Robert Jackson Bennett

When the key starts talking, I hear a stand-up comedian. Something in between Eddie Murphy and the crustacean in that Disney movie with the Ariel story minus the death and sadness. Keeping in mind that the key in question is an ancient sentient artifact, and that the world in which it exist is a mix between Renaissance Venice and Ayn Rand's idea of heaven with magic, I hope you'll forgive me for putting the book down, kinda forever (no, I am not honest here. If I find a hardcover copy for free, I may use it to prop my tablet.)
I should have seen it coming. The walled, guarded waterfront from where nobody could escape short of a daring, dangerous, ingenious master plan going perfectly... Oh look she threw a magic version of a bomb in the yard and, of course, all the guards including their cunning, famous boss run to the explosion, leaving the entrance, well, unguarded. After the boss himself had heard something suspect in the SAFE vault. Yeah sure, Jane. This was the second scene of the first chapter. I should never have made it to the part with the talking key.
A pity, though. The idea of industrialised magic based on reality overwriting was extremely cool, which is why I kept reading after noticing:
- the juvenile use of language
- the improbable plot-solving mechanisms (see bombs in the yard) already abundant in the first ten pages (whoa)
- the total lack of flesh on the bones of the setting: we are TOLD that the city looks like this and that, never SHOWN
- the Katniss-copycat heroine (aaaargh). Sorry guys, I grew up reading adult literature since I was too young to do a lot of other things, even by problematic teenager standards. No YA in this house.

That key talking like that, though, was too much. I give in. What a waste.… (mehr)