Empty calories

[threemonkeys]

Originality is overrated. Most artistic works really don't have anything very original in them - perhaps just the tiniest sliver of it here and there. The majority of what we look for is the skill of execution of the various aspects that go to make up a work. Yet take the case of Principles of Angels by Jaine Fenn. It seems well executed - a well paced, tightly plotted etc piece of science fiction. Well, space opera really - its a kind of gunslinger western set on an orbital city. But it isn't a copy of a particular story - it is more a mixture of elements - a bit from column A, a bit from column B etc. Yet, as I read it, all I got was that sense of familiarity. For all that is is well constructed, it seems to lack some extra spark - it just seems like a collection of familiar components than a new work. Some spark was missing - perhaps that is originality. Or perhaps something else - a cleverness of phrase or a linkage to the common human condition come to mind.

But is it a bad book for that lack? No not really. It is perfectly readable with good pageturnability. I think there is a good junk-food analogy in there somewhere if I could be bothered looking for it.