Scan barcode
A review by jubaju
Bzrk Apocalypse by Michael Grant
3.0
Everyone gets what was coming for them, we wrap up in a hurry, people die in gruesome ways. Weird happy ending. All the books in this series follow the same pattern, and I can’t give any of them more than 3 stars because of that.
Also, this author is extremely horny. A lot of he descriptions were overly sexual (even in situations that weren’t sexual in the slightest), and a lot of gratuitous sex scenes were peppered here and there, when they did nothing for the plot or general development.
In war, there are of course many horrors, and they can usually be categorised into main boxes (death, gore, madness, rape...), but Michael Grant took it too far. Burnovsky being aroused every time he thinks about shooting his daughter? Too far, too explicit, too descriptive, brought up too many times, as if it were something the author enjoyed writing about. We got shown how even the good guys did terrible things, questionable things, but some stuff only needs to be written about once, if done well. How many times will we read about a man jacking off to his daughter’s murder before we start the question the author’s motives? Burnovsky was wired to enjoy it, the readers were not. The author seemed to be, though. Grey morality is a fascinating thing to read about, humans making terrible decisions in war is something that needs to be discussed, but there needs to be a sense of condemnation coming from, if not the author himself, at least through the characters. In this case, it came across as a sexual thing, not psychological warfare, something to enjoy reading about.
The deaths of the main cast seemed pointless, thrown in for shock value, something for Sadie to be sad about and ruminate over after she’s settled down in the future and rebuilt her life. The romance seemed secondary, until it served the plot for it not to be. Everything was jumbled, minor things blown out of proportion to further development, important points pushed back when they became too much of a hindrance.
As usual, we got an info dump of science facts once new things were added to the plot, written as though explained to an illiterate child, and repeated over and over throughout the book. It made the world building exhausting, frustrating, and way too long winded.
I did enjoy Lear’s genius, her madness, the discussion over good and bad, how you can spiral from one side to the other, the descent into madness, putting on a facade to hide the crazy. She was a very good character to talk about morality, but she was only brought in in the last book, then dumped unceremoniously in favor of Sadie’s heartbreak. She was not built with the series, we weren’t given the chance to unmask her as the plot progressed in previous books, and the fact that she had 400 pages to be developed, descend into madness, then defeated made that plot feel like a rushed afterthought.
Overall, good writing, meh characters, and a study on sanity that felt superficial and immature.
Also, this author is extremely horny. A lot of he descriptions were overly sexual (even in situations that weren’t sexual in the slightest), and a lot of gratuitous sex scenes were peppered here and there, when they did nothing for the plot or general development.
In war, there are of course many horrors, and they can usually be categorised into main boxes (death, gore, madness, rape...), but Michael Grant took it too far. Burnovsky being aroused every time he thinks about shooting his daughter? Too far, too explicit, too descriptive, brought up too many times, as if it were something the author enjoyed writing about. We got shown how even the good guys did terrible things, questionable things, but some stuff only needs to be written about once, if done well. How many times will we read about a man jacking off to his daughter’s murder before we start the question the author’s motives? Burnovsky was wired to enjoy it, the readers were not. The author seemed to be, though. Grey morality is a fascinating thing to read about, humans making terrible decisions in war is something that needs to be discussed, but there needs to be a sense of condemnation coming from, if not the author himself, at least through the characters. In this case, it came across as a sexual thing, not psychological warfare, something to enjoy reading about.
The deaths of the main cast seemed pointless, thrown in for shock value, something for Sadie to be sad about and ruminate over after she’s settled down in the future and rebuilt her life. The romance seemed secondary, until it served the plot for it not to be. Everything was jumbled, minor things blown out of proportion to further development, important points pushed back when they became too much of a hindrance.
As usual, we got an info dump of science facts once new things were added to the plot, written as though explained to an illiterate child, and repeated over and over throughout the book. It made the world building exhausting, frustrating, and way too long winded.
I did enjoy Lear’s genius, her madness, the discussion over good and bad, how you can spiral from one side to the other, the descent into madness, putting on a facade to hide the crazy. She was a very good character to talk about morality, but she was only brought in in the last book, then dumped unceremoniously in favor of Sadie’s heartbreak. She was not built with the series, we weren’t given the chance to unmask her as the plot progressed in previous books, and the fact that she had 400 pages to be developed, descend into madness, then defeated made that plot feel like a rushed afterthought.
Overall, good writing, meh characters, and a study on sanity that felt superficial and immature.