Nickel Mountain

I found this most disappointing. It was worthy and well-intentioned, but dull, reasonably predictable and not engaging. Some of main character Henry Soames actions are so stupid as to lose sympathy, and other characters are sketches rather than people. The story arc was hard to believe, and the pacing was off, with too much emphasis on some sections and not enough on others. It had the feel of having been rushed and not cafrefully edited. Fell very short of Gardner???s other novels, such as Sunlight Dialogues, Grendel and The Wreckage Of Agathon.