Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it. – Buddha
From this site.
Andrew Blackman Inspiration
I was attracted by the political element of the story, and also the fact that parts of it are written in second person, an interesting idea that I am exploring at the moment in my own writing. Unfortunately I found that the second-person passages are short, and the political element is underplayed – someone is attacking people who have committed terrible crimes, e.g. arms dealers, child pornographers, etc., but there’s little real examination of the moral issues involved. It becomes a standard thriller, with the hero accused of the murders and needing to find the real killer before it’s too late. The trouble is, the real killer is so blindingly obvious that I spent most of the book just frustrated, waiting for the ‘hero’ to figure it out. Uh, your best friend, ex-army, well trained in killing people but now disillusioned with life and living on his own in a run-down hotel in the Highlands? Hello? Do you really need 300 pages to figure this out?
Andrew Blackman Book reviews Banks, complicity, Scottish writing, vigilante
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