Review: A little heavey on the Dues Ex Machina
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 01 2, 2013
I read this book in a free preview and it did nicely fill the seven hour flight I was on (and I have a kindle with 700 titles, 341 that I haven't read yet).What drew me in was the initial explanation of the gods and how religions came into play.  I have read ideas where prayers are like food to the gods, or that the gods formed out of the collective will of the masses, or (my favorite) Brian Stablefords philosophical deity battle royal Werewolves of London series.  Laszlo's gods have much more at stake, and their involvement in human day-to-day affairs is almost more terrifying than a suicide bomber's creed.The characters (Seth, his brother Garret, and Ashton, their friend with supernatural healing powers) weren't fleshed out.  Often motivations were spelled out phonetically making them seem stiff and cardboard instead or organic.  I did read a review that compared this series to Twighlight, and while I disagree heartily, they do share a commonality in explaining themes.  While Twighlight mentioned Romeo & Juliet twelve times in forty pages, the romance between the main characters (Seth and Sara) is thoroughly,  assiduously, carefully, completely, comprehensively, conscientiously, earnestly, efficiently, exceedingly, exceptionally, extremely, flat out, from A to Z, from top to bottom, fully, hard, highly, hugely, in and out, in detail, inside out, intensely, intensively, meticulously, notably, painstakingly, remarkably, scrupulously, strikingly, sweepingly, through and through, throughout, unremittingly, told for several chapters.  They know each other for two days. I know teenagers do this, but reading about it was difficult.  Also, the Sara character seemed insipid with no real motivations or skill.  It was as bad as the character in my own book [...] (It's for sale, but I don't recommend it).I was caught up in the adventure, and I thought that the "small town to big adventure" was handled well, without cliche.  All stories have to start somewhere, and the great fantasy's start out on common ground; Hobbiton, Shady Vale, etc.  This one begins in Vineleaf, has the obligatory "these are our weapons and skills" moments, tearful goodbye's, and so on.  Laszlo doesn't make it boring, though!  I've read this kind of beginning, and while old-hat readers of fantasy can get bored with it, it is one of the few ways to quickly introduce the reader into who they are dealing with and what the world at large is.My only real complaints were the good fortune (or Author Ex Machina) that the characters seem to have.  It bothered me about the Lord of the Rings when all the hobbits rested up in Tom Bombadil's house and he sang them ENDLESS songs and fed them and made them comfortable.  To me it undermined the seriousness of their journey.In Goldings Lord of the Flies, we are spared of the demise of Ralph by the perfect arrival of a Naval Officer (Golding admitted that he wrote that ending convey to the audience the terrible fate which would have afflicted the children (in particular Ralph) if the officer had not arrived at that moment).In the Choosing, I know that the god's have their hands in the affairs of mortals in this book, but I felt like the author had his hand in it a little more.  The Seth character is given a gift for Ashton's miracle.  Why?  The hero's pay half price, all others pay full.  Why?  The motivations of these secondary characters seemed tacked on and forced.  It seemed too easy that with no training in weaponry, the protagonists would defeat a skilled assassin.  Seth wins the girl by looking mean.If the god's acted so obviously would there not be more suspicion among the characters?  I expected at least one character to say "Well, that was easy."  To me, that would have been a little smoke blown to cover the author's hand, and make the good fortune slightly more sinister.I recommend this book to young females who don't read very much fantasy.  It's a good deviation from some of the more popular teen fiction out there.  As a thirty three year old male I will probably not read the rest of the series, especially if Sara is still in it.