Review: Praise for Outlaw King by Craig Saunders
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 02 19, 2012
It was my good fortune to find this book while it was being offered for free. It is a classic tale in the epic sense, with an excellent, suspenseful plot. The early part of the book does an excellent job of setting up the characters, and developing sympathy for the main character, Tarn, a Prince condemned by misfortune to wander the wood with his father. The story begins with their capture and the father's death.Now the story has some flaws. There was a strange creature that defends young Tarn and enables his escape from the soldiers. Just what this beast is or why it was there is vaguely implied but never really explained. Slightly past the middle of the book, some very odd typographical errors appear leaving the reader with the sense that something important got left out, but there is no way to know just quite what that was. The worst of them is after Tarn takes his raggle-taggle henchmen to the city where they hope to enlist some aid. A whole paragraph in that area is completely illegible.Which is a crying shame because this is a really, really good story with a semi-surprise ending. (Ok, I did read the prophesy part, but hey, no one pays attention to that, right?)Moreover, the glossary at the back has some absolutely adorable funny stuff and there is a thoughtfully scary story as a bonus.I would buy another book by this author. I just hope he takes the time to get two or three dedicated readers to help go over the next manuscript before publishing. I'm pretty good at reading things in context, but I'd rather not guess at meanings. I might interpret it wrong.Keep writing, Mr. Saunders!