James Bennett (17)
Auteur van Chasing Embers
Voor andere auteurs genaamd James Bennett, zie de verduidelijkingspagina.
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Gerelateerde werken
TFF-X: Ten years of The Future Fire: A speculative fiction anthology (2015) — Medewerker — 3 exemplaren
Occult Detective Magazine Mythos Special #1 — Medewerker — 2 exemplaren
Tagged
Algemene kennis
- Geslacht
- male
- Nationaliteit
- UK
- Geboorteplaats
- Loughborough, Leicestershire, England, UK
- Woonplaatsen
- London, England, UK
- Prijzen en onderscheidingen
- Best Horror Writer from Screaming Dreams Press (2011)
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Statistieken
- Werken
- 3
- Ook door
- 14
- Leden
- 176
- Populariteit
- #121,982
- Waardering
- 3.2
- Besprekingen
- 16
- ISBNs
- 72
The main character, Ben, is a dragon with the power to shift to human shape. There is a lot of world building about a pact set up at the behest of King John of Magna Carta fame whereby the vast majority of magical creatures in the world were put into a deep sleep to prevent further conflict with humanity, using a fabled harp which was reforged into one (it had been broken into 3 pieces by King Arthur when the Queen of Fays had offered it as a way of winning the battle against his evil son/nephew Mordred). Said harp was subsequently broken into 3 pieces again and each piece kept by a different party as a precaution against its being used again. The parties concerned were the last Fay left on Earth (the rest had left in protest after the harp was broken the first time), and two organisations which consisted of a sort of Knights of St John outfit and the religious maniacs who wanted to destroy the magical creatures but were overruled. Only one representative of each type of magical creature has been left awake as a sort of guardian and to police any problems with their own kind. The sleep of the creatures was meant to last only until the Fay should return at some stage when all would be sweetness and harmony between humankind and the others.
My problem with the book, apart from niggles such as why would a pact be referred to as Lore interchangeably when lore means knowledge, and why would the creatures agree to this in the first place, was firstly that the style of the book is very distancing. The characters, even the protagonist, are repeatedly described externally in a way that a person cannot possibly view themselves - whereas these days most fantasy etc is written in close third person or actual first person. I found the constant descriptions of haircuts, dirt on faces and other such details distracting and they put me at arms length from the characters.
The second problem was that there is so much nonstop wham bam action with huge fights and mass destruction that there is no room for real character development. I liked the flashbacks to medieval China focusing on Jia, the female character who is the sole representative of her kind, her feelings about how she misses her parents, and her tuition at the hands of the last Fay, because they were quiet scenes which allowed insight into her character. So I wasn't very happy with the way she is treated in the parts of the book where she appears in the present day, especially with the final denouement. I also got so bored with the frenetic action that I had to put down the book and start reading something else for a couple of hours, before I could face reading the last hundred pages or so.
Ben isn't a sympathetic character despite his constantly feeling sorry for himself and being maltreated by various parties, and I also found the big reveal at the end rather over elaborate (view spoiler). Anyway, with these problems I can only grant this an OK 2 stars.… (meer)