Four Corners of the Sky: Through Chapter 4

Here it is, my first Big Library Reading diary post.

The first two pages of a novel are always hard for me. Sometimes I have to read every sentence twice. I don't know what the book is about. I have trouble keeping all the names straight. I react to images and get distracted from the book because my mind hasn't entered the book's full world yet. Four Corners of the Sky was no exception. Maybe I was supposed to read the blurbs and the reviews first.

So, through the Prologue and four chapters, Malone has laid his puzzle pieces out on the table, and he's succeeded in getting me interested in how they're going to be put together. At this point , the names seem kind of hokey. Annie Peregrine Goode, really? Emerald? D. K. Destin? But you have to grant the author some leeway to start; he'd better layer some meaning onto that primer coat by the end of the book. Some of the pieces are like the four corners of the puzzle, easy to spot by an experienced puzzle solver. The "four corners" image, for example. It's even on the first page of the prologue. Again, it strikes me as a bit unsubtle, but OK. I rather like being on the lookout for quartets. "Jack? Jack! Jack! Jack!"

Another corner piece is the "King of the Sky" - "Queen of the Sea" couplet. Should be interesting to see how Malone connects the modernish magic of the airplane with the exotic magic of an Incan totem. This is totally stream-of-consciousness, but I just saw Star Trek Into Darkness last night and something about this reminded me of the Kirk-Spock-Khan timeline reshuffling. But what's with the pink baseball cap?

I like reading about speed-obsessed impatient Annie, though I'm kind of groaning at the daddy issues. One thing really bothered me. She's driving her Porsche Carrera at 95 MPH over country roads while talking on her cell phone with probably-going-to-be-love-interest Vice Sgt. Dan Hart. (give-away name/title!). Doesn't she know how DANGEROUS that is????

Please no spoilers in the comments, ok?

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