revealed to be a 15 year old teenager. There was even a scene where Kane began to fantasize about Pasina in a sexual manner. Thankfully the cube had other plans, and took him home. Despite this, all the male characters seem to have varied descriptions and backgrounds.
Besides the above, I just felt the storyline was weak, and all over the place. There were way too many points of view for a story this short, as well as a ton of inconsistencies throughout the book. One of the biggest ones I found was concerning the death of Lowery’s wife. She died 5 years ago (page 70), 3 years ago (page 117), then back to 5 years according to a bartender (page 119), and finally 2 years ago (page 177).
There were also a lot of grammatical mistakes (I know these happen) but they were numerous, and throughout the entire book consisting of not just simple grammar mistakes (a missing comma, or quotation marks) but words straight up missing, or the wrong word used multiple times. It made a hard book even harder to read.
Finally, there was a confusing historical timeline. At one point, it is revealed that the time in the past is Snowball Earth, then at another it’s 700,000 years ago, and finally right after Pangea split into smaller land masses. I understand liberties are taken when writing, but these, among many other things, brought me out of the story of the book, and made it hard to get back into it.
However, there were some things I did appreciate. The author used a vast array of different ethnicities and character backstories. The only really racist character was the villain of the story, and he was caught at the end of the book. Kane gets to go free, too, though I feel as if his life will be lack-luster from this point forward. Lastly, the color of the Sant aliens was unique and well described. Each was different in colorings, and reminded a bit of a huge school of multicolored fish.
2 out of 5 stars I understand some books are meant to leave you unsatisfied; this was one of them for me. I wouldn’t recommend this book unless there was a discussion about it beforehand.
***
View Small Purple Cube on Bookshelves
Small Purple Cube is about Lee Kane, who is teleported to a futuristic city in the past. While there he helps save a ship that belongs to a discriminated against race of alien people. Meanwhile, Max Lowery, as well as a good portion of the NYPD, try to track down a murderer.
Let me start by saying, I am not one for murder mysteries, but I do love a good sci-fi story. That being said, I figured I would give this book a shot. However, after reading the book, I’m a little nervous about writing this review. I did not enjoy the book at all, and found it difficult to get into, if I ever really did. I read it slowly compared to other books I have read, and I just felt bored the entire time.
I almost stopped reading it a few different times, the first time being on page 62 when Kane sleeps with a 17 year old prostitute. I didn’t care that she was an alien, or the reason Kane discovered The Orb, the entire encounter was unnecessary to the overall storyline of the book. One of the other things that frustrated me with the book was that every time Kane encountered a female — or any of the male characters do really — they are women with perky breasts and a pretty face. This was even said about Pasina, who is revealed to be a 15 year old teenager. There was even a scene where Kane began to fantasize about Pasina in a sexual manner. Thankfully the cube had other plans, and took him home. Despite this, all the male characters seem to have varied descriptions and backgrounds.
Besides the above, I just felt the storyline was weak, and all over the place. There were way too many points of view for a story this short, as well as a ton of inconsistencies throughout the book. One of the biggest ones I found was concerning the death of Lowery’s wife. She died 5 years ago (page 70), 3 years ago (page 117), then back to 5 years according to a bartender (page 119), and finally 2 years ago (page 177).
There were also a lot of grammatical mistakes (I know these happen) but they were numerous, and throughout the entire book consisting of not just simple grammar mistakes (a missing comma, or quotation marks) but words straight up missing, or the wrong word used multiple times. It made a hard book even harder to read.
Finally, there was a confusing historical timeline. At one point, it is revealed that the time in the past is Snowball Earth, then at another it’s 700,000 years ago, and finally right after Pangea split into smaller land masses. I understand liberties are taken when writing, but these, among many other things, brought me out of the story of the book, and made it hard to get back into it.
However, there were some things I did appreciate. The author used a vast array of different ethnicities and character backstories. The only really racist character was the villain of the story, and he was caught at the end of the book. Kane gets to go free, too, though I feel as if his life will be lack-luster from this point forward. Lastly, the color of the Sant aliens was unique and well described. Each was different in colorings, and reminded a bit of a huge school of multicolored fish.
2 out of 5 stars I understand some books are meant to leave you unsatisfied; this was one of them for me. I wouldn’t recommend this book unless there was a discussion about it beforehand.
***
View Small Purple Cube on Bookshelves
