Exactly what it says. I'm going to do reviews of free stories. Primarily book I can download for free form Amazon, but also stuff on fictionpress.com as well. If you have any stories in particular you would like me to check out, let me know and I'll do my best to get a review out quickly.
This is my first attempt at a formal review, so any advice, criticisms, or opnions on how I can improve this would be greatly appreciated.
Review Number One:
The Soulkeepers, by G.P. Ching
Amazon Summary:
When fifteen-year-old Jacob Lau is pulled from the crumpled remains of his mother's car, no one can explain why he was driving or why the police can't find his mother's body. Made a ward of his uncle and thousands of miles from home, Jacob meets a beautiful and mysterious neighbor, Dr. Abigail Silva, who offers to use her unique abilities to help him find his mom. In exchange, she requires Jacob to train as a Soulkeeper, a gifted warrior charged with protecting human souls. He agrees to her demands, desperate for any clue to the mystery of his mother's disappearance. But soon Jacob finds himself trapped in a web of half-truths and questions Dr. Silva's motives for helping him.
Review:
I'm assuming the book is aimed for those near the age of Jacob himself, fifteen to sixteen year olds, who are still learning the ropes of high school and burgeoning adulthood. I'm definitely out of the age range, but fitting in and adapting to new situations is a universal theme. We all move, get new jobs, meet new people, and have to adapt to those changes. Still, going to try and filter it so my old man-ness doesn't ruin the story.
My Summary:
You could basically boil this down to a coming of age story with religion and magic thrown in for flavor. Jacob is a fifteen year old boy who is uprooted from his home in Hawaii after his mother disappears. He lives with an Uncle he never knew he had, and has to adjust to living in a close knit town that doesn't have any need for new folk. He befriends fellow outside Malini Gupta and they quickly forge a close bond.
Outside of school, he encounters Dr. Silva, his mysterious next door neighbor, and ends up working for her. She reveals to him that he is a Soulkeeper, one descended from ancient guardians of humanity against the Watchers, fallen angels who seek to weaken and corrupt humanity. She agrees to help him find his mother, in exchange for allowing her to train him in his new powers. Jacob soon finds himself exploring a world he had never known existed.
Characters:
Jacob:
Jacob is your typical fish out of water, with a side of a mysterious. His major concern is what happened to his mother, and that ends up being his driving force for most of the story. It borders on monomaniacal to some degree, as he is willing to cast away almost everything in order to find out what happened to her. While this can be admirable, it means he's willing to sacrifice a lot to get it, such as his building relationships with his Uncle John and Malini.
He also has some anger issues. It's understandable, given his situation, but he tends to overreact, and act without thinking. This seems to be a character flaw of his , and I expect that as the series progresses, he will learn to manage it, tempering courage with wisdom and learning to pick and choose rather than blindly rushing in.
Malini
Malini seems to be the anchor to his new life. More than the uncle he had never met, Jacob forges a bond with Malini. She shares a lot of the same issues with him as an outsider to a close-knit town, and doesn't have any built in issues that can come with family. She acts as a balance to Jacob both providing an anchor in the mundane world that he doesn't get from his family, and countering his impulsiveness with patience and insight. I think she is a great companion to Jacob, providing a contrast without being wholly defined by it.
Dr. Silva:
Dr. Silva takes the role of mentor and guide to Jacob. She maintains an aura of mystery for most of the story, but her nature can be gleaned before it's revealed if you read carefully. I won't go into spoiler territory, but she has a past, and is trying to move on from it, becoming someone different than she used to be.
Uncle John:
While he is only a minor character for most of the story, John plays a role as well, providing Jacob with a new home. While the two remain distant, mainly because they had never had any contact before the start of the book, John keeps trying to build a bridge over the gap between them, and it slowly but surely pays off. Jacob forces him to confront a few issues that have been part of John's family, and try to move past them.
Story:
I really enjoyed the story overall. Things moved along quickly, and managed to cover several aspects simultaneously without dragging down the story. Jacob has to come to terms with his new life, adapting to it even as he tries to get things back to the way they were before.
Things I liked:
The Story.
I said this already, but I felt it was well written and enjoyable. While I had some complaints about certain parts of it, I really enjoyed the story overall. I think part of my issue was that I was reading it with the purpose of critiquing it later, so I couldn't immerse myself in the book like I usually do. Despite this, I really enjoyed the story.
Jacob's attitude.
He acts like as teenager. He doesn't always do the smart thing, he takes things too far, and accepts things he might not be best off accepting. A lot of books tend to gloss over this issue, which is fine, but it's refreshing to see a hero acting like the teenager they are and making mistakes that seem obvious to people who have lived through that age before.
