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Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Last Woman

I spent a couple nights last week reading Jaqueline Druga's Last Woman, which I'd picked up on (yet another) Amazon sale.

Paperback | Kindle
For what I paid, it was a good enough read and enough entertainment for two nights.  The story is about Faye.  The last thing Faye remembers is going out drinking with some friends, having a bit too much, and passing out — and then she wakes up in a mass grave some weeks later as, quite possibly, the last woman on earth.

As premises go for  post-apocalyptic fiction it's a pretty interesting start; and overall I was entertained enough by the book to keep reading.  The story is not heart-pounding (this is not a thriller!), and the characters are a little difficult to get a real grasp on or liking for, but the pace kept things developing and I was happy to go along for the ride and find out what happened.

My main criticism is that it is in desperate need of an editor.  A too-hefty portion of it is written in sentence fragments and lone subordinate clauses, and even when it's not comma splices are commonplace.  This is combined with several cases where a word has been used incorrectly (it's often hard to tell if these are malapropisms or the result of autocorrect gone horribly awry).  As a result,  the reader has to spend time actively deciphering just what the author may have actually intended, and that can seriously detract from both immersion and enjoyment.

Nevertheless, the story has promise.  Like a lot of self-published Kindle books, though, it seems like it just really gets started when it ends and (lo and behold) there's a second book to buy in order to continue. I haven't decided if I'll buy its sequel yet, but very likely not unless it, too, goes on sale.

This book has lending enabled on the Kindle.  If you know me and you'd like a loan of it, just get in touch.

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