hostral's review
3.0
Jay Swanson is no stranger to writing, with a trilogy already under his belt and a continuous web-based fantasy series.
As a result, it's also of no surprise that the prose driving Dark Horse is excellent. Entertaining and humorous ground-laying consisting of village banter between friends and a gradual development for our young protagonist, the curiously-named Chakra.
Due to the age of our would-be hero and the surrounding cast of characters, there's a distinctly YA vibe about proceedings. Young men coming into the world and learning who they are, and the beginnings of a love that as all the markings of youthful obsession.
It is said love that propels the plot forward, and after all introductions are said and done we descend into the typical hack-and-slash as our hero in the making dispatches all that oppose him.
It's at this point that Dark Horse descends into almost-cliché levels, with a thick plot armour for the character shining as he quite literally collects more pieces of it.
What could have resulted in an eye-rolling continuation takes a much-needed diversion, saving us from further introspection on our hero's part and presenting him with a creature that can do more than be a mindless killing machine. Perhaps it was the excessive action of the previous chapters, but I found the dialogue and contest between the monster and the hero most refreshing.
Swanson wrote this book to highlight the dangers of magic in his world, and there's a sting in the tail of this particular book. It's not quite in keeping with the tone of the rest of the book and I believe it has been made deliberately jarring by the author. While I appreciate the change in tone, I feel there was too much emphasis put on the differentiation of it when compared to the build-up, which had little-to-no foreshadowing.
The writing in this is definitely four star, but the entire book seemed to be a diversion from the eventual punch at the end. The book also has one major flaw which hampered everything else.
It was too short. Too short to expand upon the characters involved, too short to give the villain of the piece suitable motive. Too short for the aforementioned foreshadowing and too short to provide us with enough characterisation to empathise for the plight of any characters outside of our protagonist. This last point cheapened some of the later scenes in particular.
On the flip side to this, the fact that I felt it was too short meant that I clearly yearned for more. If Swanson was to darken his world somewhat and write outside the typical clichés, expanding further and fleshing out his concepts this could prove to be an interesting series. As it stands, this feels like an extended short story rather than a full length novel.
As a result, it's also of no surprise that the prose driving Dark Horse is excellent. Entertaining and humorous ground-laying consisting of village banter between friends and a gradual development for our young protagonist, the curiously-named Chakra.
Due to the age of our would-be hero and the surrounding cast of characters, there's a distinctly YA vibe about proceedings. Young men coming into the world and learning who they are, and the beginnings of a love that as all the markings of youthful obsession.
It is said love that propels the plot forward, and after all introductions are said and done we descend into the typical hack-and-slash as our hero in the making dispatches all that oppose him.
It's at this point that Dark Horse descends into almost-cliché levels, with a thick plot armour for the character shining as he quite literally collects more pieces of it.
What could have resulted in an eye-rolling continuation takes a much-needed diversion, saving us from further introspection on our hero's part and presenting him with a creature that can do more than be a mindless killing machine. Perhaps it was the excessive action of the previous chapters, but I found the dialogue and contest between the monster and the hero most refreshing.
Swanson wrote this book to highlight the dangers of magic in his world, and there's a sting in the tail of this particular book. It's not quite in keeping with the tone of the rest of the book and I believe it has been made deliberately jarring by the author. While I appreciate the change in tone, I feel there was too much emphasis put on the differentiation of it when compared to the build-up, which had little-to-no foreshadowing.
The writing in this is definitely four star, but the entire book seemed to be a diversion from the eventual punch at the end. The book also has one major flaw which hampered everything else.
It was too short. Too short to expand upon the characters involved, too short to give the villain of the piece suitable motive. Too short for the aforementioned foreshadowing and too short to provide us with enough characterisation to empathise for the plight of any characters outside of our protagonist. This last point cheapened some of the later scenes in particular.
On the flip side to this, the fact that I felt it was too short meant that I clearly yearned for more. If Swanson was to darken his world somewhat and write outside the typical clichés, expanding further and fleshing out his concepts this could prove to be an interesting series. As it stands, this feels like an extended short story rather than a full length novel.
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