1.0 out of 5 stars
The Inadequacies of Knipp, August 9, 2008
This review is from: The Adequacies of Dane (The Great Experiment) (Paperback)
Really this was a horrible, horrible book and that is probably being to kind too Mr. Knipp. From the forward all the way through to the last pages I pushed on. At first, I prodded through with the hopes that this book would become better.
However, as I read, eventually just for the right to give a review of the book on Amazon, i realized that The Adequacies of Dane is a disaster of literature. Finishing this book has truly been a course in "what not to do" when writing a work of fiction.
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* * JUST A FEW OF MY ISSUES FOR YOUR CONSIDERATION * *
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ISSUE #1: TARAH
Tarah is a character who we meet in the very first chapter. A big breasted alien woman who is a waitress at some kind of space Hooters and wears a string bikini. Our hero, Dane Whitman, meets her and after very little dialogue and development the two decide to have casual sex together. "Ah, I know that this book will become a classic," I thought.
At times I felt dirty for reading some of the scenes with Tarah, from disgustingly risqué explanations by Mr. Knipp of her clothing choices or lack there of, all the way too scenes where she is having her clothing ripped off and for all intents and purposes she is raped by the evil villain.
It is all to clear that Mr. Knipp has his mind in the gutter with these graphic scenes, which are inappropriate and atypical to the rest of the story.
It is because of this nearly X Rated content that I say this book is NOT an ENTERTAINING AND EASY read for ALL AGES as some other commenter's have stated.
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ISSUE #2: THE NARRATION
This book is full of narration that is just abhorrent. It really is a literary abortion (as Family Guy's Stewie Griffin would say).
If you have ever taken a fiction writing class in your life, whether if was in grade school or in college, or at the community center one of the most important things you learn is this, "Show, don't Tell". Mr. Knipp's TELLING is a constant problem in the book and here are a just two examples:
ex. one:
Dane's Invincible Spacesuit
If a character has a spacesuit that is so amazingly awesome and undefeatable that he is perfectly able to be a one man army, then it is best to show that by having him fight bad guys, do amazing feats of strength, etc., etc.
Instead what we get is pages and pages of Narration TELLING us that his spacesuit is so impenetrable, so wonderful, and so great. It was really boring stuff, trust me.
And then at the moment when we finally get to see his suit in action fighting against the injustices of the galazy . . . the action I had been so longing for, Dane's spacesuit was completely obliterated in less than a few minutes of fighting.
It really is a good thing that Dane had a SPARE invincible suit #2 laying around on board his invincible ship (Don't get me started on that).
ex. two:
Would and Would Not
I don't know what else to call it, but it was on almost every page of this book.
"One would think that this was just a cheap ploy for the author Mr. Knipp to fill up page space because of his lack of obvious story design, but some how one would not think that because deeper down inside, one would know that the author is just not that gifted at writing."
That is a basic example of the type of narration that goes on constantly in this book and it is in the most absurd places.
"I kept asking myself why I needed to know the point and counter point of virtually every thought of every character in the book, but somehow I also knew that this was just my punishment for continuing on to the next page."
You see how annoying this can be.
Here is one example (slightly paraphrased) from the book for you to enjoy:
"Dane knew that Tarah was weak and that he could crush her in an instant with the massive power of his super, amazing, spacesuit, which was uber powerful . . . strong enough to crush a mountian, but Dane also knew that he had a heart that was made of the finest and purest gold and would never treat a beautiful big breasted woman like that."
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ISSUE #3 DANE the 2-D Protagonist
The Protagonist of this entire story is one of the most two-dimensional, flat characters I have ever read. A flat character is, generally, minor characters in a work of fiction.
A flat character does not tend to undergo substantial emotional change or growth, which has to be the licensed trademark of Dane Whitman.
He is constantly going into a situation half-cocked, overly proud, or overly self reliant. Then, he gets screwed because of it. Completely fails or come within inches of it. And then, with out batting an eyelash he goes on to do the same stupid thing again with what ever the next challenge crosses his path.
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CLOSING THOUGHTS:
Don't read this book. Seriously. Just don't.
It is the first book that I have ever thrown directly into the garbage can after reading; it was not even worth recycling.
But, if you are too stubborn to listen to me, then read it, if you want to see if it truly is as bad as I make it out to be. And in that is truly the case I suggest you read it, then you can come here and agree with me.
The only comfort for me is that the ever so proud first work of the trilogy is still the only book after nearly a decade. Thank god, there is some justice in the world.
Sadly, we will never know what happened to those space-pirates in the blatant cliff hanger ending. Alas, Life will go on.
And for those who have read the book, we can take heart in knowing that maybe in a separate dimension this book did not suck quite so bad.
Psssh, Yeah Right.
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