Review: Original and Entertaining
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 05 22, 2012
REVIEW OF ARC PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER~I will admit, I was excited to read this story, but I wasn't exactly expecting it to be a amazing, or full of chart-topping creativity -- but it was. It took me a few chapters to fall into the story, but once I was in it, I was hooked until the end.The thing I loved most about the Talisman of El was the fact that the characters were realistic, and that they all had their own voice. The story is third-person, but it's basically from the POV of Charlie, who I just loved from practically the beginning. Charlie is a young teen who has had a lot of tragedy happen in his life, and, seeing his background, and what he goes through at the beginning of the novel (starting a new school, being adopted, trying to fit in), really connected me with his character, and made his struggles throughout the rest of the story seem all the more realistic. And, as the story went along, and other characters appeared, the author really gave the reader a sense of each character as a person, and they all had their struggles and little quirks. This wasn't a "wow, someone has some odd power, and they're amazing, and are going to save the world" type novel; it had heart, and each of the characters had their part to play, and things certainly weren't easy, and didn't exactly fall into place. There was also a nice romantic aspect to the story, though it wasn't the forefront, and it didn't overtake the plot.Aside from the great characters, there was also great dialogue that was often humorous, and intense and informative in the right places. The plot was very creative, and probably one of the best storylines I've seen in quite a while, and though it was a little bit predictable in places, overall, it kept you on your toes, wondering what would happen next. I don't want to give away the plot, but I can say that reading the synopsis of the book did not do the plot justice, and that I was surprised when I really delved into the heart of the story, and found out what it was all about. The author pulled together many ideas -- some known, some not -- to create something that is original, with great Fantasy and Science-Fiction elements, as well as some elements that may be familiar, but that are brought to life in ways I've never seen before. Arcadia, the central "world" in this story, was brought to life by its mythology and different peoples, as well as different "kingdoms".There were a few, mostly technical things, that I didn't like about this novel. The first was the fact that, half of the time the scenes seemed to shift too quickly for me, and in some of them, I would have liked to have seen more content added. This goes for some of the description as well. I would have liked a little bit more description of surroundings -- especially in Arcadia. Inside some of the scenes, the characters either are quickly moving across a landscape, or are pulled from one space to the next, and this threw my reading off a few times, to where I had to read back to fully understand what it was that had happened -- this was added in, I think, for the element of surprise, but after a few uses, it became a bit frustrating. There were also a few details that weren't fully explained upfront, and that were explained afterwards, in odd places, that I would have liked to have seen explained beforehand, with the rest of the explanations.Overall, this was a good story, and I'm definitely looking forward to reading the next book in the series! I would recommend this novel to fans of Science-Fiction and Fantasy, or to anyone who is looking for a creative, original plot, with a book that is a fast, easy read. There was no "content" in the story to mention, and as far as age group, teens -- older and younger -- would enjoy this story, but adults would enjoy it as well. Three of five stars.Alexandra Lanc~Author of: The Foxfire Chronicles