Review: Slow Middle; Interesting Concept
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 03 31, 2014
This book sounded interesting and it started off really well. It starts off with a rivalry between two boys studying a martial art form in a monastery to a goddess.The first time the author switched the main character though, my enjoyment of the story jumped way down. I hate main character switching and the trend toward this in modern stories is horrifying. Every time an author switches heads I am jarringly yanked out of the flow of the story and thrust into a new story; often this is done without any warning leaving me confused as to who I am reading about for a paragraph or tow. Once I realize the author has shifted I have to go back and reread the part I just read because I realize it was from a different perspective.The worst part was the author switched to a character that was the antagonist and was not a character that I could relate to. He was the main antagonist, or so I thought. Even with this double perspective though he continued to be the antagonist and a whiny brat to boost.I thought the idea of the gods that everyone worshiped but different people worshiped one over the other an interesting idea. The idea of a different fighting style for each one was also interesting. This book had a lost to say on racism and religious intolerance, and I enjoyed how the author approached this.But then the book started to drag. All I wanted to do was finish the book and it kept dragging.I came to realize that the one God religion was an analogy for Christians, and most specifically for Catholics. The one God religion forgives you for your sins no matter what you do. As long as you ask for forgiveness after you do something, its OK. All your sins will be forgiven. Forgiveness is a part of the Catholic church, but to be forgiven you have to be truly sorry, swear never to do it again, and have not premeditated it knowing you would be forgiven.The antagonist at one points decides to commit a crime because its for the one God and he could be forgiven later. All that mattered was he fulfill a prophesy. This is the main example of the forgiveness thing I mentioned.This book seems highly influenced by the idea behind the crusades which is that anyone who does not believe in God must be destroyed in his name. For this crusade though, the people never have to leave their land. All they have to do is kill the heretics in the cities.There were also lost of questions left unanswered that I hope the author would answer in a sequel.I enjoyed the beginning and the end of this book. The fight scenes were well written and enjoyable. The story flowed fairly well except for when changing characters. The middle of the book was slow, but filled with interesting concepts.I liked the book for the most part and would recommend this to boys/men that like action filled fantasy books.I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group – Hydra in return for an honest review.