K itibaren Kozlovo, Smolenskaya oblast', Rusya itibaren Kozlovo, Smolenskaya oblast', Rusya

There was a good story in there somewhere. It just got bogged down by the rambling, repetitive explanations of economics and the inner workings of speculative markets. I thought most of the characters were developed well with the exception of Big Sister Nor, which is kind of funny since she's the character that holds all the story lines together. I'm not sure how this is considered a book for 12-17 year olds. If I'd read/listened to this book at that age, I would have quit pretty quickly. I get that the majority of characters are young teens, but the intricacies of the plot and the before mentioned economic and investment lessons would have lost my attention. Which isn't to say that I won't try more Doctorow. I've heard good things about his other books, but this one just didn't gel well. Too many side notes that seemed to go on forever, tearing me out of the story as a whole. It's hard to get into a story that has five or six plot lines with entirely different sets of characters as it is. Throw in long, rambling, repetitive tangents and things are going to fall apart in places.

What would it be like if Michael Crichton had teamed up with Nora Roberts to write a science thriller set just a couple of years in the future, and then brought in Ray Bradbury to tweak the ending? I suspect the by-product of that collaboration might be very much like this book. The late Ken Grimwood is not a household name. I’ve had his third novel, Replay, on my “to read” list for a while. That one won a World Fantasy Award for best novel in 1988, and has a pretty strong cult following. Diehard Replay fans seem to also hold this, Grimwood’s 1976 debut novel, in high regard, so I decided to check out the earlier work first. Our heroine is Elizabeth Austin, a woman in her mid-to-late- 20s who has suffered from epilepsy ever since she was a young girl. Elizabeth’s occasional seizures are resistant to conventional medical treatment, and interfere with just about every aspect of her life. She has an understanding employer (not necessarily a given in 1976), but is concerned about driving a car, swimming, holding a baby…any activity where a sudden seizure could cause serious problems. After years of just dealing with it, her doctor suggests that she may be the ideal candidate for a radical and experimental new brain surgery that could cure her completely. She eagerly pursues this opportunity, which is where the echoes of Michael Crichton come in: the procedure involves electrical stimuli to various unmapped regions of the brain. These stimuli result in a defacto cure for the epilepsy, but also produce unusual side effects. One particular trigger, for instance, causes Elizabeth to have visions (or perhaps hallucinations?) of day-to-day life as though she were experiencing it in a different body, in the distant past. This part of the story is where some of the more florid, Nora Roberts-esque, prose comes into play. This is an engaging thriller. The hardcover copy I read only topped out at 233 pages, but it still felt a little bloated in parts, like maybe there was some filler to get it to that page count, or as if it could have used some crisper editing. But for a first novel, especially one that’s over 30 years old, it was very easy to stay with, right up to the ‘gotcha’ ending.

I picked this up because I really enjoyed One Day. In a way this could be it's precursor (and maybe it is - I haven't checked publication dates) because One Day starts on graduation day, but Starter for Ten starts the summer before Brian starts university. As a Brit who went to a British university I recognised a lot of the freshers week antics immediately, I do believe I cringed it was so very much like my own experience. All the references to Eng. Lit, to Ruperts, to quiteangryactuallys, well I knew all these people! Ultimately though, despite well drawn characters and accurately described situations the plot was somewhat lacking and thinly spread towards the end. Nostalgia abounded beginning and middle, but something not entirely unlike impatience set in. Never a good sign. Conclusion: good try.