Review: It's...readable
Rating: 1 out of 5
Date: 12 19, 2011
Soul Hunger is a book that suffers from a well-known ailment: "first-book syndrome". The author clearly has a world that she wants to develop, but unfortunately tries to do so all in the first chapter. Paragraph after paragraph of expository background.  The cast of characters is stereotyping 101. We have the tough, scary leader, his straight talking right hand man, the bookish historian and the lover that no one ever rejects (and a couple of less developed others - I guess in case the series needs expanding). Now I know what I'm reading.  When I'm looking at books like this, (as the blurb says: Mehen must protect mortals from the undead... has never struggled with the task--until he saves a woman from three undead, and finds himself in need of saving) I know I'm not passing through the frosty upper echelons of high literature. As a result, my expectations were not that high. Overall, it's not a bad story, it's just not a *good* story.  The plot is roughly handled with some chapters reading as filler between random and pointless sex scenes. The main female character is so bland she was almost irrelevant.There are also the odd turns of phrase that an editor should have caught, "she had never seen a better looking man in person in her entire life." That really is just clunky writing. And then there's, "she regarded him with a small amount of fear lurking in her eyes". An amount of something cannot lurk. Fear can lurk in her eyes sure, but an "amount"?  The English language just doesn't work that way. This is what a decent editor should have picked up on and polished with the author.Also a little more attention to word choice is necessary, "I'm sure just being here with you will cause Mehen to wale on (me)." Wale is a horizontal wooden strip for a boat, according to the dictionary. The right homophone is "wail", spelt just like the sound. This isn't being picky - if you're going to "publish" then you need to do it right.Add to that the clunky plot development and inability to  handle the many characters in the story and you have a book that is a bit of a mess. I imagine with practice and an editor who is more attentive, this writer could improve.  Overall, it's readable and as such is worth it's price: $0.00.