Review: Good storyline but graphically violent
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 08 26, 2012
MYTHICAL (Heart of Stone #1) by C E MartinMYTHICAL is a YA/teen novel written in a mixed genre including paranormal, science-fiction, horror and fantasy. The novel and its' characters read like a comic-book storyline without the pictures, but you can use your imagination as the author manufactures an action-reel of adventure with his telling of the story.18year old Josie Winters and her friends are having one final camp-out and dirt bike excursion before heading off to college.  What they didn't expect was to find the charred remains of a boat in the middle of the desert complete with its' own badly decomposing corpse riddled with unnatural wounds and a gaping hole where his heart once beat. But upon closer inspection, it wasn't a body at all, but a statue--or was it?Mark Kenslir needed water.  Finding himself burned, injured and without the ability to heal himself. Mark wanders into a campsite that included a cooler full of bottled water and a group of armed teens ready to end his life-again. But it is Josie who recognizes the badly injured man, and to everyone's horror, it is the corpse from the misplaced ship in the desert.Mark's ability to heal becomes exponentially faster with the addition of water, as does his strength and speed. Weapons, military style manoeuvres and a slew of specialized abilities will come in handy as Mark and his foundlings including Josie and Jimmy, must outrun and out smart the FBI, Special Ops Forces and teams of `super heroes' brought in by the military. But isn't Mark one of the good guys?As Mark's memory returns, he begins to recount to Josie and Jimmy how it is he found himself in the desert and to their horror, Mark is not completely human.  And there are more `parahumans' just like him.  But it was his last assignment that went horribly wrong and Mark knows that whatever he was hoping to capture is still out there-looking for its' next meal. Not only does Mark encounter the `beast' that stole his heart, but he and Josie soon become the targets of the US Special Forces and their elite group of super-human heroes. As the `beast' grows in power, so do the number of missing bodies without a heart.To be honest, I am not sure in which direction to point the reader as it pertains to the age level of the storyline.  The intended audience is young adult, but many of the military references require a guideline for description and definition.  As well, the dialogue is fairly simple, almost adolescent at times, which leads me to presume, it is intended for a younger audience. The passages waver between smart intelligent descriptive narration and then drop to a more-simpler text as though there are two distinct writers.  There is plenty of `blood, guts and gore', graphic violence, dismemberment and beheadings, as well as sci-fi military-style weapons and experiments, and the paranormal phenomenon of otherwordly creatures and shapeshifters. The young adults carry guns, knives and tasers as though they were pieces of jewelry and are quick to use their weapons without benefit of doubt.  C E Martin deftly avoids a complete explanation as to how Mark and the others became part of an elite operation of super soldiers, but reveals small bits of information when necessary for impact.  Like our hero's memory, I guess that information will be revealed a little at a time and on a need to know basis.  Book 2 in Martin's Mythical series should hopefully reveal more about how and why our hero and his fellow super soldiers are the way they are.MYTHICAL is an interesting story and one that will captivate some readers but I found that many of the passages were very violent especially for younger audiences.  Mythical is not for everyone. Although many YA novels are enjoyed by readers of all ages, there should be a warning as it pertains to the graphic nature of the content.Again, MYTHICAL is probably not for everyone.  A number of popular YA novels and series include violent storylines with death and destruction but it is the graphic nature of MYTHICAL that may be too much for some younger readers.  I am well aware that young adult readers are very knowledgeable and most are able to distinguish between reality and fiction, but sometimes a line has to be drawn and if that line is only a few words of warning-CONTAINS GRAPHIC VIOLENCE-then I will be happy.see all of my reviews at : threadingcafe.com