Review: Crossings

Crossings by Alex Landragin
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I am more confused than impressed.

And this is an impressive novel. The scope is massive and the ambition is there, and the stories weave through generations and tell a rather epic tale.

Yet it feels unfinished to me.

The idea: A technique known as Crossing allows a person to transfer their soul into another body. It's an exchange that can either be done with both people aware of it, with neither aware, or with one aware while the other remains unaware. The tale of Crossings is broken into three parts - two shorter stories told by someone who is unaware their soul used to reside in another body, and the third tale, The Albatross, which follows seven lifetimes of incarnations.

The story can either be read in the usual format, or following the 'Baroness Sequence', where chapters are read in a specific order. I read it the classic, front-to-back way, but I think perhaps it would read better in the alternative arrangement. The classic way is three separate stories, whereas I feel that, woven together, they may make more sense and flow a little more cohesively.

I really enjoyed the concept, and inhabiting so many bodies was a lot of fun. I enjoyed the mystery of the first and second books, and trying to unravel what was happening, but when the story of The Albatross came it was rather long and almost tedious. I didn't like the way it was separated.

It's an ambitious device and the story itself is rather fascinating, but it does get a little confusing towards the end and the conclusion is far from satisfactory. It started off as a four star read for me, but by the end I wasn't really sure of the point to it all, and was happy to be done with it.

If you're looking at this one, I would recommend reading the Baroness Sequence, as I suspect that is the stronger version of the story. I'll read it that way myself eventually, but for now I'm quite content to walk away from it.

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