Book Review: This Dark Endeavor

This Dark Endeavor by Kenneth Oppel

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


I'm not a huge fan of the original "Frankenstein", but I was pleasantly surprised by Oppel's "This Dark Endeavor." "Frankenstein" is often considered the original science fiction novel. Oppel took his prequel in a slightly different direction, with a more fantasy like alchemy at it's core. Yet, the feeling is not truely that of a fantasy novel. All through, Viktor Frankenstein dismisses the alchemical that he witnesses as being merely as yet unexplained by science. So the book reads more like a historical action/adventure story than anything.



Oppel also managed to match the old fashioned feel of Shelly's original language - it's formality and style - while not getting bogged down in the Romantic descriptions of nature that made the original "Frankenstein" so annoying. I'd recommend this book to anyone who has (or has to) read "Frankenstein" or who just likes a good thrill of a tale.



Oppel, you've impressed me again!



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