SciFi / Fantasy / Horror
Plot: Creating many subplots is risky, but here the author manages to pull them together and hold on to the main premise of the story, preparing the eager reader for Book 3 at the end. It seems there is never a dull moment, with plenty of twists and cliffhanging chapters. Even though this was a second novel in the series, most readers will not have an issue picking up the plot.
Prose: At times it seems there too much of a shift in the tone between characters, making those that are human seem sarcastic and less serious about the circumstances and those that are fantastical more in control of the situation through their language. It is hard to tell if this is intentional, but it seems to make light of the current situation.
Originality: Ash has created an unusual world with a blend of characters in different lifeforms. Readers may be surprised to find zombies, humans, vampires, and shapeshifters all living among each other in a world that is recognizable as Earth, as well as an immersive original planet.
Character Development: Characters are courageous here, and readers will root for some while hope others meet their demise. Main and supporting characters are well-developed and even throughout the book. Strong female characters are always a plus in a fantasy novel like this.
Plot: Well-paced and often exciting, author Wilborn's first volume in his "King of Caves" series unspools its journeys and mysteries with confidence. Wilborn combines familiar epic fantasy elements -- a boy of mysterious provenance from a backwater town called to adventure -- with an entertaining chase plot, showing readers enough of villain Lord Evasius' scheming to generate suspense. That said, there's little suspense in story beats involving a prophecy and the temporary sundering of a fellowship, as only newbies to epic fantasy won't guess their resolution.
Prose/Style: Wilborn's tale deserves high marks for its compelling, purposeful prose. While the novel is long, Wilborn wastes few words. He crafts memorable sentences, describes action with rare vigor and clarity, and sometimes pens passages of beauty. The hero, Kurian, seeing a star for the first time in his life, makes for a moving and evocative scene. Occasional passages detailing the history of the land of Pallingham are suitably mythic.
Originality: That prose distinguishes a story that in outline too often resembles epic
fantasies of a generation ago, reveling in old tropes rather than upending or interrogating them.
Character Development: The novel is at its most compelling when in the head of protagonist Kurian, a young acolyte who struggles some in the role of prophecy-touted adventurer. In the strongest passages, he responds to the beats of a fantasy story like an actual person might. The rest of the cast tends toward stock types, though the (often absent) heroine Louise is a warm and welcome presence, mostly because Wilborn invests great energy into her passion for horses.
Plot:The plot moves steadily and mostly linearly, with occasional flashbacks as the protagonist, Marra, uncovers additional information about her parents and their role in the state of the global crisis. The novel is a contained story with a satisfying ending that concludes character and plot arcs.
Prose/Style:The writing is direct and succinct. Descriptions are clear and efficient without dwelling too long and slowing down the pacing. The dialogue similarly flows well and aids in the steady pacing of the book.
Originality:The premise is original and unique. The author has cleverly extrapolated a modern scientific problem, wildlife conservation, into an exciting sci-fi premise. Marra’s efforts to stop the mass killing of animal species being seen as a hindrance to human progress provides a nice parallel to the current conservation crisis.
Character Development:The story’s strengths lie in its setting and plot, but the characters do support the story nicely. The supporting characters, in particular Kate, are memorable and do have some nuance. While government officials--including the American president--are depicted, the role of the villain is largely faceless here, and the book would have benefited from a clear and developed character antagonist.
Blurb:An exciting tale of a young woman determined to protect wildlife, even in a world where animals have evolved into giants with the power to wipe out humanity.
Plot: While the second half of the novel brings in several fairly predictable elements that help announce the truth behind the story’s mystery and ending, the first half is riveting enough to grab readers’ interest and hold it through the entire book.
Prose/Style: The prose is energetic and moves along at a nice clip, particularly in the main characters’ POV scenes and the historical flashbacks.
Originality: Though containing predictable elements--the historical flashbacks telegraph part of the mystery and ending--there are enough twists and red herrings, such as the contradicting survivor stories and those stories challenging the forensic report, to much compensate for the novel's flaws.
Character Development: The most interesting developments comes from learning what several “stuck in place” characters finally have done to break out of their imprisonments. A twist brought on late in the book by Jeremy, however, seems jarring, because his earlier POV scenes occasionally seem to contradict his actions and backstory; more clarification here might help guide readers.
Plot: The author delivers a novel that challenges more conventional ideas about goodness and evil, thus providing a degree of psychological and philosophical dimension to the work.
