Review of Ark of the Apocalypse
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Review of Ark of the Apocalypse
[Following is a volunteer review of "Ark of the Apocalypse" by Tobin Marks.]
(b)A review of Ark of the Apocalypse by Andrew Atkinson
(i)Ark of the Apocalypse (/i)by Tobin Marks is a science fiction novel about the end of the world; it details the events leading up to the apocalypse and how the human race responds to an unstoppable crisis and the lengths they take to survive. Some of these steps involve a journey of discovery on a far distant planet, while others seek survival on a hostile planet Earth.
The book begins in the past, with the last years of Leon Trotsky. It’s an interesting starting point which acts as good hook, unfortunately the hook doesn’t last and it’s not long before the real problems begin.
In the first chapter one of the characters starts creating magic medallions, I was confused about this initially because there didn’t seem to be any reason for it; however the reasons for it do become clear at a later point in the story. The problem I had with these magic medallions was how easy it was for the character to create them, there were no failed attempts, he just immediately knew how to make them. This is a recurring problem throughout the novel, if some needs to create something new and unique they manage without any effort.
As the first few chapters drag on it becomes apparent there are serious problems with this novel. There are huge tine jumps that leave unanswered questions about the characters and what happened to them in the intervening years.
In fact the story really doesn’t get going properly until around chapter six, making the first five chapters unnecessary. By this point I was beginning to feel really downhearted about reading the rest of the novel. These doubts I had became deeper and didn’t fade until I had read all the way to the last chapter.
There are large chunks of the story that are nothing more than information dumps, I feel confident the author hasn’t heard the phrase “show, don’t tell”, because at least half of the novel is information dumping.
The other half of the novel is full of unrealistic characters who don’t act in any kind of human way. There wasn’t a single character in the novel I could identify with, they were all either top level politicians or genius scientists, there were no normal working class people to keep the story grounded.
One of the main families in the story had members with supernatural powers, on the surface this is absolutely fine, but the author spoiled these powers by making them something different whenever he spotted a plot hole that he didn’t know how to fix. Instead of coming up with a different scenario, he shoehorned in something that glossed over the problem.
(i)Ark of the Apocalypse (/i)seems to be two different novels, one of them is a dull political thriller and the other is a cliché ridden science fiction story, and Tobin Marks was unsure of which one he should be writing. The problem being that neither of them was interesting enough to stand as a story all on their own.
In fact the real science fiction doesn’t come into it until about halfway through the story, and even that feels like it’s been forced in with a hammer.
The humans build a colony on a new planet, only to discover how hostile it is. Again this is fine on the surface, however at one point there’s a huge information dump about their future for the next 1000 years, taking away all tension and mystery. Another example is one chapter gives the outcome of a future event, the next chapter tells that event in more detail, but because I already knew the outcome it made that chapter dull and unnecessary. I honestly believe the author had a specific word count in mind and wrote these unnecessary chapters just so he could hit that target.
There are characters who aren’t needed and do nothing to advance the plot. There’s no clear indication of a hero or a villain. There is nothing in this book that made me think I wanted to keep reading. I persevered hoping the effort would be rewarded with a sufficiently decent climax. I was disappointed, the book ends on nothing short of a whimper, there’s no climactic battle, no devastating event to overcome, it just ends without anything happening.
There is one positive though. The science behind the ship that takes humans survivors to another planet is believable; Tobin Marks has created his own version of interplanetary travel and made it work well.
Overall I would give this book a rating of 1/4 stars because it is far too slow and there is too much information dumping, I’m not sure if it would be possible to make it better to add more stars.
******
Ark of the Apocalypse
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
(b)A review of Ark of the Apocalypse by Andrew Atkinson
(i)Ark of the Apocalypse (/i)by Tobin Marks is a science fiction novel about the end of the world; it details the events leading up to the apocalypse and how the human race responds to an unstoppable crisis and the lengths they take to survive. Some of these steps involve a journey of discovery on a far distant planet, while others seek survival on a hostile planet Earth.
The book begins in the past, with the last years of Leon Trotsky. It’s an interesting starting point which acts as good hook, unfortunately the hook doesn’t last and it’s not long before the real problems begin.
In the first chapter one of the characters starts creating magic medallions, I was confused about this initially because there didn’t seem to be any reason for it; however the reasons for it do become clear at a later point in the story. The problem I had with these magic medallions was how easy it was for the character to create them, there were no failed attempts, he just immediately knew how to make them. This is a recurring problem throughout the novel, if some needs to create something new and unique they manage without any effort.
As the first few chapters drag on it becomes apparent there are serious problems with this novel. There are huge tine jumps that leave unanswered questions about the characters and what happened to them in the intervening years.
In fact the story really doesn’t get going properly until around chapter six, making the first five chapters unnecessary. By this point I was beginning to feel really downhearted about reading the rest of the novel. These doubts I had became deeper and didn’t fade until I had read all the way to the last chapter.
There are large chunks of the story that are nothing more than information dumps, I feel confident the author hasn’t heard the phrase “show, don’t tell”, because at least half of the novel is information dumping.
The other half of the novel is full of unrealistic characters who don’t act in any kind of human way. There wasn’t a single character in the novel I could identify with, they were all either top level politicians or genius scientists, there were no normal working class people to keep the story grounded.
One of the main families in the story had members with supernatural powers, on the surface this is absolutely fine, but the author spoiled these powers by making them something different whenever he spotted a plot hole that he didn’t know how to fix. Instead of coming up with a different scenario, he shoehorned in something that glossed over the problem.
(i)Ark of the Apocalypse (/i)seems to be two different novels, one of them is a dull political thriller and the other is a cliché ridden science fiction story, and Tobin Marks was unsure of which one he should be writing. The problem being that neither of them was interesting enough to stand as a story all on their own.
In fact the real science fiction doesn’t come into it until about halfway through the story, and even that feels like it’s been forced in with a hammer.
The humans build a colony on a new planet, only to discover how hostile it is. Again this is fine on the surface, however at one point there’s a huge information dump about their future for the next 1000 years, taking away all tension and mystery. Another example is one chapter gives the outcome of a future event, the next chapter tells that event in more detail, but because I already knew the outcome it made that chapter dull and unnecessary. I honestly believe the author had a specific word count in mind and wrote these unnecessary chapters just so he could hit that target.
There are characters who aren’t needed and do nothing to advance the plot. There’s no clear indication of a hero or a villain. There is nothing in this book that made me think I wanted to keep reading. I persevered hoping the effort would be rewarded with a sufficiently decent climax. I was disappointed, the book ends on nothing short of a whimper, there’s no climactic battle, no devastating event to overcome, it just ends without anything happening.
There is one positive though. The science behind the ship that takes humans survivors to another planet is believable; Tobin Marks has created his own version of interplanetary travel and made it work well.
Overall I would give this book a rating of 1/4 stars because it is far too slow and there is too much information dumping, I’m not sure if it would be possible to make it better to add more stars.
******
Ark of the Apocalypse
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Latest Review: Mirrored Worlds by Tayma Tameem
