Tips, Tricks

I’m not going to go chapter by chpater any more. It’s a bit boring. So, I’ll continue rereading it chapter by chapter and only blog if I see something interesting. Keep checking back =)

SPOILERS FOLLOW

There’s something that’s been bothering me about the way this book is written. There seems to be a lot of telling and not showing. I suppose it’s necessary to keep the page count down, but it’s against everything they taught in all my writing classes. Very, very strange. Not sure if I like it.

The other thing that caught me about the chapter was a part when the characters were flipping through radio channels trying to find a channel to listen to. While this is happening the author sticks in a line: “on their way to clean up oil-soaked birds after a major spill of the coast of–” (it’s a snippet they hear as they are flipping through the channels). Because the book hinges on the pollution issue, it is a very ingenious way to remind reader of it. Very smart.

SPOILERS FOLLOW

So in chapter 5, we get to the main thrust of the book. Pollution, energy, alternative forms of energy, etc. Except we don’t know it’s the main thrust yet. Duff finds that the car he is driving spews emmissions, and it’s his first chance to get aquainted with the thought of pollution.

Other than that, it’s another chapter that is needed to move along the story. The next chapter, we get some action.