nick13's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Since Daniel decided to put his audiobooks on YouTube (which is epic!) I decided to release this duology. Overall, I enjoyed this one a bit less than the last time I did, perhaps due to my excitement for getting it not being as much but I suspect it is more to do with the clunkiness of the dialogue and the audiobook voices. See, I thought that the narrators were going to voice different characters but instead they voiced different POVS, the thing is though...the book only has one main character! So Kate Reading reads basically all of the book and when Michael Kramer gets his turn its just really jarring. Overall, a fun read that shows me that Daniel's ideas are great, it's just he needs to work on his writing a bit to make the actual story reciprocate that greatness.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Gore, War, Police brutality, and Child death
shayrna's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
allocari's review against another edition
4.0
Dark Story, interesting characters, can't wait to read the sequel.
belle_fiction's review
2.0
2.5 stars
I subscribe to Daniel's YouTube channel and he is an overall solid entertainer and great guy who gives some of the best SFF reviews so I really wanted to love his debut novella...but ultimately didn't.
I really didn't have any expectations going into this book and I will say the opening section was very intriguing (if harrowing - that first scene in particular still haunts me). I found BoP to be a competently-written novella which generated enough intrigue for me to keep turning the pages to find out what happened next. As with all books I had some positives and negatives which I shall outline below:
Pros:
Characterisation - there were three main perspectives we follow: Khlid, Chapman and Samuel. I loved all of these characters and found that they all had distinctive personalities and voices. I would have liked to have seen more of Samuel because I really enjoyed his presence. Khlid and Chapman were great in each other's company and I really felt like I got to know them throughout the course of the story.
Dialogue - overall I thought the dialogue was very well-written and there were a couple of times where I even laughed due to the banter between the officers.
Cons:
World-building - I'm still pretty confused as to what time period this took place in (I'm guessing it was the industrial age) but I think having a novella as your debut book can be a bit damaging since it doesn't give the author enough pages to work with to really cement the world you have created. To be honest I can't really picture the world of this story at all because there just wasn't enough time spent or description lent to this particular aspect.
Writing - I did find the writing to be pretty clunky in places which I found quite jarring and took me out of the story. I think some of the terms and descriptions used were either too cliché or just a bit 'heavy' and hampered the flow of the story at times.
Genre - if you were to ask me what genre this is...I would be hard pushed to find one which encapsulates it completely...it started off as a mystery/detective story (think Sherlock Holmes) then gradually incorporated fantasy elements which made it a mystery fantasy story but by the end which culminated in lots of gore, it read like a horror story. I was also surprised by the level of gore/graphic descriptions in this book (not necessarily a bad thing) - just something which surprised me.
Character name - oh, and I really didn't like the name 'Khlid' (I think it's obvious why as it brings to mind something else or perhaps that's just me and my gutter mind...I doubt it though).
Overall BoP was a straight down the middle read for me (2.5 out of 5 stars). I enjoyed the characters and the dialogue but had issues with world-building, the writing, genre and THAT name; however I'm definitely interested in reading more from Daniel in the future!
I subscribe to Daniel's YouTube channel and he is an overall solid entertainer and great guy who gives some of the best SFF reviews so I really wanted to love his debut novella...but ultimately didn't.
I really didn't have any expectations going into this book and I will say the opening section was very intriguing (if harrowing - that first scene in particular still haunts me). I found BoP to be a competently-written novella which generated enough intrigue for me to keep turning the pages to find out what happened next. As with all books I had some positives and negatives which I shall outline below:
Pros:
Characterisation - there were three main perspectives we follow: Khlid, Chapman and Samuel. I loved all of these characters and found that they all had distinctive personalities and voices. I would have liked to have seen more of Samuel because I really enjoyed his presence. Khlid and Chapman were great in each other's company and I really felt like I got to know them throughout the course of the story.
Dialogue - overall I thought the dialogue was very well-written and there were a couple of times where I even laughed due to the banter between the officers.
Cons:
World-building - I'm still pretty confused as to what time period this took place in (I'm guessing it was the industrial age) but I think having a novella as your debut book can be a bit damaging since it doesn't give the author enough pages to work with to really cement the world you have created. To be honest I can't really picture the world of this story at all because there just wasn't enough time spent or description lent to this particular aspect.
Writing - I did find the writing to be pretty clunky in places which I found quite jarring and took me out of the story. I think some of the terms and descriptions used were either too cliché or just a bit 'heavy' and hampered the flow of the story at times.
Genre - if you were to ask me what genre this is...I would be hard pushed to find one which encapsulates it completely...it started off as a mystery/detective story (think Sherlock Holmes) then gradually incorporated fantasy elements which made it a mystery fantasy story but by the end which culminated in lots of gore, it read like a horror story. I was also surprised by the level of gore/graphic descriptions in this book (not necessarily a bad thing) - just something which surprised me.
Character name - oh, and I really didn't like the name 'Khlid' (I think it's obvious why as it brings to mind something else or perhaps that's just me and my gutter mind...I doubt it though).
Overall BoP was a straight down the middle read for me (2.5 out of 5 stars). I enjoyed the characters and the dialogue but had issues with world-building, the writing, genre and THAT name; however I'm definitely interested in reading more from Daniel in the future!
cinhein's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
emsemce123's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Being a subscriber and fan of Daniel's fantasy news and book reviews in the SFF genre, I was curious to see what he'd bring to the table as a writer and while not great this is not bad at all. I definitely get hints from his influences specifically Sherlock Holmes and that gritty/flintlock fantasy that he's chosen to set his story in. (Refreshing that he went this route and not the typical high fantasy one) What I liked: world-building is great but there's room for improvement, the weird psuedo-religious government infusion with law enforcement is cool but I need it to be just a little more fleshed out and explained. Characters are good, but again, I could use a little more. All the characters in this story are inspectors/police so you already have that in common and need something to separate them apart. Khlid and Samuel are married and Chapman's an asshole. That's all I can recall. What I didn't like; the descriptions if violence and gore are hit and miss, the best writers can make me cringe while holding back on the gory details and letting my imagine supply me with the worst of it. And sometimes I feel like when he wants to dramatize something- introduce swearing. These aren't bad but maybe cut back and be more subtle. Overall I didn't hate this and am invested enough to continue to book 2, especially after that interesting cliffhanger.
Spoiler
Interesting choice to seemingly kill off your entire cast at the end of your first book, I'm writing this after having started book 2, and I kind of like it, not having read book 2 though I would've questioned it more, but it works for where the story went. It does kind of ruin any tension when this story foreshadows something happening to Khlid or Samuel or both throughout the story. (I think it happens 3 times) There's also something that Daniel draws your interest to and never gets brought up again, that's because it doesn't come into play until book 2. I liked it but again, before reading book 2 it felt weird, like a loose end. And this is just a personal nitpick but Khlid- I hate that name.thebookishpalette's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.5
cander's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
mettefh's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.0