Review: A Wandering Hodgepodge
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 03 23, 2014
I was invited by the Gail Morgan McRae's editor to submit a review on what appears to be her first novel.  At the risk of seeming ungrateful for a free read, I must say that the editor hasn't done her a favor by being easy on her.  There are only a few mechanical (spelling or hyphenation) errors remaining in the book.  But the plotting is more than genre-bending.  It's simply a mess.In this novel we are exposed to a mixture of wizards whose magic we never see used, and an inter-planetary empire ruled by a character who is both mad and stupid.  The governing council for this multi-planet empire resembles a dysfunctional village Chamber of Commerce.  Along the rambling way, McRae treats us to writing styles that run the gamut.  I could not decide whether she set out to write a fairy tale or SF&F.;  There is some of both here.  The book, if one may call it that, is offered in several disjointed vignettes which never come together in any coherent story line.  Readers will get to the end of the book feeling cheated of either plot resolution or characters with whom they can empathize.  All of the loose ends are left for the next book in the series.Series can often be very entertaining.  But readers deserve more respect than being strung along from volume to volume just to figure out what the heck is going on.  My advice to McRae is to start over with a two-page outline of what she wants this book to say as a stand-alone volume with its own message to readers.  Then build bridges for your readers between your vignettes,  instead of just throwing us into the midst of the mess and hoping we'll like something we see enough to stay with you long enough to winnow it out of the mess.There are occasional glimmers here of a better writer than her editor has asked McRae to be.  I hope that writer will force herself to do some homework in learning the craft of plot construction for novel-length works -- BEFORE she tries to publish again.