Tuesday

The Map of Lost Memories by Kim Fay

September 4, 2012 

Is a civilization lost if the indigenous people know it's there? 

http://www.kimfay.net/
Well, once again I believe I may be in the minority. From what I can see all around me, this is fast becoming a "luv luv luv" book, but for me it was just ok, with possibilities of "could have been great."

What I like: This book just oozed with a feel of time and place. The smells, sounds and heat of Saigon, Shanghai and Cambodia steamed off of the pages. And, the glimpse of the ancient Khmer civilization was memorizing. I wish there had been more of this, however, this book is not a travelogue but an adventure story of sorts. It is with the adventure story that I have a problem.

This is an adventure story along the lines of Indiana Jones, but unlike Indiana Jones I didn't like any of the characters and nothing was really exciting. The characters are well-developed, but they are all painted with such a greedy, selfish brush that I didn't care whether they succeeded in getting the secret scrolls or not. In my opinion, this is the weak point of an otherwise good work. This reader has to care about at least one person in a book and I didn't.

However, I do think this is a well written book, and some of you are going to "luv" this story. It did make me think about cultures and past civilizations and our fascination with them. Are we intrigued with what the cultures were when they were alive or are we fascinated by what they left behind?

Time/Place: 1925, Saigon, Shanghai, Cambodia
Sensuality: Kiss

2 comments:

nath said...

SidneyKay, it's fun to be in the minority or the one with the differing opinion! :P Although you might not be the only one because I have not heard of this book yet.

SidneyKay said...

This book's title caught my eye. I liked the way the words played. However, I was out of my comfort zone with the genre...but even still, you know what you like.