2.5 stars
Wow, Satan’s Gold was certainly a ride. I was able to get through it pretty quickly, so I think it would be perfect for a casual, low expectation vacation read. In terms of enjoyment, I do have a couple issues. First, the characters were overall pretty insufferable and for the most part underdeveloped. Many of the side characters had one personality trait, which was sexism. I did appreciate that Dixie, in my opinion, the best character, called out the gross comments, but in general they felt excessive. The main character was alright, but his relationships with other characters were very one dimensional and it made the team aspect fall flat. Second, there was a French character who did the dumb fake bilingual thing which I just found frustrating. I don’t think it would have hurt to do a little more research into how bilingual speakers actually swap between the languages and certainly it’s not necessary to italicize the words in a different language. I do think a couple lines were done well, when the character was emotional and the entire line was in French, so I encourage the author to move more down that pathway. Other than that, I thought the writing was pretty good - very easy to get through. In terms of the technical language, I did appreciate how detailed the author was. With the exception of one conversation, I didn’t have a problem understanding what was happening and the tech made the story feel more real. I think this book's biggest strength was the plot. I was not able to guess what was coming and I liked the complexity of the world introduced. Overall, I didn’t love this book, but I think there is potential for the characters and writing to get better in subsequent installments.
Wow, Satan’s Gold was certainly a ride. I was able to get through it pretty quickly, so I think it would be perfect for a casual, low expectation vacation read. In terms of enjoyment, I do have a couple issues. First, the characters were overall pretty insufferable and for the most part underdeveloped. Many of the side characters had one personality trait, which was sexism. I did appreciate that Dixie, in my opinion, the best character, called out the gross comments, but in general they felt excessive. The main character was alright, but his relationships with other characters were very one dimensional and it made the team aspect fall flat. Second, there was a French character who did the dumb fake bilingual thing which I just found frustrating. I don’t think it would have hurt to do a little more research into how bilingual speakers actually swap between the languages and certainly it’s not necessary to italicize the words in a different language. I do think a couple lines were done well, when the character was emotional and the entire line was in French, so I encourage the author to move more down that pathway. Other than that, I thought the writing was pretty good - very easy to get through. In terms of the technical language, I did appreciate how detailed the author was. With the exception of one conversation, I didn’t have a problem understanding what was happening and the tech made the story feel more real. I think this book's biggest strength was the plot. I was not able to guess what was coming and I liked the complexity of the world introduced. Overall, I didn’t love this book, but I think there is potential for the characters and writing to get better in subsequent installments.