Review: Solid fun (for certain values of fun)
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 12 20, 2013
I'm terrible at talking about what I *like* about a book. What works for me depends a lot on what I'm in the mood to be reading. I am usually much more clear about what I don't like, so I want to preface this review with two statements:1. Yes, there are still plenty of proofreading errors throughout the book. (As of when I picked it up in late November 2013.)2. I checked the book out for free as a Prime member, and then bought it and the sequel.And, I think that sums up my feelings about the book pretty concisely if you don't want to read further.Knowing that this book started as an episodic web enterprise goes a long way to explaining what I consider the two biggest problems with the story: the pacing is poor and the writing is not as lean as it might otherwise be. This *feels* like an outstanding second draft of a NaNoWriMo project that needed one or two more go-rounds with the editing pen to trim some of the scenes that don't add substantially to the overall plot.One of the positives of the episodic writing is that you spend a lot of time with the characters. The downside is that there's little economy of phrasing. Combat scenes take up multiple chapters, and it feels like watching Yu Gi Oh (or, for the older readers, the current season of How I Met Your Mother): lots of words, little forward motion of the story.In addition, the stakes don't exist until you get to the very last 10-15% of the story when something occurs that had no foreshadowing at all. I believe the tension of discovery of what makes the kids "special" is supposed to be there, but I never felt it. SpoilerNotSpoiler: when the outing occurs, it's not even the biggest news on the page.The story was a slog to get into. I had no idea why it was taking so long for things to happen. I don't know what kept me going throughout the book except that at some point, I acknowledged that I had nothing else I wanted to read, and perhaps the story just needed to unfold over the entire four books instead of this one. By the time I finished it, I was interested enough to pony up the cash and buy my own copy (despite the fact that I could keep it as long as I like as a Prime member, and the book is online for free anyway).I'm hoping that Hayes has a plan that will ultimately satisfy.