How religion was addressed.
I'm not a huge fan of religion in general, especially when it plays such an intrinsic part in a story, but I think it was handled fairly well in this book. It's not about being he individual religion being correct, but about Good and Evil and the differences between them. Chirstianity, Judaism, Buddhism, and Taoism, to name a few, are all valid interpretations of God's will in this book. It doesn't matter what you believe, as long as it makes you strive to be a better person.
Things I Didn't like:
Mysteriousness
My major complaint for the early book is how mysterious everything is. We don't know about Jacob's paternal family, we don't know about what took his mother. We don't know a lot about what is happening, and there doesn't seem to be a lot of time devoted to exploring each of them. It just seems to heap too much mystery in the beginning, especially for a multi-book series. Mysteries should lead to each other, instead of all being presented at once. Still, it wasn't a major detraction from the story, and there weren't any dangling threads left at the end to slowly drive me insane. It could just be a symptom of being the first book and having to explain everything for the reader that caused it, but it still bothered me a bit.
Pacing:
Everything seems to happen too fast. Too many mysteries are revealed at once, evolution of relationships happens too fast. I know the story takes place over the course of a year, so there is a bit of fill in the blank in play here to explain the rapidity of it. Overall, it's not too big of an issue, and if I wasn't analyzing the story as I went, it might not bother me much, or even catch my notice, but things tend to proceed quite rapidly once they get going. Part of the issue arises because I know this is a story told across multiple books, so I would assume there would be longer story arcs developing over the entire course of this saga, rather than most aspects being completed and resolved by the end of this story.
Overall Rating: 4/5
This was a very enjoyable book, and I would recommend reading it. It didn't have the page turning, stay up all night to finish it quality that some books have for mew, but I read this over the course of a day and while I might be distracted by other things along the way, I never discarded it, planning ot finish it some other time. The characterization primarily focused on Jacob and Malini, with most other characters receiving far less attention, but hopefully future volumes will pay them more attention now that the main characters have been fully established.
One concern I have for future books is how Jacob will develop. It seemed like his story arc is mostly concluded, he's found a foundation for himself, and doesn't seem like he's going to have much room to develop into new directions. Likewise, the Watchers seem very well defined in their powers and skills, so I don't know how much variety you can get out of them outside of escalating their prowess.
Still, there is plenty of room for growth, and who knows how new challenges will force him to grow, both as a Soulkeeper and a person, so I'm going to stay positive and hope for the best.
This is my first attempt at a formal review, so any advice, criticisms, or opnions on how I can improve this would be greatly appreciated.
Review Number One:
The Soulkeepers, by G.P. Ching
Amazon Summary:
When fifteen-year-old Jacob Lau is pulled from the crumpled remains of his mother's car, no one can explain why he was driving or why the police can't find his mother's body. Made a ward of his uncle and thousands of miles from home, Jacob meets a beautiful and mysterious neighbor, Dr. Abigail Silva, who offers to use her unique abilities to help him find his mom. In exchange, she requires Jacob to train as a Soulkeeper, a gifted warrior charged with protecting human souls. He agrees to her demands, desperate for any clue to the mystery of his mother's disappearance. But soon Jacob finds himself trapped in a web of half-truths and questions Dr. Silva's motives for helping him.
Review:
I'm assuming the book is aimed for those near the age of Jacob himself, fifteen to sixteen year olds, who are still learning the ropes of high school and burgeoning adulthood. I'm definitely out of the age range, but fitting in and adapting to new situations is a universal theme. We all move, get new jobs, meet new people, and have to adapt to those changes. Still, going to try and filter it so my old man-ness doesn't ruin the story.
My Summary:
You could basically boil this down to a coming of age story with religion and magic thrown in for flavor. Jacob is a fifteen year old boy who is uprooted from his home in Hawaii after his mother disappears. He lives with an Uncle he never knew he had, and has to adjust to living in a close knit town that doesn't have any need for new folk. He befriends fellow outside Malini Gupta and they quickly forge a close bond.
Outside of school, he encounters Dr. Silva, his mysterious next door neighbor, and ends up working for her. She reveals to him that he is a Soulkeeper, one descended from ancient guardians of humanity against the Watchers, fallen angels who seek to weaken and corrupt humanity. She agrees to help him find his mother, in exchange for allowing her to train him in his new powers. Jacob soon finds himself exploring a world he had never known existed.
Characters:
Jacob:
Jacob is your typical fish out of water, with a side of a mysterious. His major concern is what happened to his mother, and that ends up being his driving force for most of the story. It borders on monomaniacal to some degree, as he is willing to cast away almost everything in order to find out what happened to her. While this can be admirable, it means he's willing to sacrifice a lot to get it, such as his building relationships with his Uncle John and Malini.