Prose: Pavlik’s prose is fluid and impactful, evoking an atmosphere steeped in dread and darkness, but lightened by romance. Moments of heightened language call to mind classic works of vampiric literature to an extent that can feel overplayed. Ultimately, however, the author demonstrates a clear proficiency with writing horror fiction.
Originality: Vampire novel’s are invariably derivative to a degree. While Pavlik’s work features familiar elements of paranormal romance and vampire fatigue may weigh it down for readers, it simultaneously demonstrates that there is still some fresh blood to be drawn from the overcrowded genre.
Character Development: Pavlik creates multidimensional characters who aren’t solely defined by their circumstances or relative humanity, and whose backstories are convincingly established.
Plot: The plot moves at a steady, if sometimes dragging, pace and features enough suspense to keep the reader engaged. The larger scenario and setting are interesting, and the central conflict becomes more and more compelling as it is further revealed.
Prose/Style: While there are occasional moments of strong descriptive writing, for much of the book the prose is serviceable but rarely memorable. Often it feels like the narration is limited too closely to the characters and not given enough space to elaborate. The dialogue feels a little too polished and lacks authenticity.
Originality: The scenario is inventive, and once fully revealed the primary conflict has interesting moral and philosophical implications. The characters and plot appear to be original and unique.
Character Development: Many of the supporting characters are role-players that lack dimensionality. The protagonist, Nicole, has a satisfying character arc that aligns nicely with the plot, though her interiority doesn’t always keep pace. The book would have benefitted from distancing the narration somewhat more from the protagonist.
Plot: "The King Who Disappeared" boasts an inventive and engaging plot that incorporates a time jump, revenge taken centuries after an earlier act of vengeance, government corruption and street-level politics, all bound up in a quest plot complete with a treasure hunt. Some rich thematic questions about the nature of leadership rise up naturally from all of this. The story would benefit from a slower pace, less abrupt ending, and more convincing, lived-in detail about this world.
Prose/Style: The pared-down prose varies between a tight crispness, a fabulist simplicity, and too often a thin and somewhat generic simplicity. Key scenes, especially those involving action or combat, read like sketches, and readers often are quickly told about important or emotional events without being invited to experience them along with the characters. This is especially true with the book's material about a working class struggling under a corrupt ruling family's "wage restrictions."
Originality: The book's main thrust is fresh, even inspired: A fantasy interrogating the difference between a king and a president, asking whether violent revolution could truly improve the lives of the populace, and whose plot turns cleverly on the importation of peat moss. But the world of Gundarland and the city Dun Hythe is thinly detailed, exhibiting only a few distinctive facets, like its sneeze Big Bang and its Troll Patrol. This lack of specific or striking detail limits reader engagement.
Character Development: Quense wittily reduces his novel's heroes to archetypes and then to an almost abstract force for justice sweeping across Gundarland to confront the characters who truly command his attention: the villains. These include a centuries old king "dwelf" king, his two scheming and comically greedy offspring, and an undead halfling vicar figure, all scheming against each other in the book's strongest scenes. Also quite compelling is the meritorious bureaucrat who must team up with the Godmother crime lord for protection and to right some wrongs. The characters would shine brighter, perhaps, if their schemes were more complex or faced greater complications.
Plot: Into the Mindsai intriguingly revamps the Christian creation myth as it attempts to lend it a scientific bent. The work also draws heavily from the chapters of Revelation.
Prose/Style: Ratcliff has provided structurally well-crafted and easy-to-understand prose that can at times suffer from hyperbole and overwriting.
Originality: On the surface, Into the Mindsai has the potential to be a wholly unique sci-fi take on memory creation and its potential effects on our world, but the heavy reliance on Christian allegory makes the twists easy to see and detracts from the intended emotional punch.
Character Development: Ratcliff competently builds characters, notably Dr. Sebastian "Bash" Silva, a cyber psychologist working in the field of memory. Individuals' actions and conveyed motivations serve to enrich the story.
Plot: Thesken fills this sci-fi story with colorful details, but the plot suffers from being disjointed and lacking in structural or developmental cohesion and would benefit from more organization.
Prose/Style: The author effectively describes action sequences and establishes setting. Dialogue can come across as forced, though, and, at times, implausible.
Originality: Thesken integrates fresh elements into an otherwise familiar story of an encounter between an alien being and an unsuspecting human. An eleventh hour twist is unsurprising.
Character Development: The characters do not always show depth or individuality – notably, Reva, whose exotic beauty remains her most pronounced trait.
