"Midnight Sun" by Stephenie Meyer - Chapter 1

Earlier I reported on the leak of Midnight Sun, the uncompleted fifth book in Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series. You can see what she'd completed for free, legally, here. I wouldn't recommend it though -- I made it to page 12 of the first 23-page chapter before I had to give up.

The novel retells the series' first book from the perspective of another character, and while this isn't particularly overt it does cloud things when you know it -- Meyer is clearly pulling some narrative gymnastics to slot this new perspective around established events, which will be a lot of fun for the series' fans but is awkward for a new reader.

The primary flaw with this lies in the fact that the first novel showed things from a human perspective*, while this utilises a vampire's -- not necessarily a fatal mistake, but for a newbie reader who doesn't know the characters it locks you out of the events that are occurring, while instead focussing on describing, at interminable length, the vampire's thoughts and feelings. This means it mostly reads like a fairly competent example of amateur/fanfic vampire writing, a sense that is exacerbated by the prose's style. It's not poorly written, but nor is it in any way exemplary -- unless you were looking for something slow and repetitive, that is.

So, having finally experienced a small chunk of the much-hyped (thanks to the forthcoming film) Twilight universe, I can assure you, dear readers, that I won't be bothering with any more of it. Except perhaps the film, depending on what the reviews are like, and once it's on DVD, and my rental site finally send it to me, which isn't likely to be very speedily.

* I should point out that I haven't read any other novels in the series, but know this from having read a little about it thanks to the upcoming film and this leaked manuscript.