[QuickTidal]

I tried...I really tried to like this book....

This first “Novel of the Twenty Palaces” by newcomer Harry Connolly was recommended by a few reviewers and the blurb on the cover was by Jim Butcher (who remains my all-time favourite author), and I likes me some urban fantasy, so while at the bookstore replenishing my dwindling “To-Read” pile I snagged it. I figured it was a slender volume at 357 pages, and it’s a MMP, so cheapish to boot. I gave it a go.
Now, I liked the initial idea behind the characters. An Ex-con pov protagonist with a heart, and his nasty powerful boss who wants him dead. Both have the use of magic, though the boss wields far more than the paltry one trick our hero does. They are fleshed out well enough, but there was something lacking from Annalise (the boss), though perhaps that was just the POV 1st person aspect. At any rate, the characters are not my main issue…the writing is. I can’t explain it in any other way than to say the sentences “leap around”. No thoughts are clearly finished off, and random (what the hell are they talking about” moments abound with little to no explanation. It’s as if the author wants to tell us everything so badly, he leaves out connecting sentences, and nothing FLOWS at all. It’s very jarring and offputting to read. Glen Cook’s early work was this way. As an example, if you read a Dresden File novel, the prose flows from one thought to the next, the descriptions never interrupt the thought process and everything follows a logical pattern “word-to-word”. This is absent in Connolly’s prose and I didn’t like it at all.
Secondly. The magic. I have to take issue, because in almost every other “urban fantasy” I have read that involves magic or the supernatural, ideas that are specific to the world the author created are EXPLAINED so I have a gentle grasp of the idea. This is not done. People randomly burst into flames (from boredom of the world they live in I assume), the main characters spell which is a “Ghost Knife” is ridiculous and is explained in the most clumsy way ever (“the ghost knife went through her neck and out the other side as if she wasn’t there”). Really?! That’s it? That’s all you’ve got? Where is the editor on these books? There are tattoos on the body of our hero and his boss that stop spells and help to find them ect…but they are clumsily explained as well. The boss girl has a piece of wood with a sigil on it that (if she holds it up to a baddie predator) can signal evil…, by shooting sparks. Yup, shooting sparks. If this character is so all-fire powerful as we are told from the beginning of the book, how on earth does she have to wander up to random people and hold this piece of wood against them to see if they are bad? Wouldn't she have other skills at her disposal? I mean come on, Harry Dresden would eat this girl for lunch (or maybe feed her to Mouse)

The Twenty Palaces (cabal of sorcerers that Annalise works for) is never really explained in depth, and I feel that it might have cured my boredom halfway through to learn more about them. The back stories about the two main characters is sketchy and patchy at best and is also never really explained.

Note to the author: Don’t subtitle your first book in the series if the subtitle is not going to make a real appearance inside it.

Ray Lilly is a passable protagonist, but he couldn’t touch the charisma or brilliance of Harry Dresden, Mercy Thompson, or Rachel Morgan with a ten foot pole. Annalise Powliss is the more interesting of the two I thought, or would be if she wasn’t wasted in the background. Sigh.

I loathe writing bad reviews, but this book is not even going to grace my shelf. It’s not a keeper for me. I was bored and found the story just kind of laid there on the page doing nothing.

Do yourself a favour and skip it. Read Dresden, or Mercy or Morgan instead.

[Tamilyrn]

I didn't like it much either; in some places it really was pretty painful.

However, there were some good ideas and it seemed as though this was almost a 'scene setter' for the series. I may read the second book before making a final call on the series but only if there's nothing else worth picking up.

This post has been edited by Tamilyrn: 06 November 2009 - 12:17 PM

[Obdigore]

Tamilyrn, on 06 November 2009 - 12:16 PM, said:

I didn't like it much either; in some places it really was pretty painful.

However, there were some good ideas and it seemed as though this was almost a 'scene setter' for the series. I may read the second book before making a final call on the series but only if there's nothing else worth picking up.

I agree with this response.

I can't say I didn't like it. I didn't put it down in disgust or anything, but it isn't Glen Cook or Jim Butcher at this point, but he has some very cool ideas. His prose was a little off in some parts, but it is to be expected in an Authors first book, at least to me. If we can follow this up with perhaps the Protagonist being sent on another mission and being allowed to learn another spell or two each time as a reward, it might get pretty interesting. This depends on if his prose can improve, as noted.

In other news, Quicktidal, if you aren't going to finish the book, please don't write a reveiw and misrepresent what happens. Thanks.

This post has been edited by Obdigore: 06 November 2009 - 04:44 PM

[QuickTidal]

Obdigore, on 06 November 2009 - 04:40 PM, said:

Tamilyrn, on 06 November 2009 - 12:16 PM, said:

I didn't like it much either; in some places it really was pretty painful.

However, there were some good ideas and it seemed as though this was almost a 'scene setter' for the series. I may read the second book before making a final call on the series but only if there's nothing else worth picking up.

I agree with this response.

I can't say I didn't like it. I didn't put it down in disgust or anything, but it isn't Glen Cook or Jim Butcher at this point, but he has some very cool ideas. His prose was a little off in some parts, but it is to be expected in an Authors first book, at least to me. If we can follow this up with perhaps the Protagonist being sent on another mission and being allowed to learn another spell or two each time as a reward, it might get pretty interesting. This depends on if his prose can improve, as noted.

In other news, Quicktidal, if you aren't going to finish the book, please don't write a reveiw and misrepresent what happens. Thanks.

It wasn't a review.....just my opinion on the book and its writing.