Review: Navola

Navola by Paolo Bacigalupi
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

It's not the first time I've tried reading a book by Paolo Bacigalupi and found it lacking, and based on this one, I don't think I'll be making another attempt to get into his bibliography. Though the book is billed as a Renaissance Italian take on Game of Thrones, it's nowhere close to that series' level of addictive, propulsive storytelling. Even when George R.R. Martin's books are going nowhere fast, it's still a ride I couldn't help but want to keep going on. But this book...I slogged through about 100 pages or so before finally giving up. Nothing about it is keeping my interest, even the attempts at worldbuilding by showing how much this faux-Florentine, faux-Venetian city-state trades with clearly Middle Eastern and Far Eastern inspired nations. The real problem is the protagonist Davico, who tries to portray himself as a man of culture and intelligence but instead comes off as a dull, banal boy - and creepily fixated on his adoptive sister to boot.

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