Silence of the Soleri by Michael Johnston
I gave a 2½-star rating for Michael Johnston’s Soleri, and was hoping to see some improvement in the sequel, Silence of the Soleri (2021). Unfortunately, the book tipped in the other direction, so much so that I gave up at the halfway point. As usual with DNF reviews, this will be brief.
The problems here were pretty much the same as I noted in my review of book one. Characterization was thin, prose was only adequate, plotting felt scattershot and unbalanced. Several scenes I wasn’t sure of the point.
And worse here than in book one was the logistics — multiple times I had no idea how settings related to one another, how many people were involved in scenes, how people were escaping notice, etc., making for an incredibly frustrating read.
I started considering giving up about a quarter of the way through, but pushed forward in hopes things would improve, that maybe problems with logistics were singular or that characters would be more fully revealed, but by the halfway point, when things had not gotten any better, I decided that was a fair enough amount to make a judgment.
Not recommended.
Published in February 2021. Silence of the Soleri is the action-packed sequel to the epic fantasy novel Lev Grossman calls “bloody and utterly epic.” Solus celebrates the Opening of the Mundus, a two-day holiday for the dead, but the city of the Soleri is hardly in need of diversion. A legion of traitors, led by a former captain of the Soleri military, rallies at the capital’s ancient walls. And inside those fortifications, trapped by circumstance, a second army fights for its very existence. In a world inspired by ancient Egyptian history and King Lear, this follow-up to Michael Johnston’s Soleri, finds Solus besieged from within as well as without and the Hark-Wadi family is stuck at the heart of the conflict.
-
BILL CAPOSSERE, who's been with us since June 2007, lives in Rochester NY, where he is an English adjunct by day and a writer by night. His essays and stories have appeared in Colorado Review, Rosebud, Alaska Quarterly, and other literary journals, along with a few anthologies, and been recognized in the "Notable Essays" section of Best American Essays. His children's work has appeared in several magazines, while his plays have been given stage readings at GEVA Theatre and Bristol Valley Playhouse. When he's not writing, reading, reviewing, or teaching, he can usually be found with his wife and son on the frisbee golf course or the ultimate frisbee field.
View all posts
Wow, it sounds like me.