52 In 52 discussion

Alright, I hate to use a negative review for the first example post, but it's the only one I've had time to write thus far. I'm posting this mainly to show how I think we should post our goodreads reviews - in an embedded format. For the 52 in 52 book list, I've created individual threads, but for anything outside of that list, I figure we can make an individual post with the title, author and genre.

Don't know how to do this? It's simple! Visit the book page, scroll down to "My Review" and click on "See Review" right next to the "Comment" link. You'll see the link you'll need to copy and paste on the right hand side of the screen - labeled "Blog This Review".






The Captive by Thomas Locke

My rating: 1 of 5 stars


The series that this short is an introduction to, may be very interesting - but I'll never know, as the short bothered me on a few levels. The concept seems promising, following a girl who has lived most of her life as a prisoner in an academy for wizards. Joelle dreams of escape, but the only way to do so is to covertly study magic, knowing that death may be the penalty.

However, I feel like this book falls short in a few very important ways.

1. The reader is given very little information about Joelle's personality, other than her desire to escape. It seems to be an all consuming obsession. There were plenty of passages that simply reiterated this desire, which I felt could have been used to flesh out the character a bit.

2. The author almost immediately contradicts himself. Joelle has the ability to go on what amounts to a spirit walk, though she has little control over it. When first faced with a tense situation, the author makes a point to mention that she doesn't ever feel fear until she returns to her body, at which point she seems to feel the physical affects. I really liked this idea, but the author immediately ruined it on a later spirit walk, by detailing the panic she feels as she's fleeing back to her body.

3. The world. It's very clear that this short isn't really meant to stand on its own. The world is barely sketched out. Granted, you don't need much in a short, but if you're trying to get new readers for a series, there needs to be more that is specific to this particular world.

As it stands now, it could be just about any generic fantasy world.
College of mages? Check.
Faraway land filled with an aggressive army and a foreboding mage? Check.
Child with innate magic who should never have been born? Check.
Forest that is almost certainly full of deadly peril? Check.
Kindly authority figure to stand in as a father figure? Check.
Okay, that all sounds great - so what are the details?
Practically non-existent.

I tend to give short stories a lot more leeway than novels, but everything about this felt bland and repetitive.



View all my reviews