Location: Singapore
Member Since: Sep. 12, 2010
Kiriane
Books
This member has not published any books.Smashwords book reviews by Kiriane
- The Last Key
on Jan. 27, 2011
(no rating)
The first thing I noticed is that the author had a couple of minor issues with tense formation. There also exist certain inconsistencies in the story. Raven's eye colour is listed (green?) - brown - green, Seala's ocean blue - jade - green. Among others, but that is the clearest. There are also some awkward descriptive paragraphs - even words - that can be cut out. The author's writing style, unfortunately, does not accommodate long descriptions of the sort. Nobody needs to know in that much detail, and it detracts from the point being made at the time, whatever that may be. The resolution of the plot, which I will not spoil, was quite weak. Granted it had to happen some way, but surely there was another way that doesn't stretch the imagination, or the consistency of the story. Other kinds of unrealism abound, which make me think that the author had written himself into a dead-end. In summary: liberal use of the Act of God method of solving a problem. I also saw lots of loose ends. Sure they don't need to be resolved? Either he's leaving it open for a sequel, or...something. It would have been nice to see what happened to [Thallan's country], for example, in the next month/year, rather than jumping straight to the concluding scene. (And if he's planning on a sequel, then it is imperative that things remain consistent across books...yeah.) All these are quite minor nitpicks...well, except the Acts of God. And now that I am done with the criticism, let me say that it had an engaging storyline and I could not wait to finish reading it (Acts of God instances aside). The characterisations were well done also - I could imagine these to be real people. Overall: I would recommend the author to get a good editor, and then I would recommend this book to readers of fantasy fiction.