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A review by andypeloquinauthor
Hopebreaker by Dean F. Wilson
4.0
The moment I opened the book, I was hooked. The villain was set up immediately, with just enough of a hint to make you fear him without really telling you why. I love a good mystery like that, so it helped me to want to read more.
My interest began to wane a bit in Chapter 2, and I was forcing myself to read by Chapter 3. The book was written well overall--very few typos, the occasional phrase I would never use, etc. There is a good amount of information given to keep you interested in wanting to know more, but without a huge info dump.
My main issue with this book was with the lack of description. The author uses the word "war wagon", but without telling us what it looked like, how big it was, etc. The main character spends a lot of time in this "war wagon", but I have no idea what it was. I thought it was a tank at first, but the description makes it seem WAY too big. Basically, I could only picture the immediate surroundings of the character, which made it hard to put myself in his world.
The writing was a bit erratic and jerky at time. The sentences were all TECHNICALLY correct, but the flow just wasn't there for me. The structure was very "UK-ish", which made it hard for me to read.
It tends to move quickly--sometimes too quickly, in my opinion. You get a lot of story, but without really getting a feel for the characters. The main character--Jacob--started off good, but I liked him less and less as the story went on. He's too cool (unrealistically so), and never experiences a moment of fear. His only "weakness" is his love of money, and the author goes out of his way to emphasize that WAY too much. At the end of the book, I strongly disliked the main character, and not in a way that would make me want to keep reading.
That being said, the diversity of the characters was pretty good. Some were a bit clichéd--the general with the walrus moustache, the predictable bad guy, etc.--but overall the characters were interesting. They could have used a bit more fleshing out, as it made me hard to care when they died or were in pain.
I give it a four-star rating because it was pretty well written and the story was interesting, but had the characters been more relatable, it would have gotten a five-star review!
My interest began to wane a bit in Chapter 2, and I was forcing myself to read by Chapter 3. The book was written well overall--very few typos, the occasional phrase I would never use, etc. There is a good amount of information given to keep you interested in wanting to know more, but without a huge info dump.
My main issue with this book was with the lack of description. The author uses the word "war wagon", but without telling us what it looked like, how big it was, etc. The main character spends a lot of time in this "war wagon", but I have no idea what it was. I thought it was a tank at first, but the description makes it seem WAY too big. Basically, I could only picture the immediate surroundings of the character, which made it hard to put myself in his world.
The writing was a bit erratic and jerky at time. The sentences were all TECHNICALLY correct, but the flow just wasn't there for me. The structure was very "UK-ish", which made it hard for me to read.
It tends to move quickly--sometimes too quickly, in my opinion. You get a lot of story, but without really getting a feel for the characters. The main character--Jacob--started off good, but I liked him less and less as the story went on. He's too cool (unrealistically so), and never experiences a moment of fear. His only "weakness" is his love of money, and the author goes out of his way to emphasize that WAY too much. At the end of the book, I strongly disliked the main character, and not in a way that would make me want to keep reading.
That being said, the diversity of the characters was pretty good. Some were a bit clichéd--the general with the walrus moustache, the predictable bad guy, etc.--but overall the characters were interesting. They could have used a bit more fleshing out, as it made me hard to care when they died or were in pain.
I give it a four-star rating because it was pretty well written and the story was interesting, but had the characters been more relatable, it would have gotten a five-star review!