A review by natachareads
The Goblets Immortal by Beth Overmyer
1.5
More review here: https://natachainreviewland.wordpress.com
When I started reading The Goblets Immortal it, unfortunately, I immediately felt that this will be a story that needed a little bit more work and beta reading. For the best part of it, it was an okay just a simple fantasy story, but towards the end, the repetition drove me crazy. In my opinion, this is a book that targets readers that don't usually read fantasy. The story is very basic: the chosen one, a magic artefact (or more that one for this story) and the bad guy that is looking for the magic artefact.
Things I liked:
-Slaine is a nice character. Despite the fact that she is bound by her curse and can't move freely she is a strong, intelligent and witty.
I- appreciate the time and effort the author put on making some of her character talking with an accent, including Slaine who is with us throughout the story.
-The writing and the story were very simple which makes it approachable for non-fantasy readers.
-There was a nice passage where Aidan has a sort of PTSD episode and I thought it was a nice touch and a nice way to give us some inside of his past.
Things I didn't like
-The overall story is a weird mix between rushing the story too much and just moving very slowly. In the first couple of chapter Aidain has escaped an ambush, stumble upon some Roma and stayed with them and the leaves and find the four elves he was looking for. And then for the next 4-6 chapters, it's just him and Slaine waking in the forest, making camp, eating and sleeping.
-Speaking of the beginning of the story. The beginning of the story everything is soooo convenient. Aiden gets ambushed and escapes just to stumble upon a group of Roma where conveniently their chief new his parent and conveniently he had stolen a goblet from them tells him to find the elves. Then Aidan leaves the Roma and us he is travelling he conveniently stumble upon the elves. Really?
-Aidan, our main character, doesn't really have a distinct personality. We get constantly conflicting personality trades. He is supposed to be hot-headed what we see that only when the plot needs it. He keeps telling us how he doesn't trust anyone but yet he stays with random people. A good example is when they Aidan and Slaine are captive and Aidan just walks around finds some liquid and thinks "I'm thirsty let's drink it even if I don't know what it is".
-Speaking of this scene... After Aidan drinks that liquid he gets dunk? drugged? and almost rape Slaine. What? My issue is not so much with rape or attempted rape if it actually serves a purpose to the story somehow. But her it didn't serve any other purpose than to tell us that Aidan is stupid for drinking things he doesn't know and a a** for trying to force himself on Slaine. Maybe this was a way for the author to tell us that he is into Slaine but really I didn't like it at all.
-Now for the part that drove me crazy. The story heavily relies on visions, flashbacks and dreams to both advances the plots and tell us about Aidan's backstory. Throughout the entire story, Aidan falls asleep and had a vision/dream around 6 or 7 times!!! Come on there are better ways than making your main character fall asleep to advance the story. And those are only the times that he actually has a vision/dream. I can't even start to count how many time a paragraph start with the "The next morning Aidan woke up". At 70% of the book, I lost my interest and that was one of the main reason.
When I started reading The Goblets Immortal it, unfortunately, I immediately felt that this will be a story that needed a little bit more work and beta reading. For the best part of it, it was an okay just a simple fantasy story, but towards the end, the repetition drove me crazy. In my opinion, this is a book that targets readers that don't usually read fantasy. The story is very basic: the chosen one, a magic artefact (or more that one for this story) and the bad guy that is looking for the magic artefact.
Things I liked:
-Slaine is a nice character. Despite the fact that she is bound by her curse and can't move freely she is a strong, intelligent and witty.
I- appreciate the time and effort the author put on making some of her character talking with an accent, including Slaine who is with us throughout the story.
-The writing and the story were very simple which makes it approachable for non-fantasy readers.
-There was a nice passage where Aidan has a sort of PTSD episode and I thought it was a nice touch and a nice way to give us some inside of his past.
Things I didn't like
-The overall story is a weird mix between rushing the story too much and just moving very slowly. In the first couple of chapter Aidain has escaped an ambush, stumble upon some Roma and stayed with them and the leaves and find the four elves he was looking for. And then for the next 4-6 chapters, it's just him and Slaine waking in the forest, making camp, eating and sleeping.
-Speaking of the beginning of the story. The beginning of the story everything is soooo convenient. Aiden gets ambushed and escapes just to stumble upon a group of Roma where conveniently their chief new his parent and conveniently he had stolen a goblet from them tells him to find the elves. Then Aidan leaves the Roma and us he is travelling he conveniently stumble upon the elves. Really?
-Aidan, our main character, doesn't really have a distinct personality. We get constantly conflicting personality trades. He is supposed to be hot-headed what we see that only when the plot needs it. He keeps telling us how he doesn't trust anyone but yet he stays with random people. A good example is when they Aidan and Slaine are captive and Aidan just walks around finds some liquid and thinks "I'm thirsty let's drink it even if I don't know what it is".
-Speaking of this scene... After Aidan drinks that liquid he gets dunk? drugged? and almost rape Slaine. What? My issue is not so much with rape or attempted rape if it actually serves a purpose to the story somehow. But her it didn't serve any other purpose than to tell us that Aidan is stupid for drinking things he doesn't know and a a** for trying to force himself on Slaine. Maybe this was a way for the author to tell us that he is into Slaine but really I didn't like it at all.
-Now for the part that drove me crazy. The story heavily relies on visions, flashbacks and dreams to both advances the plots and tell us about Aidan's backstory. Throughout the entire story, Aidan falls asleep and had a vision/dream around 6 or 7 times!!! Come on there are better ways than making your main character fall asleep to advance the story. And those are only the times that he actually has a vision/dream. I can't even start to count how many time a paragraph start with the "The next morning Aidan woke up". At 70% of the book, I lost my interest and that was one of the main reason.