He also has some anger issues. It's understandable, given his situation, but he tends to overreact, and act without thinking. This seems to be a character flaw of his , and I expect that as the series progresses, he will learn to manage it, tempering courage with wisdom and learning to pick and choose rather than blindly rushing in.
Malini
Malini seems to be the anchor to his new life. More than the uncle he had never met, Jacob forges a bond with Malini. She shares a lot of the same issues with him as an outsider to a close-knit town, and doesn't have any built in issues that can come with family. She acts as a balance to Jacob both providing an anchor in the mundane world that he doesn't get from his family, and countering his impulsiveness with patience and insight. I think she is a great companion to Jacob, providing a contrast without being wholly defined by it.
Dr. Silva:
Dr. Silva takes the role of mentor and guide to Jacob. She maintains an aura of mystery for most of the story, but her nature can be gleaned before it's revealed if you read carefully. I won't go into spoiler territory, but she has a past, and is trying to move on from it, becoming someone different than she used to be.
Uncle John:
While he is only a minor character for most of the story, John plays a role as well, providing Jacob with a new home. While the two remain distant, mainly because they had never had any contact before the start of the book, John keeps trying to build a bridge over the gap between them, and it slowly but surely pays off. Jacob forces him to confront a few issues that have been part of John's family, and try to move past them.
Story:
I really enjoyed the story overall. Things moved along quickly, and managed to cover several aspects simultaneously without dragging down the story. Jacob has to come to terms with his new life, adapting to it even as he tries to get things back to the way they were before.
Things I liked:
The Story.
I said this already, but I felt it was well written and enjoyable. While I had some complaints about certain parts of it, I really enjoyed the story overall. I think part of my issue was that I was reading it with the purpose of critiquing it later, so I couldn't immerse myself in the book like I usually do. Despite this, I really enjoyed the story.
Jacob's attitude.
He acts like as teenager. He doesn't always do the smart thing, he takes things too far, and accepts things he might not be best off accepting. A lot of books tend to gloss over this issue, which is fine, but it's refreshing to see a hero acting like the teenager they are and making mistakes that seem obvious to people who have lived through that age before.
How religion was addressed.
I'm not a huge fan of religion in general, especially when it plays such an intrinsic part in a story, but I think it was handled fairly well in this book. It's not about being he individual religion being correct, but about Good and Evil and the differences between them. Chirstianity, Judaism, Buddhism, and Taoism, to name a few, are all valid interpretations of God's will in this book. It doesn't matter what you believe, as long as it makes you strive to be a better person.
Things I Didn't like:
Mysteriousness
My major complaint for the early book is how mysterious everything is. We don't know about Jacob's paternal family, we don't know about what took his mother. We don't know a lot about what is happening, and there doesn't seem to be a lot of time devoted to exploring each of them. It just seems to heap too much mystery in the beginning, especially for a multi-book series. Mysteries should lead to each other, instead of all being presented at once. Still, it wasn't a major detraction from the story, and there weren't any dangling threads left at the end to slowly drive me insane. It could just be a symptom of being the first book and having to explain everything for the reader that caused it, but it still bothered me a bit.
Pacing:
Everything seems to happen too fast. Too many mysteries are revealed at once, evolution of relationships happens too fast. I know the story takes place over the course of a year, so there is a bit of fill in the blank in play here to explain the rapidity of it. Overall, it's not too big of an issue, and if I wasn't analyzing the story as I went, it might not bother me much, or even catch my notice, but things tend to proceed quite rapidly once they get going. Part of the issue arises because I know this is a story told across multiple books, so I would assume there would be longer story arcs developing over the entire course of this saga, rather than most aspects being completed and resolved by the end of this story.
Overall Rating: 4/5
This was a very enjoyable book, and I would recommend reading it. It didn't have the page turning, stay up all night to finish it quality that some books have for mew, but I read this over the course of a day and while I might be distracted by other things along the way, I never discarded it, planning ot finish it some other time. The characterization primarily focused on Jacob and Malini, with most other characters receiving far less attention, but hopefully future volumes will pay them more attention now that the main characters have been fully established.
One concern I have for future books is how Jacob will develop. It seemed like his story arc is mostly concluded, he's found a foundation for himself, and doesn't seem like he's going to have much room to develop into new directions. Likewise, the Watchers seem very well defined in their powers and skills, so I don't know how much variety you can get out of them outside of escalating their prowess.
Still, there is plenty of room for growth, and who knows how new challenges will force him to grow, both as a Soulkeeper and a person, so I'm going to stay positive and hope for the best.