1 out of 4 stars
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According to Charles Bentley, Followers of Lightning is based on a true story. The novel offers what could have been a compelling narrative if not for the issues that marred its pages. The book takes readers to the lead character’s troubles in England and the effect of his home country’s (Zimbabwe’s) economic decline on his early years. In addition, the narrative takes readers on a hike through the rocky mountains and lands of South Africa in search of rock art and indigenous medicinal plants.
After losing his job, the main character of this novel, a botanist, sends his CV in countless directions without success. At first, his long-term girlfriend supports him, but as the state of his joblessness lingers, their relationship dynamic shifts. Insecurities, depression, and uncertainties over his new reality dig deep into their beings. Will their relationship survive the challenges life throws at them? Just when he’d resigned to his new situation and struggles, a ray of hope shines through in his life, when he receives an offer that requires him to travel to Africa as a bioprospector in search of medicinal plants that will be of use to the pharmaceutical industry. While there, he is introduced to a plant with special properties used by the San people. Initially, he is excited by ‘his find’, but the more he reflects on it, the more he realizes that in order to do his job, he would have to steal from the local people. Conflicted by his desires to make money, ‘discover’ something that might benefit others, and keep the secrets of the San people, what will his ultimate decision be?
What stood out to me most was the first-person narrator’s interesting and sometimes poetic descriptions of his surroundings. His insightful commentary about places he had lived in intrigued me and often left me with much to ponder on, especially because I’ve had extended visits to the countries discussed. Another aspect I liked was that there was good description of characters and that the main character had depth and an interesting backstory.
There were aspects of the book that I found underwhelming. I attribute this to the structure of the plot being disorganized at times. There were times when the situations the characters’ found themselves in got intense only for the build-up of the plot to completely fall flat. Strangely, there were also instances where things just seemed to happen with no tension or build-up to the event. Additionally, there were no chapter titles or numbers to indicate the beginning of different chapters. Further, some of the chapters seemed to end and begin abruptly at random places in the story, making the narrative feel somewhat discontinuous.
Other issues I encountered in other parts of the narrative included a number of choppy sentences that gave the writing an unsophisticated feel. In addition, there are numerous grammatical errors present in the text. Most of these errors were the omission of commas after introductory words and phrases and the misuse of commas. These grammatical failures interrupted the flow of the narrative.
There is a lot of potential in this story. However, the copy I read didn’t read like a publish-ready copy due to the issues found. It’s clear that this book needs an editorial perspective, and once all its issues are sorted out, it will be well on its way to being a worthwhile read. I really liked the informational bits about the indigenous people, various places visited, and medicinal plants. As a result, I went back and forth over the rating of this book, but ultimately, the cons of this book weighed it down, which is why I rate it 1 out of 4 stars.
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Followers of Lightning
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