Imagine you are an orphan, your parents part of a small but worldwide group investigating an alien presence that appears to be manipulating humanity for unknown reasons, and they were murdered in order to keep that knowledge secret.

 

You may have the means and opportunity to destroy the entity responsible - would you?

 

Now imagine that other than your parents and their group, the alien presence has been essentially benevolent. It's been subtly adjusting humanity by manipulating our communications to make us more peaceful since the dawn of radiocommunications. An inflammatory word missing from a news report here. The news anchor given a sympathetic mien there. Nothing dramatic in isolation for the majority, but a totality that has resulted in no major wars since The Great War of 1914-1918. The world carries on as usual otherwise.

 

Would you still attempt to destroy it, knowing the consequences?

 

This is the big idea at the centre of this novel, and it's certainly a "big idea", but the story itself is centred on it's characters, primarily the main character Cassie, 19 years old and on the run with her younger brother. I very much liked the big idea here: How can an act of revenge take precedence over the fate of the world? Under what extenuating circumstances could that be justified?

 

I also liked the writing. Robert Charles Wilson writes like a modern thriller writer, there's a sort of no-nonsense sense of urgency, a get to the pointless and general lack of fluff that suits me. I find his books fairly fast and easy reads.

 

Unfortunately I wasn't overly enamoured of the lead character, and I found her a little too passive for a lot of the time. Odd considering the first couple of chapters revolve around her jumping into action, going on the run when she realises her own life and that of her young brother are in danger, but once she's met up with an ally or two, she just lets go of the reins and lets others decide what's going on, and what happens next. Even more, she doesn't seem to have much of an opinion about any of what's going on, taking everything she's told on faith and not questioning it. So by the end of the book when she suddenly decides to pick up those reins again and the entire fate of the world is resting on her shoulders, it's a little hard to believe.

 

Still, it's not a bad book at all.

I don't know what it was about this book, but it was one of the oddest reading experiences I have ever had. Burning Paradise was ridiculously compelling while also boring me to tears sometimes, and other times I had zero idea what was going on and yet I couldn't stop. The book, for me, was pretty much unputdownable, and yet, I am hesitant to recommend it. Basically, my thoughts are all over the places and it has me wondering if all his books are like this. I can tell you one thing: I want to read more of his books because I have a feeling they are better, but how am I to go about reviewing THIS book?  

No clue.

The story is weird, weird, weird. That's a good thing though as it was one of the parts I enjoyed most. The book kept you guessing, and I can honestly say that I was stumped until the end. I had my ideas but they were all wrong. That was the good thing, and I can say that the ending did NOT let me down. The build to the conclusion is the best part of this book, and it's very difficult for me to say what or how without spoiling anything so I think I am just going to skip that part. You can read the summary for yourself, and while it is a teensy bit misleading, it does cover the most important parts. What I can tell you is that it's a book about aliens and they take the shape of humans. In my mind, these are the scariest kinds of aliens because you can't see them coming if they look like you. Here's the bad part though: there weren't NEARLY enough scenes with the aliens. When it was good it was great, but there are some things I really didn't like at all. List time.

1. The pacing was all over the fricking place. There was a lot of driving from one place to another, a lot of scenes where not a whole lot happened, and then something exciting would happen, and then it would be infodump, infodump until the next bit of action. Annoying.

2. There was a lot of scientific jargon that really made my eyes gloss over. I was worried that it would affect my understanding of the events that occurred later on in the book, but it didn't. So the fact that I really didn't absorb any of it didn't matter one iota, so why was it there. It made shit drag majorly.

3. None of the characters were likable. I have been having this issue a lot lately with books though. I know the author tried to make characters like Cassie and Leo likable but I just couldn't relate to them because I don't feel like they were developed enough. I was on the fence. The characters were compelling enough, but when you don't like any of them, is that okay? I guess that depends on the reader. 

Here's the thing though. There were some really grand ideas here that I have not read anywhere else. I've read about aliens that take human form before but not in the way that these did. The events that happen in this book are pretty terrifying because it's not so hard to suspend disbelief. I do think that something like this is possible. The universe knows no bounds and who knows what is going on out there somewhere else? To think that there are not other worlds out there that sustain life like ours just seems ignorant to me. But again, you have no idea what I am talking about without me spoiling the book for you and I won't do that. So what I say to you is this: if the blurb sounds interesting to you, then perhaps you should give it a shot. It wasn't my favorite book but I definitely don't regret reading it, and I think down the road this will be probably one that sticks with me for some time. Technically, I believe it could have used some work. But that's not all there is, is there?

Also, I need to add in at the last minute because it would not fit anywhere else: the world-building is excellent, though I suspect this is what this author truly excels at. He takes you from rural Vermont all the way to the Atacama desert in Chile, and it alternates from viewpoint to viewpoint, and he does it well. So, I am conflicted, and you can see my dilemma. Which is why I will read more of his work to truly decide. He's won the Hugo award so I have high hopes. 

I was excited about this, and really wanted to like it, but it just fell flat for me. The characters were bland and simplistic, almost like they sidestepped not from another time/universe, but from another genre altogether. Even though it's been done before, the whole question of whether aliens are interfering to save us or doom us is one I usually enjoy, but I didn't feel this added anything new or unique to the theme. As for the writing itself, it was average - not nearly as smart or as polished as I've found his previous work to be - and the plotting was straightforward to the point of being predictable.

Ultimately, I just couldn't maintain enough interest to keep reading.