Ariel, a refugee who
is the lone survivor of a massacre in his village who now finds himself living in
Sunday, West Virginia. Journal entries
taken from the journal of the navigator of an Arctic expedition (appropriately
name the Alex Crow expedition) over
125 years ago. The melting man, a
schizophrenic bomber out to get the Beaver King. Then there’s the reincarnated, bionic, and suicidally
depressed crow. The Alex Crow weaves together multiple narratives to
bring you a story of survival, brotherly love, morally questionable science,
and the Dumpling Man.
Though not a completely negative trait of this story, The Alex Crow is different from Smith’s previous books. Different is not bad, but when you go into a book expecting one thing and getting another you can be caught off guard. This book, while still holding many of the same excellent qualities of Smith’s other books—its insightfulness, simultaneously serious yet ridiculous aspects, and overall good writing—some aspects of the stories almost felt lacking. Yes, a schizophrenic bomber, a failed Arctic expedition, a refugee, and some morally questionable science can make for an interesting read. These stories also don’t take place within the same time, the same place, or even around the same person. Taken by itself, that can be an exciting quality in a book but in the case of The Alex Crow the content fell a bit flat.
There are some narrative bits that deviate from this but, for the most part, The Alex Crow is told from three main perspectives. There is the main one, following Ariel, and two other secondary stories: one following the navigator of the late 19th century Alex Crow Arctic expedition via journal entries and the other following a schizophrenic bomber. While the connections made from the secondary stories to the first are fun, overall they didn’t add much other than length. Does a cool ending or tie-in validate storylines that needlessly break up an interesting main story? My answer is no.
First let’s look at Ariel’s story. Now here is a good story. Here’s a kid who, by a couple strokes of luck, manages to survive the complete and utter massacre of his village—which is located somewhere on the other side of the plan and, given the time the story takes place, the US military involvement, and the names of the people who live in the area, I think it’s safe to assume it’s somewhere in the Middle East. Then he spends time traveling/surviving with some US troops. Then with varying groups of refugees. Then back with the military. Then is adopted by an American family. Then is thrown into a summer camp for kids who have become addicted to technology. Next, throw in the fact that his father works for a company where he is one of the leads in working on de-extinction and other mad-scientist level experiments, as well as some questionably real urban myths. There’s a lot there for a good story. His story provides current day narrative, as well as retelling of events from the massacre until they finally catch up with the events of the book. There’s an awesome base for an amazing story right there, then mix in Smith’s flare for the bizarre and you have yourself an outstanding adventure.
It’s when the other two stories are thrown in that the book started to seem a bit odd, and not in the good way. The expedition and schizo-bomber were seemingly added for no other reason than cool tie-ins, lone elements that would not detrimentally impact the main story at all were they missing. As I got through the book I wondered what importance they might hold but, by the end, the expedition story was made redundant almost instantly, and the schizo-bomber wouldn’t have changed anything with his lack of presence.
Though not a completely negative trait of this story, The Alex Crow is different from Smith’s previous books. Different is not bad, but when you go into a book expecting one thing and getting another you can be caught off guard. This book, while still holding many of the same excellent qualities of Smith’s other books—its insightfulness, simultaneously serious yet ridiculous aspects, and overall good writing—some aspects of the stories almost felt lacking. Yes, a schizophrenic bomber, a failed Arctic expedition, a refugee, and some morally questionable science can make for an interesting read. These stories also don’t take place within the same time, the same place, or even around the same person. Taken by itself, that can be an exciting quality in a book but in the case of The Alex Crow the content fell a bit flat.
There are some narrative bits that deviate from this but, for the most part, The Alex Crow is told from three main perspectives. There is the main one, following Ariel, and two other secondary stories: one following the navigator of the late 19th century Alex Crow Arctic expedition via journal entries and the other following a schizophrenic bomber. While the connections made from the secondary stories to the first are fun, overall they didn’t add much other than length. Does a cool ending or tie-in validate storylines that needlessly break up an interesting main story? My answer is no.
First let’s look at Ariel’s story. Now here is a good story. Here’s a kid who, by a couple strokes of luck, manages to survive the complete and utter massacre of his village—which is located somewhere on the other side of the plan and, given the time the story takes place, the US military involvement, and the names of the people who live in the area, I think it’s safe to assume it’s somewhere in the Middle East. Then he spends time traveling/surviving with some US troops. Then with varying groups of refugees. Then back with the military. Then is adopted by an American family. Then is thrown into a summer camp for kids who have become addicted to technology. Next, throw in the fact that his father works for a company where he is one of the leads in working on de-extinction and other mad-scientist level experiments, as well as some questionably real urban myths. There’s a lot there for a good story. His story provides current day narrative, as well as retelling of events from the massacre until they finally catch up with the events of the book. There’s an awesome base for an amazing story right there, then mix in Smith’s flare for the bizarre and you have yourself an outstanding adventure.
It’s when the other two stories are thrown in that the book started to seem a bit odd, and not in the good way. The expedition and schizo-bomber were seemingly added for no other reason than cool tie-ins, lone elements that would not detrimentally impact the main story at all were they missing. As I got through the book I wondered what importance they might hold but, by the end, the expedition story was made redundant almost instantly, and the schizo-bomber wouldn’t have changed anything with his lack of presence.
