Review: A Dark Read Mixing Sci Fi with Fantasy
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 30, 2012
A friend recommended this book to me and I sure am glad she did. I really enjoyed reading it. Years ago I read a lot of sci fi and fantasy, but haven't had access to as much recently. This book does an excellent job of combining both scientific and magical elements into one exciting story. I am really looking forward to losing myself in the rest of the series.You shouldn't read this book if you like happy, light-hearted books that fill you only with warm fuzzy feelings. The book instead shows and accepts the darker side of the characters and their flaws and we see them clearly. Although the main character might not exactly be considered loveable, but I do find myself respecting and even liking him. It will be interesting to see how he develops as the series continues and to see what other characters end up making of him.In my opinion, this is a very good book that has the potential to be a GREAT book if placed in the hands of a truly competent editor. Unfortunately those seem to be hard to come by and not just with smaller publishing houses. The issues needing attention are two-fold. The basic copy editing/proofreading is quite simply insufficient (I hope it is a matter of insufficiency and not pure incompetence). Beyond that, I think a skilled editor could have helped the author find a way to make the beginning less confusing and easier for a reader to get into. It can be a bit tricky initially to sort out the many characters and influences and the scientific and magical elements. Once you get past the start, any lingering confusions are quickly cleared up.