In one line: Not as good as advertised.

After lots of raving recommendations to read “1Q84″, by Japanese author Haruki Murakami, I finally forced myself out of my reading-comfort zone and finished the book.
Set in a world of parallel universes, religious cults, and imaginary creatures, this book could definitely be classified as fantasy, which is my favorite reading genre.
Yet, while the book is so beautifully written that it is hard to put down, I was not impressed.
Maybe because I spend the bulk of my reading-time getting lost in the greatest fantasy and sci-fi around, I was not mentally nor emotionally satisfied with the under-developed plot in “1Q84″. It reads like a book meant to appeal to the generic bestseller list, as opposed to those of us who really treasure good fantasy fiction.
Murakami is definitely an exceptional writer. I’m sure that many things were lost in translation, but I was still completely taken by the beauty of sentences and paragraphs. The words fit together magically, and that is never an easy feat. Yet, beautiful sentences aside, the book’s build was too stretchy. There were many times, especially towards the beginning and the end, when the only thought on my mind was “Enough repeating!” It just felt like he stretched things on purpose to make the book of epic length.
Over all, I’d give it a 3/5, and mostly for pretty sentence structure. In terms of plot, there is nothing new nor particularly interesting. In terms of character development, most characters were not that interesting, and in fact, copy-pastes of each other.
I’d recommend it if you want to dip your toes into fantasy. But, if you already have read real works of fantasy and sci-fi, stick to the pros.
Other book reviews on AndFarAway:
The Millennium Trilogy
The Mists of Avalon
All My Friends are Superheroes 




The Lord of the Rings 




His Dark Materials 




Persepolis 




Harry Potter 




Blood and Gold 




1984 




Twilight 




Maus 




Fatal Identities 




Cry to Heaven, Anne Rice 




The Time Traveller’s Wife 




The Alchemist 




Eleven Minutes