Review: Dodge this bullet!
Rating: 1 out of 5
Date: 05 1, 2013
Author Deanna Raybourn truly made a mistake with this slim novella. Far in the Wilds, a free 54-page Kindle download, serves as a prequel to Raybourn's new series set in colonial Kenya in the years immediately after World War I which features Canadian-born big-game hunter, Ryder White. Just imagine the filmWhite Mischief [VHS] crossed with a bad Harlequin romance, and you'll have a pretty good idea of this book. The prequel will diminish sales, not boost interest.Raybourn doesn't miss a single cliché. The dazzlingly handsome white hunter may sleep with most of the lily-white wives in Nairobi, but he nonetheless possesses his own strong moral code. All of the European women drool over Ryder -- except the one woman he truly loves, naturally. Not only is Ryder the handsomest, strongest, and sexiest, he's also harbors the finest bon mots at all times. Think equal parts blond Lawrence Olivier, Jungle Jim and Oscar Wilde. At a time when Europeans treated Africans as serfs in their own country, Ryder, of course, anachronistically shows them every courtesy. Even the Danish royal who plays a large role as a secondary character lives up to every cliché of a pompous princeling.It's a pity. I really love Raybourn's Lady Julia series, which, while exhibiting the occasional misstep, doesn't descend to the level of clichéd romance. Ironically, had Raybourn not released Far in the Wilds, I would happily have bought the first full novel in the series,A Spear of Summer Grass (No), without a second's hesitation, assuming that the novel would be as clever as the Lady Julia novels. Now I feel as if I've dodged one of Ryder's bullets.Oh, that's right! Were Ryder White shooting, he would never have missed! But you can miss Far in the Wilds without a second thought.