Mirkat Always Reading

As opposed to Game and Buzz, I did not receive Bubble as an uncorrected-proof ebook.  Allegedly, after having submitted reviews for the first two, I was to receive the third from the publisher, but that never happened.  There might have been a secret deadline that I failed to meet.  Regardless, my NOT having received a free copy of this book has NOT prevented me from providing an honest review here.  (I borrowed this book from my library.  Libraries ROCK.)

I found Bubble frustrating.  It felt as though there was plenty of action, yet nothing was happening.  No, that's not it exactly.  Stuff was happening, but much of it felt like filler and stalling, the kind that tend to crop up in the middle book of a trilogy.

One of the things that bothered me was that HP and Rebecca don't talk to each other, or otherwise communicate, for the entire narrative.  There are missed calls and dodged calls, but not a single conversation.  This was a plot contrivance, and an irksome one, at that.

At the end of Game, there was a cliffhanger suggesting that a secondary character was involved in the game.  That secondary character proceeds to stay off-screen all through Buzz, and then the payoff, such as it is, of that cliffhanger doesn't happen until this third book.  This character ultimately delivers the "twist" at the very end of the final book, and I can't say that I like it.

I think that Anders de la Motte had interesting ideas with the trilogy, but his execution wasn't the best.  And I know it's unfair, but I'll say it.  He's not Stieg Larsson, nor Larsson's heir apparent.  Though in Buzz, he does make a reference to "Stieg Larsson tourists."  Plus,   de la Motte's Swedes drink coffee almost as compulsively as Larsson's do.  In Sweden, I would never sleep!

I often felt that the pop-culture references were too self-conscious.  Sprinkle in some Matrix here, Bourne series there.  And I cannot even tell you how tired I got of chain-smoking HP's constant need for yet another cigarette.