What do you think?
Prison Rules: The Mission
Tom McNeill was a convicted murderer. To cope with life in prison, he developed his own code of conduct. A chance meeting gave him the chance to live a life he never dreamed possible. How would he cope? Prison Rules.
112 pages, Paperback
First published November 16, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review
February 1, 2015
I read this book at the request of a friend of mine. It's the authors first novel, and he's interested in feedback and exposure. I picked up a NOOK copy from Barnes and Noble, but the book is available on Amazon and it's publishing arm known as CreateSpace.
It's a quick little read, the e-copy I read ran just 90 pages. The premise takes a character named Tom serving a prison term for murder and places him in a highly unusual work-release program, in which he learns to fly for - well, that's a bit spoilery, you'll have to read the book to find out the purpose.
There are three central characters in the story, all of which are a bit shadowy in a not-quite-filled-out line drawing kind of way. The narrator is the most developed, but I missed his motivational passion. We don't get a good look at what really makes him tick, what makes him angry, what drives him. (This may be a choice supporting the plot and the Prison Rules rather than a flaw.) However, I do think it is a flaw not to give us a little bit more on the other two characters. We get Sylvia's backstory, but not much of her current motivations and desires. (Does she enjoy the work she does for Smith? Is she so motivated and inspired by flying that she keeps working for Smith under awkward circumstances?) Smith is similarly given a background, but we're kept in the dark as to whether he's a good guy or a bad guy. None of the characters get any significant development or growth over the course of the story.
The writing style is a very straightforward, first-person narrative. It's a bit rough, as one would expect for a first-time author. The language lacks elegance (appropriately, given the subject matter) in a way that is not hard to read, but that doesn't flow easily. Personally, I'd like a bit more dialogue. The story is told as a straight through series of events. There isn't much central conflict, though I think there's enough potential to develop SOME kind of conflict.
My biggest complaint about the book is the lack of complexity. This could just be my personal preference for big, epic, sweeping story lines, but the straightforward progression of events with no major surprises, no plot twists, made me thankful that the book was only ninety pages. I like it better when I think of it more as a short story or novella than as a book. Still, I think it's a good showing for a first book by a new author.
It's a quick little read, the e-copy I read ran just 90 pages. The premise takes a character named Tom serving a prison term for murder and places him in a highly unusual work-release program, in which he learns to fly for - well, that's a bit spoilery, you'll have to read the book to find out the purpose.
There are three central characters in the story, all of which are a bit shadowy in a not-quite-filled-out line drawing kind of way. The narrator is the most developed, but I missed his motivational passion. We don't get a good look at what really makes him tick, what makes him angry, what drives him. (This may be a choice supporting the plot and the Prison Rules rather than a flaw.) However, I do think it is a flaw not to give us a little bit more on the other two characters. We get Sylvia's backstory, but not much of her current motivations and desires. (Does she enjoy the work she does for Smith? Is she so motivated and inspired by flying that she keeps working for Smith under awkward circumstances?) Smith is similarly given a background, but we're kept in the dark as to whether he's a good guy or a bad guy. None of the characters get any significant development or growth over the course of the story.
The writing style is a very straightforward, first-person narrative. It's a bit rough, as one would expect for a first-time author. The language lacks elegance (appropriately, given the subject matter) in a way that is not hard to read, but that doesn't flow easily. Personally, I'd like a bit more dialogue. The story is told as a straight through series of events. There isn't much central conflict, though I think there's enough potential to develop SOME kind of conflict.
My biggest complaint about the book is the lack of complexity. This could just be my personal preference for big, epic, sweeping story lines, but the straightforward progression of events with no major surprises, no plot twists, made me thankful that the book was only ninety pages. I like it better when I think of it more as a short story or novella than as a book. Still, I think it's a good showing for a first book by a new author.
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