Review: Violent Confusion
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 06 25, 2012
This self published book was requested for review by the author on a website I review for.  I will admit that I didn't enjoy the book very much at all.  Some of that would be a personal preference as far as violence goes.  This book went from one violent fighting scene to another with very little in between.  Character development was poor. World building was very poor.There were so many things that didn't make much sense to me.Characters would appear and use some random magic (Floor magic, Weaver magic) but these were never explained.  I have no idea what they are or why someone would be using them.The whole Lazarball thing made no sense either.  Why was the game important?  Where and why did it start?  What is the history?  The Lazarball stadium is described as being VERY large but at one point the two opponents have a conversation and it says that the whole stadium can hear them.  Really?The anumals are mostly walking around upright but then they will get on all fours and run or something.  Do they morph?  Because humans cannot run on all fours and animals can't walk upright for the most part.  The anumals are described as having hands and feet but that would be painful to run on.  If they have shoes on, do they lose the shoes when running on all fours?  I just don't get it.  At one point an anumal throws a "cadaver" over his back and runs "in all haste" on all fours.  Wouldn't the dead thing fall off if the anumal is running?Sabers have the Ocelot brand which is markings up their arms to their elbows.  Well, what is that?  What do the marking mean?  How did they get them?If I hadn't read the synopsis for the book I would have been completely lost as to what the point of the whole book was.  I felt just as lost as Clinton through the whole book.  The sentence I most connected with in the book was, "Clinton tried to piece together what had happened... but his mind felt like a shattered piece of glass." It wasn't until 91% of the book that we actually get a few answers.  That is a long time to keep the reader in the dark as to the why's of everything.  I never did get a history of how anumals came to be and why.  The only idea I have about that is from the synopsis which isn't really enough.  How were the anumals created?  Why?  Why did the anumals destroy their creators?  What happened?  Are there more places in the world like the one that Clinton lives in?On a positive note, I will say that the authors used some great descriptive words.  It is obvious that the authors have either participated in or seen a lot of fighting because all the fighting was very vivid and descriptive.  I admire the attempt and the hard work and effort it takes in writing a full length book.In the end, this book just wasn't for me.