Official Review: Snapshot by Dale Cozort
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tularula789
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Official Review: Snapshot by Dale Cozort
[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Snapshot" by Dale Cozort.]
2 out of 4 stars
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Snapshot by Dale Cozort is a sci-fi novel touching upon subjects such as revenge, forgiveness, family, politics, human nature, greed, and redemption. It follows the story of Middle East Analyst, Greg Dunne, as he's caught up in a Snapshot of North America in 2014. Snapshots are basically replicas of continents from different periods of time, created by a mysterious group of entities labeled Tourists.
When this happens, Greg is cut off from his family in Hawaii (which isn't included in the Snapshot), including his daughter and wife- who is going through labor at the time. Stuck with the black sheep of the family and whisked away by a strange Dr. and his companions, Greg is forced to face the aftermath of an old massacre and a heated war for an ancient Madagascar Snapshot that holds irrefutable power over dozens of others.
While this is going on, he's struggling to remain faithful to the family he may never see again while trying desperately to make it back to the original Earth. Just mix in the added bonus of the mentally unstable Major Stiener who has more than a few horrifying secrets buried in her mind and the tough Neil McLaury who must face the consequences of his actions as the past begins to catch up with him, Greg Dunne is in for one hell of a ride.
Snapshot's best feature was definitely either the plot or the characters. The plot was filled with delightfully unexpected plot twists and a nice satisfying ending that tied up most things but still left room for a possible sequel. The adventure was thrilling at times and touching at others and thoroughly left me feeling in awe of the author. It didn't have too much action and wasn't too sluggish though it was pretty easy to put it down at times.
As for the characters, each one was diverse, actually had a life outside of the storyline and had hidden layers that spelled out wonderfully complex personalities. My favorite was personally Major Stiener- she was just that awesome- but she was not what I expected. She's supposed to be almost driven mad, but really, she just has hallucinations once or twice. That was kind of a letdown, but other than that, I have no complaints.
However, the setting is another story. I felt that this book had a lot of potential with the setting, but it just fell flat. We get vague information about the Tourists when we get any, and then there's nothing else. We have no idea who they are, what they do other than create replicas of continents for no confirmed reason and even how they create Snapshots. Cozort whips up a world with tons of potential and then doesn't go through with it. In science fiction and fantasy, I feel like world building is even more important, but the world is poorly explained and definitely not properly developed.
And for the style of writing, there were just too many errors. Typos, misplaced commas, and stray letters popped up at least once in each chapter, and while they didn't detract from the flow of the story too much, they were very irritating. The character's thoughts were kind of off balance, with their thoughts sometimes seeming random. They weren't actually italicized until partway through the book, were hard to discern from the normal text and were often missing punctuation at the beginning.
The author exercised telling more than showing, had somewhat repetitive writing and at the end of paragraphs, sometimes there were little sentences that jarred the flow of the story like the author had forgotten to add something and had just stuck it in the back instead of smoothly working it in. There were contradicting descriptions at times, (e.g., Holes stitched across the cabin) and some sentences dragged on for way too long, missing key components and going over plenty of opportunities to end the sentence. E.g., She meandered over, blocked the chair arm so he couldn't swivel, and stepped behind the chair, putting both hands on its back and forcing it further down, then pushed the chair forward, arms against the desk, leaving the colonel nearly prone, with her above and behind him.
I rate this book 2 out of 4 stars. The plot is good, and the characters are most certainly great, but the writing style and the setting problems are too big for me to ignore and give it a 3. It doesn't deserve a 1 though, because of the plot and the characters, so I gave it a 2.
Overall, I found this to be a nice easy read that had it's shares of pros and cons. Unfortunately, it's cons outweighed the pros, but this still had lots of potential. I would recommend this for those who can overlook all the technicalities and setting and value the plot and characters more than the actual writing itself.
******
Snapshot
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
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2 out of 4 stars
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Snapshot by Dale Cozort is a sci-fi novel touching upon subjects such as revenge, forgiveness, family, politics, human nature, greed, and redemption. It follows the story of Middle East Analyst, Greg Dunne, as he's caught up in a Snapshot of North America in 2014. Snapshots are basically replicas of continents from different periods of time, created by a mysterious group of entities labeled Tourists.
When this happens, Greg is cut off from his family in Hawaii (which isn't included in the Snapshot), including his daughter and wife- who is going through labor at the time. Stuck with the black sheep of the family and whisked away by a strange Dr. and his companions, Greg is forced to face the aftermath of an old massacre and a heated war for an ancient Madagascar Snapshot that holds irrefutable power over dozens of others.
While this is going on, he's struggling to remain faithful to the family he may never see again while trying desperately to make it back to the original Earth. Just mix in the added bonus of the mentally unstable Major Stiener who has more than a few horrifying secrets buried in her mind and the tough Neil McLaury who must face the consequences of his actions as the past begins to catch up with him, Greg Dunne is in for one hell of a ride.
Snapshot's best feature was definitely either the plot or the characters. The plot was filled with delightfully unexpected plot twists and a nice satisfying ending that tied up most things but still left room for a possible sequel. The adventure was thrilling at times and touching at others and thoroughly left me feeling in awe of the author. It didn't have too much action and wasn't too sluggish though it was pretty easy to put it down at times.
As for the characters, each one was diverse, actually had a life outside of the storyline and had hidden layers that spelled out wonderfully complex personalities. My favorite was personally Major Stiener- she was just that awesome- but she was not what I expected. She's supposed to be almost driven mad, but really, she just has hallucinations once or twice. That was kind of a letdown, but other than that, I have no complaints.
However, the setting is another story. I felt that this book had a lot of potential with the setting, but it just fell flat. We get vague information about the Tourists when we get any, and then there's nothing else. We have no idea who they are, what they do other than create replicas of continents for no confirmed reason and even how they create Snapshots. Cozort whips up a world with tons of potential and then doesn't go through with it. In science fiction and fantasy, I feel like world building is even more important, but the world is poorly explained and definitely not properly developed.
And for the style of writing, there were just too many errors. Typos, misplaced commas, and stray letters popped up at least once in each chapter, and while they didn't detract from the flow of the story too much, they were very irritating. The character's thoughts were kind of off balance, with their thoughts sometimes seeming random. They weren't actually italicized until partway through the book, were hard to discern from the normal text and were often missing punctuation at the beginning.
The author exercised telling more than showing, had somewhat repetitive writing and at the end of paragraphs, sometimes there were little sentences that jarred the flow of the story like the author had forgotten to add something and had just stuck it in the back instead of smoothly working it in. There were contradicting descriptions at times, (e.g., Holes stitched across the cabin) and some sentences dragged on for way too long, missing key components and going over plenty of opportunities to end the sentence. E.g., She meandered over, blocked the chair arm so he couldn't swivel, and stepped behind the chair, putting both hands on its back and forcing it further down, then pushed the chair forward, arms against the desk, leaving the colonel nearly prone, with her above and behind him.
I rate this book 2 out of 4 stars. The plot is good, and the characters are most certainly great, but the writing style and the setting problems are too big for me to ignore and give it a 3. It doesn't deserve a 1 though, because of the plot and the characters, so I gave it a 2.
Overall, I found this to be a nice easy read that had it's shares of pros and cons. Unfortunately, it's cons outweighed the pros, but this still had lots of potential. I would recommend this for those who can overlook all the technicalities and setting and value the plot and characters more than the actual writing itself.
******
Snapshot
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
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Latest Review: "Survive the Night" by Benjamin Card
