cedar_grove | May. 14th, 2007

"Jarred, recently come of age, is leaving the sun-scorched desert village that has always been his home. He sets out with a band of friend to explore the world, to see the mighty and beautiful kingdom of the north - and to seek out the truth about his father, who came to the village a stranger and departed when Jarred was ten, never to return." From the blurb of The Iron Tree by Cecilia Dart-Thornton.

When it's been three months and you're still on page 83, and have read another book in that time, I think it's time to decide if you're actually going to finish the book. You've probably guessed by now that I decided that I'm probably not. 83 pages and the book hasn't moved on at all.. I call that slow. Those whom the blurb lead us to believe are the two main protagonists of the book have only just met... in what can only be described as plagurism from West Side Story - You know the scene where Maria and Tony Meet..?

TONY: You're not thinking I'm someone else?
MARIA: I know you are not.
TONY: Or that we've met before?
MARIA: I know we have not...
TONY: I felt, I knew something-never-before was going to happen, had to
happen. But this is-
MARIA: My hands are cold. [He takes them in his.] Yours, too. [He moves
her hand to his face.] So warm. [She moves his hands to her
face.]
TONY: Yours too...

Well then consider this...
"Lady, pardon me," he said breathlessly, "I saw you looking and I wondered... that is, are you perhaps thinking we have met before?"
She made as if to speak, hesitated, then said, "We have not met before."
"Are you perhaps thinking I am someone else?"
"I am not thinking you are someone else..."

"Methinks your hands are trembling. Are you cold?"
"Oh no, tis warm I am."
"I too," he murmured...

That was just about what canned it for me. I'd been struggling with it, and the affected language... if you can plough through that you're a better man than I. Seeing that just made up my mind to put away the book for another time. Not one I would recommend.