A review by xterminal
Ashton Memorial by Robert R. Best
2.0
Robert R. Best, Ashton Memorial (CreateSpace, 2010)
After finishing up Lakewood Memorial, the first of Best's projected Memorial trilogy (the third should be released later this year), I wasn't thrilled, but I was intrigued enough to check out the second volume in the trilogy given that while Best wasn't really doing anything new with the material, he could at least write it well enough to keep me interested and minimize the damage from some of the shortcomings. Now I've finished Ashton Memorial, book two, and what I most feared occurred: those shortcomings roared into life, taking center stage and crushing the momentum, and very nearly the life, out of the series.
The first of these shortcomings, which was more restrained in book one than the second, has been mentioned in any number of reviews, so I'll just touch on it here: Best's use of profanity has gotten way, way out of control. While it wasn't at a level in Lakewood Memorial that showed the kind of thoughtful precision I would have liked (a great example of what I mean by that is Joseph Finder's wonderful novel Paranoia), he at least kept it to a dull roar. Not so here, and other reviewers have already posted the most unintentionally amusing examples.
The second is a bit more distressing, and yet it hasn't been addressed by anyone. Best is attempting to make the personalities of his characters age-appropriate, and to an extent that is to be commended. But Best's younger characters tend to sound and act much, much younger than they are; Dalton's age is given a few times as twelve, but without that, I'd have pegged him at seven or eight. Same with the supposedly sixteen-year-old Ella; even now that I've finished the book and know there are no references to it within, I wonder whether Best meant her to be mentally challenged, because there's no way a sixteen-year-old, however immature, would do and say some of the things Ella does.
Those two criticisms can basically be tacked onto my review of the first book and the conglomerate could stand verbatim; other than a change of scenery and an Evil Overlord(TM), there's really not much difference between Lakewood Memorial and Ashton Memorial. Those two criticisms, however, are enough to drag the rating down an entire star. Will have to think for a while about whether I want to pursue this trilogy to its conclusion. **
After finishing up Lakewood Memorial, the first of Best's projected Memorial trilogy (the third should be released later this year), I wasn't thrilled, but I was intrigued enough to check out the second volume in the trilogy given that while Best wasn't really doing anything new with the material, he could at least write it well enough to keep me interested and minimize the damage from some of the shortcomings. Now I've finished Ashton Memorial, book two, and what I most feared occurred: those shortcomings roared into life, taking center stage and crushing the momentum, and very nearly the life, out of the series.
The first of these shortcomings, which was more restrained in book one than the second, has been mentioned in any number of reviews, so I'll just touch on it here: Best's use of profanity has gotten way, way out of control. While it wasn't at a level in Lakewood Memorial that showed the kind of thoughtful precision I would have liked (a great example of what I mean by that is Joseph Finder's wonderful novel Paranoia), he at least kept it to a dull roar. Not so here, and other reviewers have already posted the most unintentionally amusing examples.
The second is a bit more distressing, and yet it hasn't been addressed by anyone. Best is attempting to make the personalities of his characters age-appropriate, and to an extent that is to be commended. But Best's younger characters tend to sound and act much, much younger than they are; Dalton's age is given a few times as twelve, but without that, I'd have pegged him at seven or eight. Same with the supposedly sixteen-year-old Ella; even now that I've finished the book and know there are no references to it within, I wonder whether Best meant her to be mentally challenged, because there's no way a sixteen-year-old, however immature, would do and say some of the things Ella does.
Those two criticisms can basically be tacked onto my review of the first book and the conglomerate could stand verbatim; other than a change of scenery and an Evil Overlord(TM), there's really not much difference between Lakewood Memorial and Ashton Memorial. Those two criticisms, however, are enough to drag the rating down an entire star. Will have to think for a while about whether I want to pursue this trilogy to its conclusion. **