Review: Very Imaginative but Needs an Editor
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 10 6, 2012
It seems I must be the dissenting opinion.  I read the other glowing reviews of this book and wonder.  Maybe I have an earlier version (March 15th, 2012) and the reviews were written about a newly edited version that I haven't seen?  Maybe there's something else I don't understand?  If this was written by someone in early college or high school, it is an awesome book, but to take its place beside professional fantasy novels, it needs some attention from a talented editor experienced in content editing, line editing, and copy editing, and maybe even a little consistency checking.The story is wonderful.  The author's imagination is fresh and vibrant.  The characters are done well.  The plot and action are also done well with a few places that are truly fresh and surprising.  I would never use the word "formula" to describe this fantasy book.There are some passages that are truly beautifully written, but then there are lots of others that make my teeth grind, especially when the word choice is just plain discordant. That's when I put the book down and go read something else for a while. It's a beautiful story that would benefit from some general cleaning up that an editor's eye could bring to it.I find myself very conflicted about my opinion of the book.  On the one hand, I couldn't wait for it to be over so I would cease to come across those messed up passages, but on the other hand, I couldn't just stop reading because I had come to care about the characters and the land of Paraysia enough that I had to know how it ended.All in all, it wasn't a very enjoyable reading experience, but the imagery and ideas were impressive.