Location: Canada
Member Since:
July 20, 2013
1 reader has added this author as a 'Favorite Author'.
Oliver Urban
Books
Smashwords book reviews by Oliver Urban
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When In Rome
on Aug. 10, 2014
I stopped reading round page 30. This was awful. The writing itself was painful, it really needed a thorough editing, but it wasn't hard to put up with, it just felt a bit unpolished. I could deal with it. But the dialogue! It was so bad, like really just so annoying. The thing is people in ancient rome didn't speak like this, and you can tell the author didn't do any research at all. The way the spoke it was like you plucked a bunch of modern people out of thin air and dropped them into a bad representation of ancient rome without a thought as to how their history or environment would shape them, their actions and thoughts and how they spoke. Another bit that showed no research was done at all was that the characters started talking about Valhalla, like, what? Romans did not believe in Valhalla, they have their own beliefs about the afterlife that are actually very interesting, but clearly the author did no research into that either. Valhalla was an afterlife mythos that originated from Norse mythology - think vikings. Romans did not believe in Valhalla. They knew of vikings, but the two didn't interact or clash much. I doubt that any romans would have much knowledge of the norse afterlife whatsoever, as they didn't interact much and the romans had their own mythology and afterlife. This is the mark of a lazy author. Simply because you are writing erotica does not mean you can rearrange history or ignore any basic level of research. The gaping flaws and holes in knowledge shine through and that coupled with the awful writing just made me cringe through the entire half that I read. Do not recommend.
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Snowed In
on Aug. 10, 2014
Okay, so, this is the second story I have read from this author, and I have to say, I won't be reading more in the future. His writing is weak and bland, and aside from that, he clearly doesn't know how to properly label or market his stories. This is not erotica: it parades itself as erotica, starts off as erotica, and then one the last page drastically turns into horror as two characters are murdered by a yeti - cut to black. This was marketed and pitched as gay erotica about two straight friends forced to use each other's body heat to stay warm. And it was hot while it lasted, like surprisingly sexy. And then, y'know, random and violent yeti attack where the hot boys die. This is a good way to piss of readers.