Review: Where to start...
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 08 8, 2012
Well lets go with the mistakes first i guess. There were not alot, not in my version anyway. There were a few times that the author called someone or something by a name other than theirs which could be quite jarring. The author also seems to love exclamation points. I dont think he went a page with at least one on it.Then there is the 'magic'. It is a mind based power that is VERY VERY limited, which is fine. Except the fact that almost everyone from the halfway point on uses it to speak thereby negating any interest i had in it and that is pretty much all it is used for at all, talking.The book it pretty much split in 2, the first half deals with his escape the second after. There is a 3 1/2 year time skip in between which i found annoying as there could have been some good development for the story or characters.As for the characters the are incredibly weak. There is no development, they dont change at all. Some of the more interesting characters and little side plots are ignored or not fleshed out very well. There is not any emotion displayed by them for the vast majority of the book so i found myself not caring whether they lived or died. If i dont care about the main or supporting characters why would i care what they do?As a final thing lets look at the stuff written in the description. Fearsome battles. Ive seen worse descriptions of battles, however barring the strategy used in them they are the same. Saerin is not involved directly therefore we are watching two armies clash not seeing the action firsthand. Political strife? Most of the politics would have taken place during the time skip, everything else was a joke (i wont say more so i dont spoil it). Romance? As other reviewers have said the 'romance' is not expanded on at all past the halfway mark. Treachery, there is one that is easily seen coming and....again got to stop or ill spoil some =/. Great friendships struck and tragic loss suffered. Hard to care about anything liek this stuff when i dont care about the people it involved, not there is much that occurs in this way anyway.Finally there is the comment from  the description: `This is an adult fantasy of some power'Chris Gilmore, Interzone MagazineHe forgot the put the young in front of the adult.Overall the plot was solid enough but everything else. Let me put it this way. You dont buy a pie just for the crust