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Title: Ponderous
Review: I was a big fan of Mr. Garland's debut novel "The Beach," less so of "The Tesseract," and while I was entertained by his latest effort, I can't say it compares favorably to the narrative drive and thrill of his first book. "The Coma" is essentially a short story interspersed with some interesting wood cut illustrations by his father that really serve little purpose beyond bulking up the page count. You keep turning the pages in hopes that some sort of narrative thread will be picked up, only to discover by book's end that you're more-or-less right back where you started with little illumination, and you'll be hard-pressed an hour later to even remember the characters' names.Still, Garland is a talented writer and I will keep buying his books in hopes that the next one will achieve the same literary heights as his debut.
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