Book Review: Myst: The Book of T'iana by Rand and Robyn Miller (Spoilers)

Myst was a book that I had fairly high expectations for from the start. MR wanted me to read it, saying that I would fall in love with the world that the book was set in. It's actually the second in a set of 3, but apparently the books aren't exactly a series, so it didn't matter that I hadn't read the first one. It was originally a video game, and apparently I can get it for my iphone for five bucks... I'm very tempted to get it. I'm on the fence though, because to be honest, the book was a huge letdown. There were parts of the book that I really liked, such as the whole concept behind the D'Ni books, and the Ages. But the book was WAYYYYYY too long and didn't get in to any one topic enough, and I would have loved to know more about the books (I'm also tempted to read the third books, since it is called The Book of D'Ni). I also would have liked significantly more character development. The book spans something like 30 years and the characters don't develop at all. There were so many scenes in the books where I should have been moved to tears, feeling their struggles and fears, right there with them when they made the hard decisions, joyful at their triumphs, devastated by their losses. But I wasn't. Because I was not attached to the characters. I think it might have had to do with the noticeable lack of dialogue. The book reads as snippets of events on a timeline. The authors would tell you that something was going to happen, then just move on to the next thing that happens in the plot, completely bypassing the actual happening of the events. If they had picked fewer events and elaborated more, building the dialogue up and forming relationships, it would have allowed us to know the characters, and to care about what they were going through, to feel what they felt and escape into a world where we live their experiences. I think this book has a lot of room for improvement. It was good enough to tempt me to read the 3rd and play the game, but it won't be a book I love or read again and again. Bummer.