Possibly one of the most crappy books ever written. Ever.
I’m sorry. I have great respect for authors and all the hard work they do. They dedicate themselves to creating worlds for us, characters that touch us and take us to amazing fantastic places. But G.P. Taylor (named clearly made to model J.K. Rowling) do you really think you can get away with this? On the back cover it says that this book is “taking the UK by storm”, that it’s “flying off the bookshelves”. Um, why?
My first gripe comes with the writing. Thomas did this. Thomas did that. Thomas went over there. Vary your sentence structure, man! And don’t you remember the “show, don’t tell” rule? Saying “she was rigid with fear” (a cliche in itself) doesn’t really give us to much info. Maybe if you went inside your characters heads a little more we’d actually care if they live or die.
Speaking of characters, it’s a one cliche a minute. You’ve got your stock hero (Thomas), his stock love (Kate), the stock sagely guy (Raphah). None of them have any personal stories except for “we must get the Keruvim back” and I swear, Kate did nothing for the story except being the love interest. And the villains! Demurral? Does that by any chance have to do with Demerol? It’s Voldemort all over again, along with his simpering side-kick Wormtail- I mean, Beadle. And all the side characters did next to nothing.
As for plot, sure, you get some interesting things with the shadowmancer idea. But in the end it boils down to your basic Good vs. Evil deal. And what’s that? Two magical artifacts that can destroy the world? Gasp! We must retrieve them! Everything seems to be clearly divided between black and white. There are no grey areas to be seen.
Meh. In the end, all I can say is I want my 17$ back. Your thoughts?