Posted on Monday, December 21, 2009 9:05 PM
As I often enjoy post-apocalyptic SF (think Philip K. Dick’s Dr. Bloodmoney, or Kim Stanley Robinson’s The Wilde Shore), I was looking forward to reading David R. Palmer’s 1984 novel Emergence, often acclaimed as one of the best. Well, after about 10 pages I found myself skipping paragraphs, and at page 30 I threw the book across the room in disgust. It is utterly unreadable. Sorry, call me a cretin if you must.
I understand that the shorthand journal style of the novel is intended to highlight the genius of the protagonist (as explained by her on page 3), but it then directly loses all functionality and becomes merely an ugly, inelegant affront to literacy. I cannot believe that the genial highly evolved species supplanting human sapiens would be incapable of appreciating the beauty of language. It may have been a clever idea, but really it was a bad idea. Mr. Palmer’s editor ought to have intervened.
On top of this, what I’ve seen of the oh-so-witty precocious Heinleinesque brat did not encourage me at all. I’ve noticed that most reviewers stress the similarity to Heinlein, but unlike them I do not find that an advantage. However, Heinlein always used proper well formed sentences, even when sprouting his most offensive Neanderthal philosophy.
And about these raving 5-star reviews on Amazon: Isn’t it remarkable how many of the reviewers take care to specifically mention the sequel? I suspect a case of astroturfing.