Barsk: The Elephants' Graveyard

Anthropmorphic Elephants in space! \o/

(Actually the Fants are mostly not in space, but that wouldn't have made as catchy a tagline.)

I really enjoyed reading this book and i can wholeheartedly recommend it for being a beautiful, funny and exciting journey. The narrative is well paced and written. The world is really interesting and well crafted, and its different races and characters all have their own charm.

So, one might ask, why not a higher rating then? Well, for me, some of the logic in the book just did not hold up, both in regard to the actions and decisions of the characters (mostly one particular character, the main character's best friend) and to the the way nefshons work when it comes to memory. Also, something that was casually mentioned in the blurb turned out to be something that was supposed to be a reveal towards the end of the book. Granted that is not the book's fault, but it somewhat diminished the experience for me. Plus the consequences of that revelation and what was uncovered about them where a bit of a let down as well. Last and also least, a minor thing: I am still disappointed that the Giant Panda friend of the main character, that was mentioned as an example for that particular species in the appendix, never actually appeared in the story.

All in all, it seemed to me that the book could have used one more editorial overhaul to strengthen its overall coherence.

However, despite all that and as mentioned earlier, I still enjoyed it a great deal. It was a good book, I just feel it could have been a really great one. It started out extremely promising but in the end sadly just did not quite make it - at least for me. But please, read it, enjoy it and make your own opinion! :)


Barsk: The Elephants' Graveyard by Lawrence M. Schoen
My goodreads rating: 3 of 5 stars