A good book that could have been a great one. The author writes whereof he knows - but his writing suffers from his journalistic background. It doesn't help that the narrator is a self-centered douche-bag. ( )

Cynical and world-weary journalists covering conflicts in Africa, and juggling love and sex and addiction to the adrenalin? thrill? pressure? Ed O'Loughlin is writing about what he knows, and the verisimilitude shines through. Although not all of us know that much about Africa, so I was quite lost at times.

I usually don't mind being thrown in the deep end with my fiction, but this one did need a few signposts (it's not until 2/3s of the way through that I found out which decade it was set in). And the jumping about in time just confused me (hang on, isn't he dead? Oh, not yet?). Nothing wrong with some chapter titles with some *information* in them.

I liked the cynicism of the characters, at the same time as not liking the cynicism of the characters. They were amusing with their bitchy comments about foreign aid and the U.N., but at the same time I was appalled - tell me it isn't so!

It was actually a rather good book, but the frustrations just wore me down by the end. ( )

A great book- very well written! Whilst a better knowledge of recent African history/politics and conflicts would have added to my understanding, its lack did not take away from my enjoyment.
The writing stands out as some of the finest new writing I've had the pleasure to read. ( )