by Donald McCaig
Whenever I start skimming a book instead of reading it, I know it\’s time to quit and find something better to read. This book just wasn\’t doing it for me after about eighty pages. I probably should have known better than to even try it, after reading several reviews that indicated people who really liked Nop\’s Trials didn\’t care for Nop\’s Hope. I felt kinda marginal about Nop\’s Trials to begin with. In Nop\’s Hope, the focus seems to be more on Penny\’s struggles than on the dogs. And it was the dogs\’ perspectives and descriptions of their work that I really enjoyed in the first novel. The story is told in the same dry, rather choppy fashion, which worked okay when I was half-distracted waiting at the motor vehicle office to get my new lisence, but failed to engage me in the quiet of my home. Time to move on again.
Abandoned 230 pages, 1994
5 Responses
Being a Border Collie enthusiast, I\’ve wondered about these books. But as I\’ve said before, animal books scare me. I cry too much! I\’m glad I don\’t appear to be missing much with this series.Have a great weekend!Lezlie
I\’m glad to have spared you the disappointment!
I just browsed through your review of Nop\’s Trial and wonder if this is something my mother-in-law would be interested in. She breds/raises border collies and goes to numerous trials (she is going to Wales in September with her dog Star). They are such an unusual breed of dog, but its fun to go to their ranch and watch them run the sheep. Sorry this one was a disappointment.
I recently read Jacob\’s Ladder (Civil War historical fiction) by McCaig, and I really enjoyed it, although it was a bit difficult to get into at the beginning. I have been wondering about his other books–maybe I\’ll put them on the back burner for a while!
I\’m a big border collie fan too. (We have one.) Too bad all books written about them aren\’t as wonderful as they are!