Book Reviews

Siddoway has a good command of the English language, and some of his sentences are downright enchanting. It’s what they build that’s so lacking. This paint-by-numbers fantasy novel is suffering from big structural issues, which then become even bigger issues in areas like characterization, plot momentum, emotional resonance, etc. Pacing, in particular, is poor. It’s evident that the author has done extensive backstory writing, which is commendable and important—he’s trying to fully realize his world. But the constant exposition in clumpy character dialogue, ill-formatted chapter prologues or simply bullying straight into the narrative cripples action, suspense and any sense of atmosphere. Without spoiling it, the characters in the final pre-epilogue chapter of this book were still discussing one of the book’s first scenes, the plot’s initial springboard. That is how little action occurred: This early scene was still directly relevant at the end. The book’s meat was built around a skeleton of clichés, both in its flat character archetypes and its stagnant storyline, where the world revolves around the One True Hero. It’s boring and emotionless. There’s nothing wrong with Siddoway’s actual writing talent, but I think this book needed a lot more tough love in editing and revision than it got. –Megan Kennedy