09-19-2021, 09:34 PM
This is about 20 years old now, published in 2003. The lead character is a consultant who has an eye for trend spotting and identifying whether or not trademarks work. There are a group of mysterious film clips being released by unknown artists, and she is a big poster on an online forum for discussing the films. Then she gets hired by a millionaire to find the creator of the films. Then there are strange and threatening events, and it seems that powerful people are somehow involved. It did come together in the end fairly satisfyingly.
I found this weaker than his earlier books. It was confusing at first what the main thread of the story was and where it was going. It took a long time to coalesce and I almost gave up. Plus the main character had some neologisms that were just thrown out and not explained, and he sometimes threw in what I might call "arty" sentences that were a bit hard to understand and didn't really add anything. Perhaps he just liked them and wanted to put them in, but I didn't like it. It did get more compelling as it went on, but didn't have the quick grab and strong motion of his earlier work. So not really bad in itself but only by comparison. Maybe it was my expectation that got in the way.
I found this weaker than his earlier books. It was confusing at first what the main thread of the story was and where it was going. It took a long time to coalesce and I almost gave up. Plus the main character had some neologisms that were just thrown out and not explained, and he sometimes threw in what I might call "arty" sentences that were a bit hard to understand and didn't really add anything. Perhaps he just liked them and wanted to put them in, but I didn't like it. It did get more compelling as it went on, but didn't have the quick grab and strong motion of his earlier work. So not really bad in itself but only by comparison. Maybe it was my expectation that got in the way.
the hands that guide me are invisible