I don't read enough fiction. Not by choice, I simply don't have the time. If I could travel more by public transport I would certainly get much more read, however most of the places I need to visit do not have the service. Hence virtually all the reading I do is in bed, invariably resulting in 15 to 20 mins of reading before the eyes close - I hasten to add this has nothing to do with the reading material!
Having said all that I have just finished reading the last of a series of seven by sci-fi author Kevin J Anderson. Entitled the The Saga of Seven Suns, at some six to seven hundred pages per book it has taken me almost two years to complete the series - I'm not quite that slow, having read in others between.
I understand science fiction is not everyone's favourite genre, thus I shall only say the basic storyline and the new ideas introduced by the author are entertaining enough. However the pace of the story is impaired by the length of the chapters, a maximum of five pages each is simply not enough to develop a story nor does it do the characters any favours. On the subject of characters, whilst I appreciate there must be a good few to choose from when looking at an entire spiral arm of a galaxy, there are far too many. Not particularly good for me as I find it very difficult to remember names!
Hence the thousand or so chapters over the seven books serve only to make the story fragmented and difficult to follow. I concede these problems may have been less evident had I read the seven volumes over a much shorter period, although perhaps if Mr Anderson had written longer chapters it would have kept me reading for more than 15 minutes, which in turn would lead to fewer books and potentially more sales for many must have given up on this saga well before the end.
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