Location: United States
Member Since:
Feb. 06, 2012
Luke M
Books
Smashwords book reviews by Luke M
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Spinward Fringe Broadcasts 1 and 2: Resurrection and Awakening
on Feb. 27, 2012
This book, like its freely available predecessor, is not perfect: at a minimum there are typos and some minor plotholes. But here's the thing: it doesn't matter...this series is eminently readable even to a pedant. The characters and setting are wonderful, and the plot is perfectly paced so you'll never get bored. I enjoyed Broadcast 0 so much that this is the first Smashwords ebook I've ever purchased. I don't regret it for a second, and neither will you.
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Spinward Fringe Broadcast 0: Origins
on Feb. 27, 2012
The only reason to not get this book is because it will make you want to pay for and read the sequels. You will not be disappointed.
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The Unsuspecting Mage: The Morcyth Saga Book One
on Feb. 27, 2012
I give three stars for the fun, escapist plot, but really, stay away if you're bothered by clearly amateur writing. The other reviews mentioned the rather uneven prose, but I wanted to point out something that jarred me from my suspension of disbelief. This is a minor spoiler because it happens so early in the book: James helps a guy defeat six bandits, and accepts a bounty of 1100 gold. Said guy insists James takes the whole amount instead of splitting it. Well okay, that's our first introduction to money in this fantasy world, so we don't have any frame of reference. Then when James reaches his first inn, we find out that it costs one silver. We find out later (though it's never stated directly) that there are 20 coppers to a silver, 20 silver to a gold. The most expensive inn in the first book is one gold per night. Think about that: collecting that one bounty from a farming village would let him live at the most expensive inn for three years! Compare that to hotels in our world: in the US, cheap hotels are maybe $50, while the most expensive certainly get up to $1000 per night (twenty times the price, just like the book). Food is usually a couple coppers for a cheap meal (~$5), so this seems like a reasonable estimate for currency conversion. That means this small farming town apparently has the real world equivalent of $1.1 million to pay out for a bounty. And not only that, the guy who did most of the fighting freely gives up the equivalent of over half a million dollars to a kid he just met (and saved) the day before! Even if you adjust my assumptions down, it's still an outrageous amount of money for a small farming village to hand out or even have available. So anyway, in short, it's an interesting diversion, but the writing could use some work and the economics in the story just aren't very well thought out. Worth the price of the free download, but I can't say I'll continue with the sequels.