Review: 2.5 for Great Start, Mediocre (LONG) middle and end
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 07 26, 2013
***Received Free copy for honest review. mild spoilers possible***High Points: Great imagination. The scenes set in the fantasy D&D; world are excellent and fun. Decent descriptions.I can forgive the author for introducing a new character in ch. 35 just because he wrote "for the glory of the Horde!".Low Points: P.O.V. switches like crazy. Short chapters are good things, but changing the character point of view every half page can get old really quickly.The reactions didn't seem very realistic. They're mostly very cool with things then there are random sections of about 10 kindle pgs where the dialogue consists of nothing but variations of OMG.Characterization: Starts off okay, but then spins to nowhere. Basically, there are just too many main people and not enough for them to do. Long version of that: There are a lot of main characters, and as such, it's hard to keep track of them. Adam and Michelle seem important but then toward the middle and the end of the book their roles become nothing. Agent Mathew Banks of the FBI has quite a few sections but he still seems to go nowhere as a character. The old man's entries are sporadic at best, yet we get the feel he's supposed to be important. Brandon and Tim both have magic, yet it seems that there's a lot more focus on Brandon's psionic powers than on Tim. Chelsea pretty much just seems thrown in for the adult scenes. Blake goes off on his own journey to California with a surfer who happens to be driving through wherever they were in the middle of the US.What I Wish: I wish this book were written for a YA audience. The prologue's pretty boring, but then it picks up the pace and gets to the cool parts where they all have vivid dreams of their D&D; style characters. There's good potential here to be an excellent, fast-paced fun story about magic taking over the real world. Unfortunately, the potential hits a lake of meaningless plot points about 1/3 of the way in and never recovers. I can't claim to be an expert on well-written adult scenes, but quite a few of them seem rather pointless. The ending doesn't really tie up much. I think that's because it's going for a sequel.Who Would Like the Book: If you're the sort to crave adult scenes, you may like the book. If you're a bit D&D; fan, it might be interesting to you. If you play WoW, at least the first 1/3 will appeal.