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A review by rachel_abby_reads
The Tower of Shadows by Drew C. Bowling
1.0
This book is a reminder that a book can be inoffensive (in terms of sex and language) and still be bad. Bad. The cover jacket says "fast-paced" and "action packed" and the dust jacket describes a conflict between two brothers.
The book follows several characters with varying degrees of closeness: Wren and his daughter Kayla, Corin (victim brother) and his friend Dusty, and wizard's apprentice Adriel (Adrien?). They are being chased hither and yon by assassins hired by Corin's brother, and oh, yeah, there are demons and weird covens, but none of them have much to do with the story. There is some weird back story that causes Wren great angst that is never addressed or apparently relevant, and these people really only get anything approximating rest towards the end of the book, when the "heroes" get split up and have a four day ride to the tower for the final confrontation.
1) There is no reason to care about any of these characters. They are all flat, they are all dull.
2) The main conflict, the "why" of the novel, is that Brother A wants to bring a demon into the world to destroy it, and needs the blood of Brother B to bind/summon it. Brother A is in for a page or two at the beginning, and 5(?) pages at the end. For the rest, he has a gang of assassins with an infinitely renewable supply of henchmen to chase Brother B and assorted other tag-ons.
3) (This is stupid I have to include it.) Brother B (17 years old!) manages to escape from bad guys and ride out 30 min ahead of experienced warrior Wren. What kind of crappy warrior is this guy that he can't catch up with him for 5 days?
I've always wanted to write my own novel, to tell some story that is loved and shared. I never have, and I suspect that it's because ultimately I would write something as hackneyed and cliched as this stupid thing. As irritating as it was, I'm even more irritated with myself for finishing it.
In short: clean does not equal good.
The book follows several characters with varying degrees of closeness: Wren and his daughter Kayla, Corin (victim brother) and his friend Dusty, and wizard's apprentice Adriel (Adrien?). They are being chased hither and yon by assassins hired by Corin's brother, and oh, yeah, there are demons and weird covens, but none of them have much to do with the story. There is some weird back story that causes Wren great angst that is never addressed or apparently relevant, and these people really only get anything approximating rest towards the end of the book, when the "heroes" get split up and have a four day ride to the tower for the final confrontation.
1) There is no reason to care about any of these characters. They are all flat, they are all dull.
2) The main conflict, the "why" of the novel, is that Brother A wants to bring a demon into the world to destroy it, and needs the blood of Brother B to bind/summon it. Brother A is in for a page or two at the beginning, and 5(?) pages at the end. For the rest, he has a gang of assassins with an infinitely renewable supply of henchmen to chase Brother B and assorted other tag-ons.
3) (This is stupid I have to include it.) Brother B (17 years old!) manages to escape from bad guys and ride out 30 min ahead of experienced warrior Wren. What kind of crappy warrior is this guy that he can't catch up with him for 5 days?
I've always wanted to write my own novel, to tell some story that is loved and shared. I never have, and I suspect that it's because ultimately I would write something as hackneyed and cliched as this stupid thing. As irritating as it was, I'm even more irritated with myself for finishing it.
In short: clean does not equal good.