A few months ago, I wrote a blog post on critics where my work was the focus of review. This one turns the tables, and I’m the one critiquing a new author.
I’ve been trying to familiarize myself with the urban fantasy genre (since that’s what I’m supposed to be writing), so I’ve been reading some current books both to expand my horizons and see what the competition is turning out. New books are made available – before their formal release – to be reviewed by other authors as a way to try to build a fan base and get some feedback for paying readers. This is called ARC for Advanced Reader’s Copy, and it is flooded by hopeful authors looking for a boost to their coming book launch.
I picked at random a book titled Piety by Sam Ragnarsson, an urban fantasy with an interesting title and cover, but I was mainly pulled in by setting: The Shetland Islands in the 1960s. It was a fun read, following a pair of “agents of the Queen” who were part of an ancient organization for defense against magic and monsters. A very good book, particularly for a first effort, though it had its problems. Sam had used the closed quotes for all conversations, even when the same speaker was continuing with a new paragraph, and that led to several pages of confusion in the middle of the book (it also highlighted a poor distinguishing of voice patterns, though that was minor). Worse, there were several “dead zones” – again in the middle – where the characters are just talking on and on with no action occurring. This is a VERY common problem, but it was a bit jarring given the fast pace at the beginning and end of the book.
Because of this, I gave the book 4 out of 5 stars and a nice write up (Sam got in touch with me, and we had a constructive discussion about the book, the review, and writing in general). I explained my reasons and admitted I was being a little harsh with the 4 stars. But a 5 star book to my mind is a “page turner”, a read so compelling you hate to put it down and are eager to pick it back up. Those middle sections failed in this regard.
So, I was really pleased when the second book came out, Piety’s Fury, and I eagerly signed up to review it. Sequels can be difficult to write, introducing the same characters to new and old readers alike without being repetitive, and good sequels expand on these characters, giving us a deeper look as we get to know them. Sam achieved both of these ends while also supplying a fast-paced joy ride splattered with blood, magic, and fun. A great start!
But the book had its problems. Typos are one of the dirty little secrets of Amazon novels as authors lack the resources of big publishing houses to correct misspellings, misused words (farther vs further), and even garbled sentences. When a reader hits one, you grimace and move on, trying not to let it throw off the pace of the narrative. Sam’s first book had its share of these errors, but the second was particularly bad, several of them glaring and suggesting a rush to publication.
What made these errors especially jarring in this case was the idiom of Northern Ireland (and 1960s at that) which I considered to be one of the charming aspects of the books. But as the numbers of errors grew, I found myself pausing on some of these phrases and wondering “Is this a typo?” which transformed some of the charm into an even more ragged read. I actually found myself skimming a few sections, because I was really turned off by this trend. But strong writing, good characterization, and some dynamite (literally) action scenes kept me going. I again gave the book 4 out of 5 stars, though this time, I wasn’t being overly critical.
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