Review: Unrealistic fantasy, unsatisfying resolution--"purity of heart"!?
Rating: 1 out of 5
Date: 05 7, 2014
Bumbling hero magically able to save the day by the purity of his own heart & soul. After struggling with rage and the power of anger which nearly consumes him, Thomas merely steps back, says, "Oh, anger is a bad idea" and promptly pushes away his anger to fight from pure motives. Seriously disappointing.The main character's abilities are completely unrealistic, even in a fantasy context. Studying swordsmanship for three hours is NOT enough training to allow a man new to warfare to hold his own in a duel with a seasoned warrior for any length of time. A few extra days of training should not enable him, white hot with anger, to defeat a much more experienced fighter.Similar problems with healing time and ability to do magic... Author says Thomas wasn't doing as well at magic as at swordfighting, yet he can challenge the most powerful and dangerous man in the world at BOTH?He presses himself to his limits-physically and magically-almost passes out and then finds the strength to run up a mountain, fight a series of battles, and attend to business? The author did better about the realism aspect (having him stay passed out for a while, needing time to recuperate) early on in the story. Towards the end, things are a bit rushed and decrease in believability.Thomas's virtues appear to be a general concern for the welfare of others, loyal love for his adopted family, and a profound depth of stubborn resolve. While these are good traits, they are hardly rare enough to be magically "powerful" and certainly do not make a man "pure in heart." You want to say the younger stronger (amateur, untrained) wizard won the battle--fine. But don't say it was a because of his purity of heart unless you've spent the whole book painting him as some kind of saint. (Which the author didn't)Thomas's thoughts reveal his belief that family is the only thing that truly matters to him. No reference is made to honesty, integrity, truth, justice, righteousness, a higher power, or a system of values. Thomas experiences little to no moral growth as a character. In short, Thomas's character is too shallow to make his "victory from purity of heart" remotely believable.The falling action is approximately nill--the conclusion is pages after the climax. Comments on climax... see above. If Thomas was to be the Hero, he needed to develop more as a hero along the way. Details of his journey were too lightly sketched to give the reader a sense of growth or progress toward maturity. If he was supposed to a regular guy who saved the day, then seriously, what's with the multi-part "glorious" final showdown? Just point out that his overconfident enemy made fatal mistakes and have done with it.Seriously disappointed. Maybe if hitting the Others with the re-vamped sword had revived the people...? Then the good guys could be accomplishing something worthwhile, gaining reinforcements during the battle. If all they needed to do was yell, "Hey, come out you stupid enemy!" to get the enemy officers to emerge, why have them wait until they are Exhausted before they think of that?At least have a character go, "Oh duh. That would have made things easier." No smart-aleky characters and hardly anyone asks questions or voices doubts or general protests... oh well. I guess I expected too much. It was only $0.99