32 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
C'mon, October 21, 2010
This review is from: City of Rogues (Book I of The Kobalos Trilogy) (Kindle Edition)
I bought this book because most of the reviews are so good. I thought to myself: Hmm, a book that has god reviews mustbe good right? Ehhh. I will say that the book had me interested from beginning to end, but only because I thought that there would be some type of reversal at the end.
+++ Spoiler ALERT+++
In this book, all or most of the characters have roles that they should not have. The hero states that the main villain is the cause of all his misery and woe, and yet you find out that the "villain" might be a great crook, but he certainly is NOT the vilain he is made out to be. He is instead quite reasonable for a man in his position.
The "hero" does not deserve that name, for he is not a virtuous man at all. The only thing he defends is his revenge, and that gets plenty of other innocent men killed. He, for all his skill, is not a man of reason, nor does he give or even try to offer any reason whatsoever for what he does. He does not reflect upon that which moves him.
The maiden is another moral conundrum. She is the disciple of a fencing master, whom she betrays when she is not even sure why. She offers an excuse though, that she wants to learn from "the man who fights so strangely", but the book presents her master as the most skilled of all three.
In short, the "villains" are written as fairly common men, but certainly not deserving of death, while the "heroes" do seem morally abhorrent to me.
As for the story line. You are told from beginning to end that the main character wants to take his revenge on somebody. When he finally does, he shifts his attention to something totally unrelated to his prior life, and he still moves on with the same desire for revenge. As a reader I had to ask myself "Why?"
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As I said before, this book kept me reading from beginning to end. In fact, there is no reason why the main characters have to be heroes. If I am this disappointed with the characters, it only speaks well of the author who can create in me such strong feelings. So, just as many people have written before me, I must say that the author has great talent, and I will be reading further work. However, for better or for worse, I like books in which the characters have what they deserve, and this is not one of those books. I am not going to read the rest of the series.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good, worth a dollar., December 3, 2010
This review is from: City of Rogues (Book I of The Kobalos Trilogy) (Kindle Edition)
This book is good, it is an enjoyable read. There are a lot of things about the book that are annoying, but overall it still kept me interested.
Some of the language is a bit strange, for example there is a "busted window". The adjective really stands out as on odd choice of slang. There is also a very uncomfortable moment when some street urchin says to the hero "that's why you love me", and the hero replies "yes, that is why i love you". I couldn't help wondering where such a strong emotion had come from given that they had only really had a couple of business interactions.
The story also takes a dramatic turn at the end, where a couple of people who have just met are discussing something, and all of a sudden the hero proclaims a new perilous mission he must undertake, but it really comes from nowhere, it is just a way of setting up the next book even though it doesn't seem to relate to anything that had happened.
There are a couple of aspects of the book that are written almost like a mystery, as if you should be guessing and wondering who etc, but that side of the book sort of falls flat. Overall, there were a lot of bizarre aspects to this book, but for some reason, it still held my attention and I did enjoy it, even if I was sometimes laughing at the story instead of with it.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not bad, but could have been better, January 4, 2011
This review is from: City of Rogues (Book I of The Kobalos Trilogy) (Kindle Edition)
The sample chapters clearly show that the author can write well, promising a tale of daring and creative revenge in the spirit of The Count of Monte Cristo. There was even a point early in the story where I was rubbing my hands together with glee because it seemed like the villain was going to unwittingly hire the alter ego of the man trying to assassinate him to track down the man trying to assassinate him. And that was gonna be awesome to watch!
Unfortunately, this was only one of the really amazing potential plot twists that just failed to materialize - hinted at and then just dropped. If the author had lavished as much attention on the middle and end of the book as he clearly did on the beginning, City of Rogues could have been so much more than just another fantasy novel with familiar tropes, stock characters, and modest world-building.
It's not a bad story, mind you, but I can't help but feel it could have been so much better if the author had made some bolder plot choices.
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