Alright then, I finished it last night. After digesting a little, I'd say that, overall, I thought it was only decent. There were flickers of greatness here and there, and I suspect that if this had been more of a "main project", rather than a side-one that he wrote in three months, it likely would have turned pretty fantastic. Regardless, I still found it an enjoyable and occasionally amusing read. My thoughts:
- Disciple, as a character, was pretty well realized. I didn't really like his "voice" though. I found it...I'm not sure, grating. The idioms and stuff put me off a bit, and in general there was an air of someone that thinks they're utterly hilarious, but really isn't. I get that Bakker wasn't exactly trying to make a super likable guy here, and I certainly don't need likable characters to enjoy literature by any means, but I felt like Diss just wasn't quite properly executed. The humor is a big thing. I think I just have a somewhat different sense of humor than Bakker or something, at least in the way it translates through his writing. TSA is virtually without levity for me, aside from the absurdity of Xerius's personality and the batshit craziness of Cnaiur. In DotD, I genuinely laughed maybe two or threes times. One was when he said (in reference to the size of Baars' mouth): "I tried to picture him eating a hamburger -- couldn't do it".
- The plot was good, but I did not find the ending very satisfying to be honest. The twists, while surprising, didn't have a lot of oomph for me.
- By far the best parts of the novel are the sequences when he's replaying old scenes in his head, but with a new context. That stuff was a great, and it's a brilliant literary device.
- None of the characters did much for me aside from Diss, Baars, and the cop (having a brain-lapse here on his name). The latter, especially, was very well done. I loved the scene where he draws X's on the map, and all Diss can think about is how gay they look. That got a good chuckle out of me too. I found Molly boring. I'm also still made uncomfortable with Bakker's writing about women. I don't know what it is in particular, but it just...I don't know, makes me feel sticky.
- I liked that, in a weird way, Diss does very little the entire novel that really contributes to the case. He basically just smokes pot and figures everything out in his head while watching CNN, but by then it doesn't even matter. This might be the most hilarious part of the book, really.
- Diss starts farting when he gets into dangerous situations. Brilliantly subversive of genre tropes.
So yeah, those are my off the cuff thoughts. I do have more, particularly in regards to the ties with TSA (especially concepts of memory, of course), but I'm short on time. Again, it was an entertaining read, but I feel like it just lacked enough polish in the big areas (plot, characters, resolution) to be considered a real success. I'd definitely be interested in reading a sequel.