Review: Meh. . . Feels Like a Draft
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 09 26, 2012
3.5 starsFirst off - this book was generously given to me in exchange for an honest review. While I hate to be anything other than nice, I am going to stick with honest.This book follows a tried and true storyline thus far, with few minor variations thus far. That wouldn't be too problematic by itself, but the characters remain, for the most part, rather two-dimensional. One would hope that by the end of 227 pages the characters wouldn't remain quite so flat.Of the four main characters, Seth seems to be the most prominent character, and thankfully the most developed, as he lives in his head a great deals- thus sharing far more with the reader than the other three. Ashton is a decent character with some serious room to grow, but also already fairly well defined in the traditional pantheon of characters one finds in an adventure book with a major war looming on the horizon. And Seth's twin brother Garrett is also pretty generic, though there are a few glimpses that show him to be developing into either a hero or, if viewed through a different lens, an enemy of the state. But that is yet to be determined, if it is determined at all. And finally there is Seth's beloved, Sara. Gackk! How annoying can one character get? If she doesn't develop a backbone and sense of self worth in the very near future I'm going to want to see her killed off, and soon!The romance between Seth and Sara is off the charts unrealistic for me. Not too mention utterly boring and beyond saccharine. But hey, to each their own. And maybe they will grow up, but as of the end of book one they are both still neurotic messes, with Seth only slightly less so. At least Seth's neuroses make some sense, particularly in light of his mysterious relationship to a particular goddess. There isn't much beyond speculation at this point anyhow.There are parts of the book where the writing and story flow together seamlessly, but they are too few and far between for me, which could explain why I put this book down and read several others before resuming and finishing this one. However in my experience the second book is often better than the first - at least when the first book is lacking but has the potential to grow. So I won't write this trilogy off, but I'm not going to run out and buy the second book right away either.