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A review by arifel
The Rite of Wands by Mackenzie Flohr
Did not finish book.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange from an honest review. Though, reading through the other reviews left here, I can't help but wonder if the publisher sent me a different book to the one which everyone else seems to have read?
Despite trying to give it a fair crack all the way through, I unfortunately had to DNF this book at chapter 4, having found no signs of anything worth continuing for. The early plot was a jumble of rushed fantasy tropes (kid going through a coming of age ritual in order to gain magic and getting a tragic backstory in the process, plus a scene between a dodgy king, a dodgy duke, and the duke's naive, abused son who has the Gift of Prophecy...). There's no time spent on characterisation or fleshing out any particular moments, it's just endless quick-fire plot points held together with cliched dialogue. Old tropes can be done well, but they need to be coupled with an interesting hook - be that an obvious new twist, or simply the early introduction of characters the audience is interested in. Neither were in evidence here.
The writing quality is also poor - from outright incorrect words ("patronage" instead of "parentage" in chapter 2), to overuse of adjectives and adverbs, to (apparently unintentional) repetition of words in a sentence, to POV issues where we switch from one limited third person viewpoint to another in the space of sentences. I'm not a snob about prose styles but the basic lack of competence here make the book unreadable.
The Rite of Wands needed a lot more work before being released into the world, and unfortunately I can't recommend it to anyone...
Despite trying to give it a fair crack all the way through, I unfortunately had to DNF this book at chapter 4, having found no signs of anything worth continuing for. The early plot was a jumble of rushed fantasy tropes (kid going through a coming of age ritual in order to gain magic and getting a tragic backstory in the process, plus a scene between a dodgy king, a dodgy duke, and the duke's naive, abused son who has the Gift of Prophecy...). There's no time spent on characterisation or fleshing out any particular moments, it's just endless quick-fire plot points held together with cliched dialogue. Old tropes can be done well, but they need to be coupled with an interesting hook - be that an obvious new twist, or simply the early introduction of characters the audience is interested in. Neither were in evidence here.
The writing quality is also poor - from outright incorrect words ("patronage" instead of "parentage" in chapter 2), to overuse of adjectives and adverbs, to (apparently unintentional) repetition of words in a sentence, to POV issues where we switch from one limited third person viewpoint to another in the space of sentences. I'm not a snob about prose styles but the basic lack of competence here make the book unreadable.
The Rite of Wands needed a lot more work before being released into the world, and unfortunately I can't recommend it to anyone...