I finished The Raw Shark Texts, by Steven Hall, over the weekend. I had received this particular tome as a birthday gift from our blogmaster (for some reason that seems to be the case with every other post of mine — I wonder if he’s going to catch on that I can’t possibly have that many birthdays each year). Anyway, I was awfully excited to read this one given the hype that’s surrounded it, and I was not to be disappointed. This is just a really cool book.

I thought about simply posting a comment to the DJ’s earlier post, but I thought doing so could let my praise for the book fall through the cracks. I wanted to shout loud and proud, for everyone to hear, how cool this book is. Now that I’ve gotten your attention, though, like the DJ, I’m not going to give away anything specific about the story itself — you really need to read it yourself, lest anything I say taint your understanding or interpretation of the story.

Suffice it to say that the book utilizes some great literary devices to great effect. The author uses metaphor, symbolism, flashbacks, and other tools to really engage your brain and make you think about what’s happening and what it means. In my particular case, it left me wanting to read it again to try to pick up elements that I might have missed the first time. Chalk one up for the Ludovician and the other conceptual fish — this one’s going back into my pile to read again at a later date. Nice work, Mr. Hall, and I’m fascinated to see if this is something that can be adapted to the big screen.