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thecaptainsquarters 's review for:
The Lost Soul
by K.S. Marsden
Ahoy there me mateys! I received this fantasy eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. So here are me honest musings . . .
I picked this novel from NetGalley because it has a pretty cover with a white unicorn on it and seemingly good reviews. For example, Goodreads lists the book to have a rating of 4.8 stars and Amazon gives it 4 stars. NetGalley had positive commentary like “Everyone loves a world with rich and fantastical histories and lore, and The Lost Soul offers that to you on a golden plate.”
Well that was certainly not my experience. I am not normally one to take notes while reading but I starting writing down fun/awkward phrases that I wanted to share with the first mate and that was the sole reason I kept reading. Kinda like a train wreck that you can’t help but watch. There were such gems as:
“the corridors became clogged with contradicting traffic”
“He wracked his rather shook brain for a name”
“so that very night he had every person, save himself and his son, slaughtered so that word should never pass those doors. Even his wife, who he could not bring himself to kill”
“My father was tried for treason and fell to the fate of all high status killings”
“his name was respected and idolised even by his enemies”
“Their snack was a meager one – bread, apples and a few other items. But plenty for both.”
“What happened next was a mystery, with fresh death and with the screams of tragedy, there was an explosion of flame.”
“Samantha hardly noticed as time slipped by, the warm sun shining onto her pale face which showed her uncertainty of reality.”
Dear goodness. The context of these phrases did not make it better. At the same time I did learn some new words like:
1. wittered – vb to chatter or babble pointlessly or at unnecessary length; n. pointless chat; chatter.
2. ginnel – noun (Northern English, dialect) a narrow passageway between buildings.
So that was cool. But ultimately the sentence structure was special and the punctuation was awful. Though I do not believe a good editor would have helped except by maybe refusing to publish this.
The plot and characters too just made me unhappy. The two main characters were poorly drawn. Things happen in this book but none of it was truly interesting. I mean: boring unicorns! How can unicorns be boring? Sad.
So this novel would have been better off skipped altogether. I mean the best I can say about it is that the author is writing what she wants and getting her work out there.
Side note: though NetGalley listed the book as not coming out until this year apparently the novel was published on August 20, 2015. Go figure.
So lastly . . .
Thank you K.S. Marsden!
If you liked me review, see others at https://thecaptainsquartersblog.wordpress.com/
I picked this novel from NetGalley because it has a pretty cover with a white unicorn on it and seemingly good reviews. For example, Goodreads lists the book to have a rating of 4.8 stars and Amazon gives it 4 stars. NetGalley had positive commentary like “Everyone loves a world with rich and fantastical histories and lore, and The Lost Soul offers that to you on a golden plate.”
Well that was certainly not my experience. I am not normally one to take notes while reading but I starting writing down fun/awkward phrases that I wanted to share with the first mate and that was the sole reason I kept reading. Kinda like a train wreck that you can’t help but watch. There were such gems as:
“the corridors became clogged with contradicting traffic”
“He wracked his rather shook brain for a name”
“so that very night he had every person, save himself and his son, slaughtered so that word should never pass those doors. Even his wife, who he could not bring himself to kill”
“My father was tried for treason and fell to the fate of all high status killings”
“his name was respected and idolised even by his enemies”
“Their snack was a meager one – bread, apples and a few other items. But plenty for both.”
“What happened next was a mystery, with fresh death and with the screams of tragedy, there was an explosion of flame.”
“Samantha hardly noticed as time slipped by, the warm sun shining onto her pale face which showed her uncertainty of reality.”
Dear goodness. The context of these phrases did not make it better. At the same time I did learn some new words like:
1. wittered – vb to chatter or babble pointlessly or at unnecessary length; n. pointless chat; chatter.
2. ginnel – noun (Northern English, dialect) a narrow passageway between buildings.
So that was cool. But ultimately the sentence structure was special and the punctuation was awful. Though I do not believe a good editor would have helped except by maybe refusing to publish this.
The plot and characters too just made me unhappy. The two main characters were poorly drawn. Things happen in this book but none of it was truly interesting. I mean: boring unicorns! How can unicorns be boring? Sad.
So this novel would have been better off skipped altogether. I mean the best I can say about it is that the author is writing what she wants and getting her work out there.
Side note: though NetGalley listed the book as not coming out until this year apparently the novel was published on August 20, 2015. Go figure.
So lastly . . .
Thank you K.S. Marsden!
If you liked me review, see others at https://thecaptainsquartersblog.wordpress.com/