Random Distraction - A Quick Review of The Fifth Heart

The Fifth HeartThe Fifth Heart by Dan Simmons

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


While I appreciate a clear level of research and attention to detail about the time period, I really didn’t enjoy this book. I felt like the effort to add in so much color and personality from the time and the US made it far too easy and common to lose sight of the point of the book. Yes, the many characters were interesting and it was neat to have a glimpse into their associations and their world, but I feel like it would have been better without tying a mystery into it, or at least better than trying to make it a Holmes mystery. A book about those characters at a weekend party and seeing all of them interacting to solve a crime together would have been better, but dragging it out for so long and adding and taking away people to rehash conversations was a bit much. I also didn't find Holmes particularly likable and thought he was a bit of a name dropper and something of a braggart about his past cases/experiences and not in a way that was all that helpful to the story. LRK has an infinitely better Holmes, and I enjoy her historical context much better as it paints the picture without dousing it in buckets of unnecessary [overly detailed] paint.



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