OnlineBookClub.org

Salma_asa wrote: ↑05 Jul 2020, 11:59 It's a fiction. It is up to one's range of imagination if you want to believe or not. But the author must give enough elements to picture everything. I think there wasn't enough.

Although I have not read the book, all the reviews I read lead me to believe that you are right.

Zona is believable to me. I am a student of science and the description and geography provided by Fred was filled by my knowledge on Tundra and Arctic zones.

I however felt like the beginning chapters were so slow and I anticipated conflict for so long. I am yet to finish the book but I hope the plot won't drag for far too long. I need to know why the zone is forbidden.

The writer did not paint the picture about why the land is forbidden. He should have include maps, drawings, and vivid illustrations or descriptions that make the place real.

Salma_asa wrote: ↑05 Jul 2020, 11:59 It's a fiction. It is up to one's range of imagination if you want to believe or not. But the author must give enough elements to picture everything. I think there wasn't enough.

I agree with you, it is up to the character to believe that whatever geographical area that is described is real. However if the author managed create a land that shares similarities with a part on Earth it would have been more believable.

I feel like the author did a good job of describing Zona. My problem is that some of the questions brought up in Part 1 weren’t adequately answered (why did Randall have so much money hidden around his apartment? Who broke into Randall’s apartment? Why were so many hotel maids sneaking around Grant’s room?) and the science fiction elements weren’t introduced until Part 2. The only mention I can remember in Part 1 is the picture of the giant polar bear skin, and then Max explaining the large wolves at the dinner party.

I feel like parts 1 and 2 were a little disconnected. Part 1 was a suspenseful missing-person/murder mystery story. Part 2 was sci-fi and they felt almost like different stories.

I think some will find it believable while others might not. I fall in the later category.

No. The book was filled with too many wild imaginations and too little specific description.

I haven't read the book, though. But I think the sparse details give room for the mind to make of the location what it may.

The story is not believable because it's more of imaginations and a lot of questions are left unanswered while reading.

It's just in the door of believable. However, I think the author needed to keep the description to a minimum in order for the location to be truly forbidden

"Zona: The Forbidden Land" by Fred G. Baker - like Captain Scotts expedition to the Pole. We had a film about that in 1955 when I was at school. So I can easily imagine Zona.

Since the book is a work of fiction, I think the author was giving an imaginary description of Zona to suit its write-up. A vivid description by the author would have been more engaging for the readers.

Elvis Best wrote: ↑07 Jul 2020, 22:28 Well, I think the author did just enough with the description of Zona. I loved how I had to use my imagination to fill in the rest of the gap, as it gave me some possession over the place. Too information or detail would have defeated the story the author wanted to tell. After all, it was the expedition that hooked me in.

I agree with you! When there is a place that is fantastical and otherworldly, I think it best to let us use our imagination to create it. Because it was supernatural and unknown, each character probably perceived it in a different way and I liked that the author let us do that as well.

I found Zona to be believable and the animal and plant life plausible.
I too would have liked more information as to why the area was forbidden.

I found Zona to be a believable location through the explanation given later in the book. Not that I am a geologist, but I found that the given reasoning made enough sense to be plausible.
I took that it was forbidden because of all the stories that surrounded it. Fear will keep most away.
I also thought that it took a while to get to the fantasy part of the story, my favorite, but the beginning had a lot going on. Enough to keep me interested until the strange, sci-fi happenings began.