Review: Great Promise Unfulfilled
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 09 11, 2013
In The Starfall Knight, Ken Lim creates an interesting fantasy world in which societies live on floating chunks of rocks.  When marauders, shown through the lens of the do-whatever-it-takes-to-survive Alessa, come into contact with a rich, technologically-developed culture, experienced through the ranger-who-once-made-a-huge-mistake-that-everyone-in-the-book-brings-up Devan, conflict follows.Why to buy this book: Compared to other indie fantasy novels I've read, the writing is pretty decent, especially the action sequences.  The story is coherent, and the book is, overall, readable.  The best thing about the book is the unique world.  Another review related it to pirates running around on floating islands.Why not to buy the book: While the author puts in a lot of good, interesting developments and character-building, sometimes knowing what to cut is just as important.  Take this exchange:"Hey, what's up?  I'm John.""Paul.  Nice to meet you.""Same here.  Where's Officer Jones.""He's right over there.""Great.  Thanks."Did that fill you with excitement?  Did you feel the tension?  I didn't.  In fact, I feel that kind of exchange draws all tension from the story, and the author repeats versions of this over and over and over and...  By the end of the book, I dreaded any character coming into contact with anyone else.  If you feel that complaint is a bit nitpicky, understand that it's symptomatic of the author not knowing what to edit.  This book could have been so much improved by cutting about 5,000 words in the right places.  Of less concern to me but still a problem were some minor plot and character issues.Bottom Line: Again, this novel is more readable than a lot of indie fare that I've come across, but it misses being good.  I can only give it 3 stars.