I had picked up Alex Thompson’s “Spidertouch” with the intent of reading something kind of spooky for Halloween. Little did I know that it was a novel of political intrigue with a hint of battle strategy. Out of my comfort zone, but not necessarily a bad thing.
Razvan is an interpreter for the Keda, a group of terrifyingly cruel dictators that rule over Val Kedic. He does that in order to protect his son, who is imprisoned in a system of mines. Not only is Razvan an interpreter, but he is also a crucial part of the revolution against the Keda. An invading force, one that makes even the Keda nervous, is swiftly approaching the realm with the intent of sacking it for everything it has. Razvan faces unending choices and obstacles in his endeavor to just get his kid back; but will he be on time?
My favorite part of this book was the way the author allowed the reader to build connections with and impressions of each individual character. Thompson wrote in such a way that let the reader celebrate the characters’ wins and mourn their losses, too.
That being said, the way the author went about writing this book was confusing at best. If I thought that “Project Hail Mary” was hard to understand, “Spidertouch” was even tougher. It did not help that the book makes the reader learn the “translated” version of the Keda’s language (which is just a glorified sign language) by just throwing you off the deep end.
I did like the idea of this book, though. The concept of watching the main character become the villain in someone else’s story is one that I do not really see very often.
Something that I absolutely hated about this book was the ending. Usually, if an author is going to hint at continuing a book with such a large cliff-hanger, they would have at least hinted at it in the four years after the book was published. Would I say something different if this book was getting a sequel? Maybe, but probably not. It was done in such a way that it was confusing to begin with. This story could have been wrapped up in another 100 pages or so, so I feel like the ending to this book is just lazy. Why would you create another problem for the main character in the epilogue?
Was this book well written? It kind of was. Did I like it? Sure. There were some moments, not including the ending, which could have been expanded upon in either backstory or other explanations. This is one of those books that you recommend to a person who liked “The Hunger Games” series for only “Mockingjay.” I give this book a 3/5.