A review by lukerh01
The Octunnumi Fosbit Files Prologue by Trevor Alan Foris

2.0

I don’t normally write reviews but I have a lot of thoughts here.

The positives to this book start with the physical book itself. It’s absolutely stunning to look at. Secondly, the world is just as unique and well-crafted. I love anything steam-punk/clockwork inspired so this world was right up my alley. The book does feel like a setting driven novel rather than being plot or character driven.

Despite this, where this book falls flat for me is in the plot. Besides a surface level summary, I cannot tell you what this book is about. At all. The plot feels sporadic, messy, and honestly poorly crafted. We would move from chapter to chapter with no sense as to when and where we were. The motivation behind what we were doing for most the story was also unclear. Similarly, the characters were not terribly engaging and with the sheer amount of them it was impossible to keep track of them.

Overall, I think this is a book that does not meet the reader where they are at but a book that expects the reader to meet the book where it is at. I’m tempted to continue the series simply for how stunning it’ll look on the shelf (and for the curiosity the ending left with me), but having to work through a dozen of these books feels less like enjoyment and more like a chore.