The first of those, the Alex
Crow expedition, by itself could have made for an interesting read on an
online forum, maybe even in a book that had a more direct and active relation
to the pseudo-historical events described in the journal entries. It could have also made a good
horror/thriller novel, depending on the route taken with the information it
held. As a complete story, I may have
even liked it more than Alex Crow. The story, as it’s delivered to the reader,
is so broken up that any impact it may have had on the reader is taken
away. The information it held played
into the story slightly, but only to the point of a few “oh, that’s neat” and “huh,
well what do you know” moments.
The second, that of the schizophrenic bomber, had the same impact as the expedition arc. By itself it also would have made for an interesting read on an online forum (though most likely a different forum than the expedition would be found on). All in all, even though I wanted to know just what relevancy his character had to the story, and even though I enjoyed how these sections were written, I couldn’t help but groan when I saw I’d arrived at one of his moments. The tie in was neat but didn’t have any impact and, again, held no overall relevancy to the story as a whole.
I want to be clear on this point. I enjoyed the expedition story—I even wish there was more of it because of my level of enjoyment—and liked the schizophrenia story. They were fun to read. At the same time it seemed like they were ideas for stand-alone stories that didn’t come to fruition so, instead, they were tacked onto Alex Crow because someone in the publishing process liked them enough. With the back and forth between the various storylines of varying qualities, these mostly unnecessary storylines distracted too much from what mattered and diminished much of the excitement that might otherwise have come about. Throughout the story, knowing Smith’s writing, I was positive that they’d all tie together in some way. I just didn’t care.
Even though aspects of the story didn’t appeal to me (though Ariel’s story did to a large degree), I still enjoyed the mechanics of it. The way multiple semi-unrelated stories were told together with odd interweavings was fun. Taken in parts the book was incredibly exciting, interesting, fun, and thoughtful. Yet, when all of those parts were put together it somehow lost something. At the end of the day, the biggest problem is that there were some well written and interesting but overall pointless side stories. Nevertheless, although the story is a bit different than I expected, The Alex Crow is a well-written book that could very easily appeal to fans of good writing as well as fans of good stories. Ever present in Smith’s writing is his easily identifiable narrative voice. For anyone who hasn’t read any of Smith’s works, which I recommend you do, it’s as though the narrator of the story is aware that they’re telling a story but they’re not really talking to anyone (except for the times that they clearly are). The diction and syntax just happen to work that way and it makes the experience of reading that much more pleasant. If nothing else, the physical act of reading the words on the page will be relaxing.
If you’ve read and enjoyed Smith’s previous stories by no means should you skip this book. Smith maintains his positions as one of the top YA authors, appropriately making this perfect for any fans of YA fiction out there. Likewise, I’d recommend this book for any historical or science fiction fans because—even though they’re a bit hidden—the sci-fi and pseudo-historical elements in this book should keep your interest.
Rating: 3.5/5
The second, that of the schizophrenic bomber, had the same impact as the expedition arc. By itself it also would have made for an interesting read on an online forum (though most likely a different forum than the expedition would be found on). All in all, even though I wanted to know just what relevancy his character had to the story, and even though I enjoyed how these sections were written, I couldn’t help but groan when I saw I’d arrived at one of his moments. The tie in was neat but didn’t have any impact and, again, held no overall relevancy to the story as a whole.
I want to be clear on this point. I enjoyed the expedition story—I even wish there was more of it because of my level of enjoyment—and liked the schizophrenia story. They were fun to read. At the same time it seemed like they were ideas for stand-alone stories that didn’t come to fruition so, instead, they were tacked onto Alex Crow because someone in the publishing process liked them enough. With the back and forth between the various storylines of varying qualities, these mostly unnecessary storylines distracted too much from what mattered and diminished much of the excitement that might otherwise have come about. Throughout the story, knowing Smith’s writing, I was positive that they’d all tie together in some way. I just didn’t care.
Even though aspects of the story didn’t appeal to me (though Ariel’s story did to a large degree), I still enjoyed the mechanics of it. The way multiple semi-unrelated stories were told together with odd interweavings was fun. Taken in parts the book was incredibly exciting, interesting, fun, and thoughtful. Yet, when all of those parts were put together it somehow lost something. At the end of the day, the biggest problem is that there were some well written and interesting but overall pointless side stories. Nevertheless, although the story is a bit different than I expected, The Alex Crow is a well-written book that could very easily appeal to fans of good writing as well as fans of good stories. Ever present in Smith’s writing is his easily identifiable narrative voice. For anyone who hasn’t read any of Smith’s works, which I recommend you do, it’s as though the narrator of the story is aware that they’re telling a story but they’re not really talking to anyone (except for the times that they clearly are). The diction and syntax just happen to work that way and it makes the experience of reading that much more pleasant. If nothing else, the physical act of reading the words on the page will be relaxing.
If you’ve read and enjoyed Smith’s previous stories by no means should you skip this book. Smith maintains his positions as one of the top YA authors, appropriately making this perfect for any fans of YA fiction out there. Likewise, I’d recommend this book for any historical or science fiction fans because—even though they’re a bit hidden—the sci-fi and pseudo-historical elements in this book should keep your interest.
Rating: 3.5/5
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