Customer Reviews
Really Hardgoing! - By: J. A. Mcelroy, 12 Nov 2008 
I wish I had read all these reviews before I bought this book. I very very rarely give up on a book, but I amin "grave" danger of not finishing this one, & I hate doing that.
I think the author has tried too hard with his narrative, the prose is wordy, & doesn't get anywhere. If I read the phrase "for a long moment" again, I will throw the book out of the window.
I was looking forward to reading this book, but what a disappointment. I am not getting involved with the story or the characters at all, & really have a sense of wasting my time continuing to read it.
Beautiful cover though!
It's not as bad as all that! - By: Snapdragon, 01 Nov 2008 
Gabriel Swift is an orphan who is sent to London by his guardian,in order to learn about anatomy & surgery from the eminent Mr Poll. Gabriel is unsettled & largely unable to connect with those around him , but he does manage to form a companionship with Charles, another surgeon, who introduces him to the seamier side of London life. Gabriel also becomes acquainted with Lucan, a charismatic & dangerous resurrectionist, who seems to be able to blackmail & intimidate many of those he comes into contact with.
When Gabriel's apprenticeship fails, he must find other means of supporting himself (and his opium addiction.)As he falls further & further into addiction & despair, Gabriel must take desperate measuresin order to survive. It is at this point that the narrative becomes begins to reflect how disconnected he is from those around him.
I don't think this book is nearly as bad as some of the other reviewers are saying. It is true that the story is a bit meandering, but really the novel is about one man's journey rather than being plot driven. The only things that I did find incredibly irritating was that Gabriel constantly mentions the meaningful looks he has observed between people & his interpretations of what they might mean. This is clearly ridiculous, & because it happens all the time it becomes annoying. However, I thoughtin general the book was very readable; although perhaps it would be better to avoid if you're either depressed or squeamish!
I give up! - By: LK Howarth, 26 Oct 2008 After two attempts to get into this book, reading it twice from the beginning, I give up! I thought I would try something different to my usual read & was drawn to the book's setting & fancied a bit of gore! However, the plot is weak, it takes so long to get off the ground & you are left flicking through it to find the next bit of gore that the book allegedly promises!
The worst thing about it is the characters. I thought I was being a bit dense at first for getting confused with who was who & I re-read pages & pages of it to try to get my head around it! The problem is that none of the characters are likeable or memorable. 'Mr this' & 'Mr that' all merge into one big 'Mr' & it is frustrating!
I gave up about a third of the way through, before Gabriel even descends into the 'underworld' of body snatching. I just stopped caring to be honest & couldn't be bothered forcing myself to read any more of this shallow dross.
Great subject matter, pity about the narrative - By: kimbofo, 26 Oct 2008 
Having recently read Druin Burch's wonderful biography of the world's first famous surgeon, Astley Cooper (1768-1841), I was rather looking forward to a fictionalised account of the men from the same era who robbed graves to supply the medical profession with fresh corpses to study.
Billed as an historical thriller, The Resurrectionist, by Australian author James Bradley, was chosen as one of Richard & Judy's summer reads, so perhaps I should have known that this would not bode well -- I have never had much luck enjoying anything that this duo has chosen for promotion. Still, because I was fascinated by the subject matter, I was prepared to give it a try.
However, I struggled to enjoy the storyline, not because it wasn't well written -- the prose style is superb -- but because it lacked narrative drive. The best books are the ones that pose a questionin the reader's mind at the outset, forcing you to read onin order to discover the answer, usually at the end. Butin Bradley's Gothic novel I really had no reason to keep reading because I wasn't sure what it was I wanted to find out,in other words, no question had been posed at the start unless, of course, I missed it.
As much as the setting is wonderfully evocative & atmospheric (it would be a very poor writer indeed who could not describe Londonin the early 19th century as such), & the subject matter intriguing (how could the tradein stolen bodies not be?), I failed to identify with the main character, Gabriel Swift.
Mr Swift is a young assistant to Edwin Poll, the greatest of the city's anatomists, a privileged position that could see him make a name for himself as a surgeon at a later date. Instead, he succumbs to the charms of Poll's nemesis, the vampire-like Lucan, a resurrectionist who rules the tradein stolen bodies. From there it's pretty much a downward spiral into crime & opium-addiction.
Later, the book makes an initially unexplained leap to the antipodes where Swift now resides, which made me wonder if I was reading the same book.
Still, I can't say I hated The Resurrectionist. It's got all the right elements for a good read -- fascinating subject, interesting characters, great prose -- but it lacks pace and, most importantly of all for a thriller, suspense, & for that reason I can't give it more than a two-star rating. Others, I am sure, will disagree.
Not as bad as all that? - By: lydia, 21 Oct 2008 The reviews here are universally pretty awful. I don't think this book deserved more than three stars, but it was OK. It took me about 50 pages to get into it, & the plot did desert me at some points, but there was quite a twist towards the end.
By about half way through, I'd switched from forcing myself to read it to wanting to finish it & know the ending. In addition, the writing towards the end (I think because we arein the author's native territory) was quite moving. It certainly lives up to the term 'gothic', though - I got chills up my spine at some of the descriptions of the trade they were involved in!
