River of Stars gets much better as the second part winds to a close. Ren's plot gets under way. Lin's plot gets under way. The major plot of the entire book gets under way. Everything's moving at this point in the story, and although there are so many pieces in the machine you can finally see most of them spinning together in what looks like it will be an interesting harmony.
But. It shouldn't have taken over 240 pages to get to this point.
A valid question, of course, is: "Why did you keep reading if the first 240 pages were a chore or a bore?"
My answer: "It's been 240 pages already?"
Kay's writing really is that good. It's got this flowing quality to it that lets it melt in your mind rather than on its way off the page. This flow and the handful of interesting characters that he presents help those first 240 pages to really zoom by.
Though, at the same time, those first 240 pages are like sweeping the viewer's eye across a wall-spanning tapestry at a slow and steady rate. Those pages are filled with lovely passages that set the book's tone gorgeously. Yet, those 240 pages could have been put to better, plot-serving or character-building use.
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