Mr Joel G Manners

Paused at 15%

Now, I do not wish to give a star rating to a book when I was so little in (and considering the length, I did haul around 80 pages), and maybe I will give it a second chance. I have done this in the past to other works that I paused very early due to gripes with the book, and sometimes I finish them, others I got real close and thus that gave me a better chance to rate it.

That said, I do not deny the author has a talent for writing and the book was definitely edited, granting you a chance to enjoy a demon hunting excursion in the wild northlands in the dead of winter by several groups of warriors.

The magic? Wow, I loved it! Characters carry around random objects that may seem like ordinary knick knacks that once you activate a code Word, they perform a variety of functions such as searching for the remnants of dark magic, or performing exorcisms. Being so little into the story, I was obvious devoid of more chances to see this mysterious kind of sorcery, and it will likely entice me to give it a second chance.

That said, this book has a few issues that I don't personally enjoy in books: slow start (although some readers will disagree stating the book starts with the first groups of warriors arriving to research the series of ritualistic murders) and flowery writing. Now, a lot of people love overly descriptive writing, and this is another reason why I couldn't give the book a star rating for now because this is an issue of more of differing tastes. At times, I enjoy reading an explicit description of a king's throne room or a magical ritual keen to the plot. In this book, a lot of time is used describing the harshness of the winter. Again, this is something that some readers will adore, others like myself can only accept in bite sized treats. When 30% of the first 80 pages of your book is talking about patches of snow in the tree branches, and the closeness of the pine trees in this or that forest during the winter, and then even more time is spent on describing the following blizzard for another 10 pages, chances are the reader may either consume the pages with ravenous thirst or be more like me and start the dreaded page skimming just to get on with the story of the demonic ritual homicides of random peasants.

Is the book worth it?

From the plethora of good ratings, it is obvious the story will get interesting and characters will be killed off for dramatic effect. As for me, I spent a good portion of my time trying a huge effort not to skim paragraphs or visiting social media websites to look at cat photos. When I read a book that ends up as a rock solid 5 stars rating, I can read 500 page books in 3 days tops because it forces me to stay glued to the screen. The fact that I am trailing behind my reading schedule and haven't completed one single book in one entire months is proof that when a book doesn't work for me, it only hurts other books that are begging to be given the same chance.

But don't be discouraged! I might give the book a second read when I am less busy someday at least to reach the 25% mark, and if it doesn't lure me in, I will then star rate it.… (altro)