Ronnie Brown

Coffin Dodgers has a great premise, the idea that the upcoming demographic inversion is worsened by an affliction that prevents many people from having children. This world, populated with old people and inimical to the young, makes for an interesting backdrop, but sadly Marshall never fully realises his vision. The plot is relatively simple, as is the character development, and doesn't develop into the meaty read that it could have been. There is little in the way of character development, no real sense that any of them have changed or learned important lessons over the course of the story (other than the ones that change from alive to dead, which doesn't really count). There's no substantial sub-plot, other than a fairly sparse romantic will-they-won't-they between two of the main characters. And in my opinion, the first person narrative actually detracts from the story, making the prose more laboured than it needs to be. That said, I did want to know what happened next and I did read the whole thing pretty quickly on my phone and iPad. Marshall has sometimes a great turn of phrase and some of the jokes really did make me snort, so I think I'd put him in a 'ones to watch' category. Overall, this isn't a book I would recommend - it read rather like a good first draft than a finished novel - but Marshall is an author I think will do a lot better in the future. He can write just fine, but needs to pay attention to plotting, character development and narrative.… (plus d'informations)