I just read The Doomsday Conspiracy by Sidney Sheldon. I had bought it for RM10 recently, and I was looking forward to reading it because it had been some time since I had read Sidney Sheldon, and I had never been disappointed. I guess the saying that there's a first time for everything came true here, because I was sorely disappointed by this book.
(Spoilers ahead... You've been warned!)
The premise of the book is that the main character is asked to track down ten witnesses of an incident, but he is not told the whole truth. And in the end he is, as usual, running for his life...
Just a few chapters into the book, and I was thinking, "Oh no, don't let this be about aliens..." But it turned out it was about aliens. A little. But that in itself is not so bad, because the main story was still about the human beings pitting themselves against each other.
So take away my complaint about the aliens, and the story was building itself up properly... the way the main character tracked down the witnesses was interesting enough, and even the story of how he met his wife and how they ended up separating. But towards the end, they built up several suspenseful items. Like how a ruthless person who "liked killing" was in the doomsday operation. Like how the hero's ex-wife was coming to help him, but with her new husband, whom we already know is with the bad guys. Like how the hero boards his ex-wife's husband's yacht and feels a "tension" in the air. And none of those were explained away properly. The person who liked killing suddenly turned out to be a good guy (a spy). The most trusted mentor suddenly became the number one bad guy. And when the bad guys came to capture the hero, together with the ex-wife's husband (who had no reason to come), for some reason they brought the ex-wife along (even lesser reason for her to come), and the ex-wife was fearing for her ex-husband's life (huh?). Really, why bring her along? The only reason I could see is that the new husband had to go away so that the ex-wife could get back with the hero. And they all needed to be together in this final scene because there was not enough time left (was there a constraint on the number of pages or something?). Even the new husband's business partner, who was mentioned earlier in the book, suddenly disappeared without any further mention.
Basically the big problem here is that the story had a patched-together ending. It was like the author had built up a proper story and then was told to finish it NOW! Immediately! So... very disappointing indeed. I feel cheated...
I have another bone to pick with Sidney Sheldon, which is his choice of book covers. Every book of his that I had read, had the picture of a beautiful woman on the cover. But fine, the books all had a beautiful woman as the main character, so why not?
But this one... the main character is a man. There were only two beautiful ladies worth mentioning in the book, and none of them had a good enough role to warrant their face monopolizing the cover. And yet...
So... pretty face on the cover sells?
(Spoilers ahead... You've been warned!)
The premise of the book is that the main character is asked to track down ten witnesses of an incident, but he is not told the whole truth. And in the end he is, as usual, running for his life...
Just a few chapters into the book, and I was thinking, "Oh no, don't let this be about aliens..." But it turned out it was about aliens. A little. But that in itself is not so bad, because the main story was still about the human beings pitting themselves against each other.
So take away my complaint about the aliens, and the story was building itself up properly... the way the main character tracked down the witnesses was interesting enough, and even the story of how he met his wife and how they ended up separating. But towards the end, they built up several suspenseful items. Like how a ruthless person who "liked killing" was in the doomsday operation. Like how the hero's ex-wife was coming to help him, but with her new husband, whom we already know is with the bad guys. Like how the hero boards his ex-wife's husband's yacht and feels a "tension" in the air. And none of those were explained away properly. The person who liked killing suddenly turned out to be a good guy (a spy). The most trusted mentor suddenly became the number one bad guy. And when the bad guys came to capture the hero, together with the ex-wife's husband (who had no reason to come), for some reason they brought the ex-wife along (even lesser reason for her to come), and the ex-wife was fearing for her ex-husband's life (huh?). Really, why bring her along? The only reason I could see is that the new husband had to go away so that the ex-wife could get back with the hero. And they all needed to be together in this final scene because there was not enough time left (was there a constraint on the number of pages or something?). Even the new husband's business partner, who was mentioned earlier in the book, suddenly disappeared without any further mention.
Basically the big problem here is that the story had a patched-together ending. It was like the author had built up a proper story and then was told to finish it NOW! Immediately! So... very disappointing indeed. I feel cheated...
I have another bone to pick with Sidney Sheldon, which is his choice of book covers. Every book of his that I had read, had the picture of a beautiful woman on the cover. But fine, the books all had a beautiful woman as the main character, so why not?
But this one... the main character is a man. There were only two beautiful ladies worth mentioning in the book, and none of them had a good enough role to warrant their face monopolizing the cover. And yet...
So... pretty face on the cover sells?
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