Way below his best

The Universe versus Alex Woods was a truly superb Novel. Melody Black was nearly as good. I liked the third but I have forgotten its name so that says something. I wouldn't have guessed The End of Time was by the same author. It is competently written and keeps up interest throughout but one of the key characters is not really convincing and at times the sentiments are too soapy to believe. More important the whole novel centres on the message that if we look at life from the perspective of illegal immigrants we find they have sincere struggles and hearts and dreams just like the rest of us. Well really? Do we need to spend 10 hours on a novel to get that? As an adventure story, it's not bad, but as an investigation into the lives of immigrants it actually contains hardly any insight.

Sorry Gavin, I will get your next one, but this is a disappointment

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Absolutely BRILLIANT- just not the genre I expected

I truly love the author’s writing style. He has a gift to pull me in from page 1 of all his books - & this book was no exception. I expected Extence’s newest book to probably be another science-fiction-type genre. It couldn’t have been more diverse. It was a wonderful tale of triumph after adversity. Captivating & well researched. The narrator too was really excellent. The author & narrator brought the 3 main characters to life magnificently. I wish Gavin Extence could write a new book every week. A gifted author.

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4 people found this helpful

Nearly five stars

But not quite .... I did find the repetitiveness annoying - it could have been a much shorter book and still packed a punch. The story is alas so well known, and I listened as the ‘real’ story of the Vietnamese refrigerated container broke in the press ..... it is extremely well written, as seen through the eyes of a 19 year old boy. The Richard Dawkins/god delusion is a surprisingly rational and touching twist in a story of hope and determination. I’ve now read/listened to three of the author’s books - he writes about uncomfortable contemporary situations, bringIng them into sharp scrutiny by using young intelligent protagonists to inform us, to shed light on different aspects of politics (small p), received public opinion and humanitarianism in our consumer-driven contemporary western society. He is both a good and highly responsible young author. Read him!

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