Review: Good Storytelling with flaws
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 01 7, 2014
I enjoyed this story in general, but there were some recurring structural flaws that left a feeling of dissatisfaction with the overall experience.  There is raw storytelling talent here, you want to know what happens next, the plot moves along at a good clip with action interspersed by some internal character "stuff".  Characterization was the biggest weakness, there was a lot of  the author telling you about a character's personality rather than illustrating through dialogue, action, reaction  etc.  It's almost as though the main protagonists' were sketched out as having certain traits and then the nuanced work of shading those traits into the telling of the tale was abandoned to get to the next sequence of action.  I kept reading about how " seemingly cold and unfeeling Jon Radec was, when he really cared deeply and so put up a shell"- in those words.  However the character was more one dimensional, caring in his actions story wise, with an almost contradictory reputed character only ascribed through the words of other characters with little convincing portrayal to back it up.  Most major characters had this lack of nuanced portrayal, I was TOLD about the complexity of their characters, not shown.  This leaves you with a wrinkled brow when you finally put the book down.  There were also way too many spelling mistakes, some with homonyms and some where words were replaced with a similar sounding, oft misused substitutes.  Feels like a well fleshed out draft of a good tale.