Review: Recommended.
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 18, 2013
Book Review: Destiny Of Coins by Aiden JamesReviewed by J Bryden LloydWriting Style - 4.0/5.0 (Very Good)In this third part of the series, I felt the stronger narrative had returned, along with a better balance between descriptive and dialogue, something I felt went a little off-target in the second part.As a whole, the flow was far nicer to this book, giving the characters just a little more realism. Undoubtedly there is room to develop this further, but for a young adult target audience, this is pretty much on the money.Character Development - 4.0/5.0 (Very Good)You would think, after two books, that the Judas character is pretty much a done deal with regards to development. Not so, but although we get a couple of new insights into the soul of our main man, I felt they were not without cost to the others.The son, Alistair, and potential daughter-in-law, Amy, are this time called into the action, but for me, neither had a genuine impact from a development point of view. In fact, I found the Amy character to be rather incidental.For the rest of the small cast there is some nice, subtle development, but nothing over-bearing to the plot, which they all sit nicely in.Descriptive - 4.5/5.0 (Excellent)Once again, the detail throughout is excellent. Clearly a trademark of this author.The locations and events are, as always, vivid and considered, giving the reader a bounty of visuals to build upon and enjoy. Again I felt the plot was very event-driven, and again the strong descriptive assisted greatly. In addition, some of the more `illusionary' characters were outstandingly portrayed.Language & Grammar - 4.0/5.0 (Very Good)Although the use of the grammar and the punctuation were excellent, I did think that the overall standard of word selection dropped a little in this part.Potentially, that could be down to a far more action-filled and complex plot, but there were no real underlying sub-plots which would have bogged down the reader, so perhaps a little more time building the more accomplished structure of the first two books would have paid off huge dividends for this part.Plot - 3.0/5.0 (Okay) - MINOR SPOILERSParts of this story really shone with excellence; Judas' vision, the temple and the chase through the tunnels being the stand-out elements for me.I did, however, feel that the `temporal shift' (although clearly necessary for the way the plot is built) relies on a huge sci-fi leap by the reader.Don't get me wrong, I'm a lover of sci-fi and not so naive as to believe everything I read, and the idea of the immortal Judas and his pals running around the world is clearly sci-fi, however the characters were previously based within the realms of normality. Suddenly we have an alternative dimension which allows you to travel through time, where great technology exists beyond the reach of normal man.I just felt this was a step a little too far, when previous exploits have been firmly grounded in the here and now.General - 4.0/5.0 (Very Good)Well-written, nicely thought out, and certainly a good continuation of the series; though not (for me personally) the best of the three so far. Again, this part was a little darker and again it was a very good, very enjoyable read.As for recommendation? Definitely yes.4 Stars.