Reviews by Neil

I was extremely disappointed by this book, I have been told to avoid Booker prise winners and now I know why. Martel takes the reader on a laboriously slow and tedious journey through the Pi's childhood in the build up to the main storey which doesn't start until chapter 37 and then plods along with much unnecessary detail and little to keep the reader interested. The central character is so irritating that I found myself shouting out for the Tiger to eat him. However this is a storey of survival to which you already know the outcome as the storey is told in the first person so I could even relish in the prospect of his dimise. I was delighted when the book appeared to be was reaching it's conclusion only to find it was like a slow death with excruciating pain at the end.

Crichton tries to get across his no doubt erudite and well-researched point about the myths and untruths about global warming by wrapping a work of fiction around these views. Unfortunately the characters are as week and implausible as the plot. If this were a first novel it would not have been published. Give it a miss is my advice.