Review: I Want to Believe...
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 02 3, 2012
I want to say all sorts of nice things about this book, but I have to be honest, too. It has a lot of what I consider problems. It has the good, the bad, and the ugly.The Good: characters you can root for. I liked these people (well, the ones I was supposed to like) and wanted to spend time with them. With only a few exceptions, I found the characters to be well constructed with the depth needed to make them real.I liked the plot. It had plenty of "Oh, crap!" moments. Kept me turning the pages. For the most part, the writing was strong enough to keep me reading the book.But about the writing...The Bad: Unfortunately, the author seems to have a serious lack of understanding when it comes to point-of-view. Some readers may not find this a problem. Some readers might be baffled as to why this book feels disjointed to them. I have lots of discussion with writers about POV. This author needs to study POV issues. He constantly hops from one head to another. It was distracting, as if every time I reached for a dorito, someone had eaten the last one, and I had to go out to the kitchen and refill my bowl. Many inexperienced writers think the reader needs to know what everyone is thinking in the scene so we "get" it. But it's tiring. And it's lazy writing. It takes away from the main characters. It often made it hard to know who was speaking, as well. Fixing the POV issues could elevate this book to great heights, but unfortunately, that would require an entire re-write.And then there is the description. The author does description well, but there were too many cases where that intense description was unnecessary. Just a little too much, and I didn't want it or need it.For me, this was especially true when it came to the guns. Now, I'm in no way anti-gun. But I didn't really need to know every detail about every gun's manufacture, history, and appearance. I suppose the aficionados will revel in it, but I expect the average reader will skim with an eye roll.The Ugly: Sorry, but I can't ignore it. The proofreader should be flogged (if there was one). The typos were rampant. Missing punctuation was the worst. Misplaced quote marks made it hard to follow dialogue. Commas: what happened to all the commas? Did the mouse pox wipe them out? It would seem so, and it affected the readability.So, if I didn't think this book had so much potential, I'd have given it 2 stars. I enjoyed it in spite of its flaws. I wanted to give it four stars, but I just couldn't, due to the technical problems. Many readers may not find them problems, but I felt compelled to mention them. I would love to see this book after thorough content and line edits by a professional editor. It has the potential to be 5 stars. Ditto the upcoming sequel. (Mr. Moore, please?)