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The Unmapped Lands (2012)

by Theresa Couchman(Favorite Author)
3.91 of 5 Votes: 1
ISBN
1481289985 (ISBN13: 9781481289986)
languge
English
genre
publisher
CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
review 1: The Unmapped Lands is a wonderfully imagined adventure, full of well-rounded and distinct characters. There is gentle humour and great pathos, mixing well into a story of hope and determination, which urges you to follow the protagonist, Al, and her motley sidekicks on their journey. Although the beginning is a little loosely-knit, I would urge readers to bear with the first couple of chapters: they are akin to the slow ascent to the top of the first drop on a rollercoaster ride. They may seem to be going nowhere in particular, or even know where they are taking you, but when you get to that first summit, boy are you in for a ride!I am refraining from giving any real details of characters or plot on the grounds that I would not wish to spoil the singular connection that ev... moreery reader makes with the story the writer tells. Each reading experience is a separate contract between the reader and the writer: what the reader reads into each character and situation in the novel will be coloured by their own life experiences, and I am in no position to resolve that for anyone else.What I will say is this: I have thoroughly enjoyed this first book from Theresa Couchman. Many first novels come nowhere near the expectations of seasoned readers such as myself – this has surpassed them with flying colours. I wish Ms Couchman the very best of luck with her future writing endeavours, but I have a feeling that luck will have no place there – her talent will surely see her career flourish.I have to say that I received the book for free through Goodreads First Reads. Many thanks to them, and to Theresa Couchman, for a wonderful read.
review 2: I have to say that i really wanted to like this book. I was biased in favor of it from the start since i think Theresa is hilarious. I was hoping her wit on Twitter would translate to this novel. And it did in the first few pages. Witches, demons, and magical menstration—weird and sometimes funny stuff.But the writing just lost me. Some of this is personal taste: i prefer more active characters in an adventure tale like this seemed to be. Instead, it felt like the characters were constantly preparing for things to happen rather than actually doing interesting stuff. I also didn't care for the first person perspective, but that was another personal taste issue.Unfortunately, i had to stop reading before the end because the ebook version i had was missing an unknown quantity of text about 2/3 of the way through. This is a self-published book and unfortunately from time to time, self-published books do not meet the standards of rigorous editing and proofreading that trade published books typically meet. Plenty of other minor mistakes in this book, but missing text broke me from the scene entirely and was the final straw.I think Theresa's writing has potential, so i'll stick with her for the future. Hopefully she has already learned from this book and will improve her craft and publishing process if she continues to self publish in the future. less
Reviews (see all)
Sven
Don't know why this took me so long to read when it was such an fun read.
Tiger12345867
Enjoyable book, very imaginative story. Great ending!
fanuar12
Ragtag bunch of misfits in a bizarro world.
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