Review: Incomplete with Weak Premise
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 03 25, 2014
While not many will debate the fact that M. R. Mathias can write epic fantasy, it is not clear that he knows how to craft a short story. With Foxwise, the premise of the story is that the three heroes must go to the towers to get the shard so that the Queen can set up a beacon for a new champion to come save them all.Mathias never expounds on the dangers at hand that are putting their world at an extinction level event. Seems to me like this would be a critical part of the suspense in the story, but all that is mentioned is a tossed off line about a dying tree branch and a witch.The story plays out more like a first person video game where Foxwise is the player. First you go to the Queen and get your assignment, next you travel to the lair of evil and magic where your treasure lies buried. You fight creatures and solve puzzles while using magic to find the hidden treasure. Trite huh?There was more written about the Dire Rats than one of the three protagonists. During the final battle, things are unclear.The ending made it obvious that this was just a puff piece to promote the Vanx Malic series, and not a very good one. It has what I call a moment in time ending, where it just cuts off after making a statement and you can't believe the book is over, so you look for more pages, but they don't exist. It is a cheap effort by authors to get you to purchase further books. I find it insulting. I know it is popular to resort to these tricks to extort revenue from readers, but I would buy more books from an author who gave me a satisfying ending while keeping enough questions unanswered for a sequel. Just my humble opinion.If you have read the other Vanx Malic books, then you will probably like this, otherwise, skip it.