This is the worst book I’ve read all year. I guess that’s my fault though, I’ve chosen really well for the most part. I stopped reading mid-chapter 8 because it got to the point where there were absolutely no redeeming qualities and each corny interaction soured my mood further and further. I felt guilty reading it. In comparison, this makes Christopher Paolini’s Eragon seem like the most creative work in decades.
To recap, the dark lord that’s been dead for 2000 years wakes up, which triggers an ancient spell that tells literally everyone on the planet he’s back. Aside from the main characters, nobody seems to care. The protagonist of the story, Alexander is already highly proficient at magic, and weaponry. So is his entire family, except his older brother who dies on the first page. In fact his parents are masters in the art. Everyone in the story is a Mary Sue.
Oh yeah, our hero just realized that he’s the chosen one, and heir to some lofty throne or whatever. He gets sat down by his entire family, and a few random dudes from around town so that they can explain to him that he is indeed the chosen one that has to defeat the dark lord. I am not exaggerating. This all occurs within the first three chapters of the book. To give you some perspective, this encompasses the first 30 minutes of a 20 hour audiobook, of a seven book series.
By the fourth chapter we get a random POV chapter of the enemy who’s just evil for no reason.
There are healing potions.
The characters aren’t redeeming, and the situations are ridiculous. None of the situations could ever happen naturally. I really wanted to finish this to give an honest review. But it was painful. Truly, truly painful.
I thought this series was absolutely fantastic… You guys are complete and utter snobs!
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Aww, that’s so mean.
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Wait. How would you know if we’re complete snobs? I feel like I only register at about 20% on the snob-index. I think we only reviewed 2 or 3 books poorly on the entire site. So if we’re rating our snob levels on books someone out there enjoyed, but we personally didn’t… how can anyone truly say if our snobbery is utter and complete?
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(As an aside, from one blog to another, we here at Geekritique don’t spend our time putting other blogs down if our opinions on fiction differ in any way. That’s why we blog – we have opinions to share. Nice meeting you, regardless.)
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Well this is thoroughly depressing. I’d seen the art for this, and the title (though I didn’t read the blurb) and I’d hoped that it’d be a good or at least decent book. Thanks for saving me the pain of trying to read it though!
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That’s what I’m here for!
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Sounds cynical as all hell for me to say, but I’ve been waiting for this ever since I saw you had it as a Currently Reading and checked it out on Amazon. A blurb that’s almost entirely all about the world the story’s set in, like the one this has up, usually means to me there’s nothing unique/fascinating about the characters and plot. And even the least discriminating fantasy reader these days demands more from what they read than just fancy worldbuilding. Oh well, I guess it’s a good thing you didn’t bother to stick with it!
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Haha you totally called it. I don’t even mind when a book gets cliche, as long as the experiences are unique and believable, the characters interesting, and the story a good time. But this had every cliche in the spectrum within a fraction of the story. Mentors death. Dark lord. Heir to the throne. Chosen one. Mary sues galore. I was flabberghasted.
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your review almost makes me want to say “Challenge accepted!” and read it… but then… no, my resolution this year is to not be a masochist. thanks for this: made my day.
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Hahaha! Don’t do it! And yeah, i figured I’d get a laugh out of it, if nothing else. I’ve not reviewed anything under a 4 ever.
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and yet this was so bad it deserved a whole post… maybe that was his evil master plan all along. after all, there’s no such thing as bad publicity eh? :p
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