Ivory Autumn

A fun read with potential, but one that requires work to make it flow smoothly. The plot seemed rather disjointed, with some very fast paced moments where a lot of action occured in very little period of time, vs long periods where nothing happened at all. The characterisation was awkward. Hero, Andrew, seemed to be the main character, but it also seemed that Ivory (the author) was scheduled to fill that position. At one point, they've just rescued Ivory from one danger (the Fog Locker) and not many minutes later she gets bored of the boys tomfoolery, wanders off by herself and is immediately in a situation in which she needs to be rescued from again. And the other two boys (Freddie and whats-his-name) seemed largely redundant to the plot. Overall, it could have benefitted rather from a professional edit.

In other editting news, I am happy to report that there were no misspelt words. However, Ms Autumn just suffer somewhat from comma overload and, whilst it was clearly spell-checked, in many situations the wrong word had been used - I started making note of it partway through and discovered: "Now give me your best shot. I promise I'll be fare." (she did spell "fair" correctly earlier on in the book); "...gazing at her with a mesmerizing glair." (A "glair" is a bonding agent made from egg white); and finally "The close they wore was softer than sealskin." There were several more earlier on too.

Overall, the plot has promise, and the premise is interesting. The illustrations are a delight. However, it needs another edit or two and a bit of a polish before it is to the standard of a traditionally polished novel.… (altro)

This book is a fun read to say the least. The book is one part a journey with a quest, an unlikely group of people get together in a hopes of completing a quest together that will save the world from The Fallen. The Fallen is the evil guy who is essentially taking over the world and hopes to one day take over the universe. The book is also one part coming of age story. The story follows young Andrew, a boy who is only sixteen and finds out rather abruptly that his life is not what it seems to be, and suddenly he is required to grow up in order to prevent The Fallen from completing his plan.

True to form, I'm going to go over the things I liked about this book first, and there were a bunch of them. The characters are really vivid, especially Andrew. He really grows throughout the story, which is always a good thing, he isn't static and it keeps the reader involved and invested in his progress. He starts off in the book as a boy who really hasn't had it easy. The people where he live don't like him, the kids pick on him, if he didn't have his parents or these two other boys as friends, he would have a pretty miserable existence. Even in the face of all that he is still a sweet boy. And when the people of his town are threatening, even though Andrew has been hurt and presecuted by most of those people, Andrew is willing to sacrifice himself for them, and that shows a lot about his character. These traits only grow as the book continues.

The other characters that travel with Andrew are also vibrant characters, but Ivory and Rhapsody stand out the most. Ivory can be a little annoying at times, mainly because she seems to get herself into a lot of trouble by just being her. She constantly wonders off, often times causing the other characters have to come to her rescue by putting themselves on the line, which takes away from the mission they have at hand.

Another thing that Ivory's wondering off leads to is several little subplots. This is a good thing in some respects and a bad thing in other ways. The way it is good is because it gives the characters more life, it lets them grow, and reveal parts of themselves to the reader. This is especially good for Andrew because he has such limited knowledge of his abilities and these little side stories give him the chance to really test them out and see what he is made of. It's a bad thing though because I often found myself wondering when they were going to get to the part of finding the Fallen and actually get to the saving.

The story does move really quickly, which is something I appreciate. I always hate when I get into a book and then suddenly everything just slows down, it makes me want to stop reading. This book did not have that problem. The events happen quickly enough that you stay interested, but not to quickly as to be confusing.

Overall, I would recommend this book to the mid to upper YA readers, or to adult readers who enjoy YA (I know there are a lot of us out there who are just looking for a good youthful fun read). This book is an entertaining read, and I'm interested to see how the series progresses.… (altro)