Wednesday, April 09, 2014

5 more down.

Cradle Lake by Ronald Malfi.  Excellent.  Buy it, read it.  Excellent suspense levels; this book makes me rethink my dislike of all things creepy.  I wish I had been able to read it slowly!

Coldwater by Diana Gould.  This title is interesting but not spectacular.  There were some minor punctuation errors, but mostly what failed to grab me is that the main character lacks depth-- she is only a collection of problems and issues, and none of them particularly engaging or exciting.  We're supposed to dislike her, I think, and want to see her turn around and improve, but the change isn't drastic enough.

The Last Guardian and the Keeper of the Magi by Ashland Menshouse.  There's a lot going on in (or against) this book, none of it good.  This is book 2 in a series and the reader cannot jump right in: there is too much detail from book 1 needed to follow the story.  The author is not skilled at dispensing detail at the right times and the right amount; there are too many characters and a lot of fast action, and it's usually very difficult to follow what's actually going on.  The dialogue and character reactions are overly simplistic and lack depth and realism.  Finally, this should be in the YA category.

The Ruling by Jose Magana.  This is a huge book with tiny font.  Boil the story down for more potency, less rambling.

The author does not have a god grasp of flow in paragraphs or within sentences; most sound clunky and uneven, sometimes because the author is trying to incorporate more detail than necessary, or is trying to wedge in a $2 word.

The author also does not have a good grasp of suspense-- he shoots himself in the foot by working up to something exciting, then killing suspense by giving history, etc. 

Knuckleduster by Andrew Post.  Thumbs up for fairly good writing.  Although the intended audience is obviously adults, several elements of the writing style combine to give a very YA feel-- sentence structure, short chapters, even the font.  This isn't necessarily a problem, just an observation.

The sci-fi element is interesting, and some of the details are good, but the basic premise is not believable.  That's a pretty big flaw, since the entire reason for the main character's choices is to finance this bad-science tool he relies on.

No comments: