Review: Short Fantasy-Space/Opera-ish Book with A.D.D.
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 05 2, 2014
***slightly spoilers possible...I'll try to keep 'em vague; I received a free copy in exchange for my honest opinion.***Summary: The book starts out with an Elder (king?) who's struggling to keep his planet (Creedor) together. Soon thereafter we meet the king's council through his friend and wizard, (I'll call him Van for short). On that council sits, Jarlod, leader of the military and clearly described baddie. Jarlod murders the king, swipes the throne, and imprisons the wizard. Then, the story skips over to Simon Slogar and his forbidden medical studies. Then, the story skips over to Mara and her hubby and their epic struggle against the fierce Creedorian weather. No wonder the story's called Creedor, that's about the only common theme between all those character sketches.Neutral:- Dialogue got forced sometimes. (It happens, not a huge deal.)Good:- It's reasonably edited in terms of grammatical errors.- There were decent descriptions.- It's clear a lot of thought and tender loving care went into fashioning the world ...What (I thought) it needed:- ... but it needs a map or dictionary or something. Despite it being a short story (basically a novella), I had trouble following a timeline. Long sections would happen within a day and then one paragraph would say days slipped by ...- It was likened to Brandon Sanderson's Way of Kings, but the worldbuilding needs a lot of work. I don't know all that much about politics but we're told Jarlod's the evil Emperor yet all we're shown is sheer incompetence. He outlaws medical practice?? His military tortures officers and their families to get them to admit to incompetence? (Why bother? The risk of making an enemy of him who once served you should probably rule out that particular method of persuasion.)- Subtlety. Everything's spelled out.- A sense of closure at the end. I sense a disturbing trend in e-books being shorter and serialized without the sense of a decent, episodic sense of closure.Conclusion: It was okay, but I think I'll pass on a sequel. I'd recommend Mirror of Stone if science fiction stories appeal to you. (Similar vein but better storytelling.) If the things I thought Creedor needed don't bother you one whit, go for it. Some people clearly enjoyed it. It is a quick, easy read, but I personally felt it meandered to nowhere.