Alona

Wow. Just wow. That's all I have to say right now. I'm not sure that I can think. I've just finished Airport and for me it is one of the best book that come to my hands lately.

I'm already acquainted with Arthur Hailey's writing as I read his other novel Hotel and I loved it. It was a great book to start. But Airport is completely on another level. Both novels are pretty similar with slow build-up of plot, introducing the characters and very brief and not overbearing flashbacks from their past. And of course, I can not mention, how masterfully the airport setting was set up. This is the case, when there is a lot of technical information in the novel, but from it, the plot only gets richer and doesn't remind encyclopedia at all. Actually, it reminds me a lot of my favourite documentaries - X-Ray Mega Airport, Ultimate Airport Dubai and Heathrow: Britain's Busiest Airport.

Regarding the characters, I don't know how they could've been better written. We got to meet with a dozen of characters throughout the novel, and each of them was memorable and so real, that it felt as if I can touch them.

I don't know what to say anymore. I enjoyed the novel so much, that it seems that my ears are still ringing from all the tension of the finale.

Definitely a must read, that I can recommend to anyone who likes a great deal of suspense and aviation.

I feet a bit ashamed. I had so many issues with this book, that it is hard to count. Characters, plot, world-building, literally about anything. And then you what I did? I stayed up till 5 AM because I just needed to finish this book.

What was good in this book:
- parts starting from around 70% of the book. That's where everything picked up speed and all the plot twists were were coming at the speed of a motor vehicle instead of the snail-slow pacing of the beginning. And it was even engaging.

What I didn't enjoy:
- Characters. I couldn't discern between them if not for the color of their hair. Here we have the most beautiful angel, there is a striking medwitch, somewhere over there is the most gorgeous wraith and so on. No matter how small mention of a character we got, it is always the same - He/She was the prettiest male/female ever seen and his/her power was unparralled to any other. Because had I mentioned that god save us the character wouldn't have a special superpower.
- Unnecessary swearing. Like for real. The book would've been a 100 pages shorter if the word “f*ck” was edited out.
- Bryce is such a Mary Sue. Despite being told throughout the whole book that her power level was low, but of course till the end of the book she had more power that any other being in the city. And I didn't even mention what a special beautiful and curvatios snowlake she is. And how every “male” was ready to take her right there.
- That scene where Bryce tried to take Hunt's place. OMG, I so waited for the reveal of some clever plan. I just couldn't believe the sheer stupidity of what she intended to do.
- Portrayal of drug use. Especially in the beginning. That was disgusting.
- No logic in acquainting readers with the world. It was either a blatant infodump (which for me is a preferable option) or we see something, it gets mentioned again in 15 pages, and again in 20 pages and after that it gets explained in the way we already had to understand what is going on. By the way, I still don't know how this planet of Midgard looks and what all the random names belong to, and the author already gone into establishing parallel words and realms.
- If this book had an editor - he did a poor job. This book is overlong but at least 300 pages. And so confusing.

At this point, I'm tired and have no inspiration left for this review.

But you know the worst thing? I will still read a next book.

My feeling about this book is a bit controversial.

I liked a lot of things about American Gods. Almost all the historicl parts and the ending, when all the mysteries started to unravel. My favourite part was how similar the main plot was to a coin trick. I was not even thinking about the possibility of what was actually happening.

And that's a really great thing. It's good to be surprised once in a while.

But not all is good in paradise. There was a lot of stuff that I was not a fan of. For example, language. I've got truly tired of all “boobies” and “pussies”. That's why I liked the ending much, much more than the beginning. There was just not a time for all this things.

The story was so slow in the beginning. It was boring a lot. Or maybe I just wasn't in a mood for this book.

Anyway, that's not a bad book after all.