THE novel does not lack life or color.

I think this cautious, deliberative nature is paradoxical, for just as that slow carefulness provides astonishing and burnished prose, his novels lack momentum and urgency.

According to Prakash Chandra Gupta, "while containing seeds of his future greatness in many ways, the novel is still youthful and lacks the discipline which full maturity brings".

That doesn't mean the novels lack verisimilitude.

Butler points out that Austen's novels lack depictions of female mentors or authority figures.

In truth, such a novel would have lacked a proper ending.

Not that Abrahams's novels lack a compass.

Norman's novels of the 1970s lacked some of the power of his earlier work.

Her novels seem awkward and contrived and lack the unity and grace of her finer stories.

Benioff's novel is under-researched and lacking in psychological insight.