Gregory A. Wilson
Occasionally, too much time elapses between when I finish reading a book and when I sit down to write the review. Sometimes when this happens I simply don't review the book at all. Other times, I write what I remember. Every now and then, I'll reread the entire book again. I did the latter in the case of The Third Sign by Gregory A. Wilson, the first book in his Chronicles of Klune series. While I normally don't enjoy doing this because it can mess up my self-imposed reviewing schedule, I was sort of glad to do it in this case because I was fairly conflicted about the book after my first reading of it. Having finished reading it a second time, I'm afraid I can't really recommend it.
The Third Sign takes place in the land of Klune roughly ten years after it was freed from tyrannical rule by the efforts of a dedicated few. The arrangement that humans have worked out with the Minotaur-like race of Arlics pursuant to which the latter protect the land is about to expire and there is considerable tension between the two groups which threatens to preclude the striking of another agreement. As danger mounts, several of the books' heroes are left to deal with the looming threat as well as with the possibility that the Destroyer may be arriving on the scene shortly.
I read the excerpt of this book on Mr. Wilson's website and thought it looked interesting and that the story sounded promising, but at the end of the day the book fails to live up to its potential, primarily because everything about it is so conventional. The setting, the characters, and the dialog all felt conventional to the point of cliché.
Additionally, there are numerous minor issues that detract from the reading experience. For example, there are several "surprise" chapter endings that just didn't work for me. For example, one chapter in which a man gets murdered proceeds to conclude with this sentence:
"And waiting in a tavern a few streets away, Belezion Drolnar, lost in his own thoughts, lifted his head. He could have sworn he had heard, or felt, someone ask an unanswerable question."Similarly, there are instances in which characters have forced exchanges in which they recount facts already known to both for the benefit of the reader and these just sounded odd. Other times, the the author sort of went off on tangents that didn't' seem to serve any purpose (there is at one point, for example, a three page conversation about the theft of some fruit).
At the end of the day these and similar issues combined with the conventionality of the story precluded The Third Sign from living up to its potential.
Rating: 2/10
The True First
The Third Sign was first published by Five Star Publishing, an imprint of Gale Cengage Learning.
[This review was based on a review copy]
3 comments:
I often wonder how much our perceptions of books would be changed if we read them two or three times. I have quite often put a book away then re-read it and had a completely different experience.
Some part of this review does remind me of my own work. For instance, in one book I plan to write, there is game that the local people participate in, a gladitorial game at that involving betting.
I can honestly see myself going into too much detail about the nature of the game. Certainly more important than the stealing of fruit, this will definately inspire a few revisions to make a work more marketable.
Emperor,
There's nothing wrong with detailed explanation. It's just that in this particular case the fruit theft explanation wasn't really relevant to the story in my opinion....
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