Review: Slow start to a good fantasy book.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 12 28, 2012
In short - I give this book (Part 1) a 2.5 for content but I'm rounding up to a 3 because Stark writes really well.I started writing this review and it got quite lengthy, but I think a list will work just as well, so here it goes -1. The description of this book starts with "The Fever struck hard and fast..." but reader be warned, the plot does not. A good portion of Part 1 is filled with William Hill's personal history, which for me was too long.2. Part 1 is really well written but it wasn't what I was expecting from the description of the book. "The Fever" only plays a small part.3. I did go on to read the other parts (5 in all), and was glad that I did. In Part 2 the plot really picks up and you start getting more of the type of things happening that were described in the plot. By the end of Part 2 I was definitely hooked.4. The cover art will eventually make sense if you read the whole book (all the parts).5. You wouldn't know it from Part 1 (and for some people maybe not even from the cover art) but The Island is a fantasy book. The book description doesn't really do the plot justice in this regard.6. I think it was silly that Stark split this book into 5 parts. If he wanted to hook people with the beginning (parts 1 - 3) and then have them pay for the rest (part 4 and the final chapters) then he should have split it into a maximum of 2 parts, not 5.Overall, even though I give Part 1 only 3 stars, I give the book as whole 4 stars. It would have been 5 but the beginning was slow and the ending was kind of off and somewhat rushed compared to the rest of the book.*Review re-posted from Goodreads.com