Alex Garland, The Tesseract

paperback 226 page 1998 book reviewed.I was looking forward to this after loving 'The Beach'. I had quite a few problems with it fairly early on, in as much as it doesn't build scene, just throws in action. Now if you read books steadily in big chunks it's easy to follow, pick up, and maintain new characters and locations. If like me you often read 10 minute passages then put it down for a day, it becomes a very annoying book to follow. It's written in a modern style with time scenes and sub plots scattered in every new chapter, within which exist other smaller passages cross referenced (so it feels) to others. By the time i'd got two thirds of the way through the book, i was just reading in the hope that the ending would be good enough to cover for the time i'd felt i'd wasted reading this book. It didn't sadly. This book is all about plot and style, and woefully lacking in story and substance. It jumps about like a tarantino film, for no apparent benefit than to appear clever. Can't really recommend this book.