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Child Of The Sword (2012)

by J.L. Doty(Favorite Author)

3.92 of 5 Votes: 3

languge

English

genre

Fantasy

publisher

Telemachus Press

series

The Gods Within

review 1: A very tedious book to read. The early parts of the book is quite alright, quite reveting even; but it quickly become tedious and frustrating. I work over a third of the book and then just give up. I just lost my strength and will to continue.The characters are very, very dull and unimaginative:Olivia, the master of the clan, is so one dimensional, overly so. You really couldn't be surprised by what she do or think. There is nothing much to her really. And she is not someone you would like. Very power hungry and selfish.Our protagonist Rat, or Morgin as he was later named, is a do-nothing, achieve-nothing, go-nowhere-by-himself guy. He obviously has strong magical abilities and potential, as we are constantly reminded of; as was all this magical "hero" always seems to be; ... morebut obviously after years of magic training and study he obviously doesn't progress much or at all. He doesn't improve much in swordsmanship or at all either and he spend his days in town drinking and fucking prostitutes. Anything exciting or life changing events just happen to him or forced to him. His becoming part of the clan, his gaining of an important name, his wedding; everything is just happenstance and not by his own effort or desire. Olivia might be monotonous being one dimensional and all, but she has direction and strong purpose of living; Morgin on the other hand is totally pointless. You would have expect nothing from him if he was real. Who wants to read a story about a man that is just dragged about by people around him?The minor characters are so terribly minor. Sure there are here and there would be snapshot stories where they would come upfront but those stories appears to be fillers and doesn't bear much to the overall story of the book. Of all the minor characters, AnnaRail and Roland might be the most interesting, even more so than the protagonist Rat/Morgin. They inject some humor, a different view of the story and interesting contrast with other characters but they appear very seldom and not used very well by the author. Other minor characters like MichaelOff, DaNoel, JohnEngine and the like are more like props than actual characters. They are there to populate the scene but do little of actual substance or influence to the story.If the author aren't able to create any interesting character, then at least a great exciting plot should be there to catch the slack. But no, the book just go on and on and on from one event to the next. There was this that happened, then this happened, then this and this and this. Individually they make some interesting short stories and anecdotes but as a whole they don't have any focus, purpose or direction. They are all so fragmented. Its like being hauled from one adventure to the next Alice in Wonderland style but without the adventure, the charm, the fun and especially the interesting characters.There are events in the plot though that would have bring the bang in the story like Morgin's encounter with Valso, his kidnapping and the wedding, but all of them just come and go, the next episode going on like nothing big happened. All the interesting stuff and the author just waste it in the verbous dullness.Morgins's encounter with Valso is very telling point of author machination. The author really forced everything so that the event occur. Beginning from his estrangement with his adopted grandmother Olivia (which uncharacteristically become lax and failed to make an effort to search for him after such an insult), his encounter with bandits (and why did Morgin suddenly become this stupid idiot, throwing all caution in the wind and abandoning his hardwired habits of wariness?), France coming to the rescue (we have a good Samaritan do we? And he will come to rescue everyone in need out of his good heart?), and of course the fortunate chance of picking the right tavern where the whole scene would happen (the author ). There is just a lot of obvious machinations by the author all over the story it just become quite tiring. Obviously, the author has to do them because the characters are all so damn boring.Then there is also the terrible lack of information about the nature of magic in this world. Many people has magical ability, that is given, their nature however is very confusing. We don't even see them use it that much. Or if they did, it was so unclear of what the nature of the magic is. The author is terribly skimpy in that matter.From what I could see from what I have read (which is about more than a third of the book) the author is just bad in story making and horrible in storytelling. There is a lack of imagination and creativity in everything. We are presented with a story in serious need of revision. There might be more exciting parts further down but I'm not going to forgive the horrible beginning that I have to go through. The parts that I read will just destroys any respect and enjoyment I may have for those doubtful good things that might be there. The parts I read just killed my motivation to continue.Not to mention the horrible cover art. Such an affront to the senses. In this case you could judge the book by the cover as both are equally horrible. And have you seen the book art of Book 2. It was even more ugly!
review 2: Really enjoyed the read. Interesting world building, young orphan with potential grows into supreme hero, ok sounds like one in a long line of storied already told, but I must say it works well here. The story unfolds with a rapid pace and it was hard putting it down, which was also the reason I was kinda sad to realize that it was the first book in a series and the others are not out yet. That said its a very nice long book, often authors would have cheaped out and cut it into two, so I must say I really was impressed. Bought it as a cheap kindle ebook and must say it was a delight to have a book not filled with bad grammar, and that combined with a cheap price can only make one appreciate it. less

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