Review: Somewhere between a two and three star rating.
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 06 12, 2012
This has all the elements there to be a great story.  An original storyline, interesting characters, fantastical environments, and a few surprises.  The bad news?  It all happens so quickly, you almost don't care that it happened.  There is no suspense built, there is no getting to know the characters, there is no developing the storyline.  Yes, I understand it is a novella, but there was WAY too much going on for this story to have been taken on as a novella.  It failed.  This would have made a GREAT book if she would have taken the time to build her world, make us care about the characters and give them actual reasons for doing the things they are doing.The book jumps erratically from one scene to another, and flies through the action without giving us any real feeling to the actions.  Someone DIED and it was glossed over, a whole place EXPLODED and nothing was really told about it - other than she wanted out...YIKES.  Could have been a great scene, but wasn't worth more than skimming over when it was all said and done.I would give it three stars for the ideas and the environments. One star on the pacing, and two and a half stars on the writing overall.  I just didn't feel much to this. I have the second novella in this series, and I want to read it just to see if the author slowed down at all - I really see her potential, but it just isn't shining through.  Maybe the next one will be better.