Customer Reviews

Flores Girl: The Children God Forgot

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

After having had the pleasure of reading Flores Girl, I must say that the story, while seemingly complex, is also extremely profound. Sequentially, several clues are discovered on this island and basically trigger certain events integral to the novel. What are they? Where did they come from? What do they do? These are all questions one asks oneself while the story develops. And is it develops you are asked to embark on a journey with the main characters to find his/her own way in life. Each individual reader will have to decide what it means to them. Any way one decides to answer these questions results in profound solutions. Experience it yourself for more clarification. The end result is quite chilling, no matter what your personal solution. I highly recommend this book to all lovers of fantasy and fiction!

Flores Girl: The Children God Forgot reads like a rough draft. THe idea could have developed into an awesome story, but the writer did not bother to edit it at all. Random shifts between present and past tense, characters that not only change their dialects but also their personalities and characters with absolutely no chemisty detectable by the reader fall in love. Also, there's a ton of backstory that doesn't relate to the story at all.

ALthough I was looking forward to reading about "Flores Girl", I could not get into the story. It starts off dragging. Then the author is obviously trying to build chemisty between the main characters and though none develops, it continues anyway - can't really call that a spoiler since as soon as the reader meets the characters it is immediately obvious to even the most casual observer that they are going to be forced into a chessy harlequin type romance.

The author obviously has a very creative mind and I sincerely hope that he takes some writing classes, reads some trade mags, takes time to proof read his work and gets a good editor.

I first discovered this novel as a podcast and was quickly drawn into the story. I was delighted to find it as a print version for the Kindle. It is a fascinating book. I enjoy books with forensic and palaeoanthropological themes and this one did not disappoint. Highly recommended. :)

The possibilities with this story line were exciting - unfortunately the story became very bogged down in trying to create a 'relationship' between the two main characters. Actually, this happened when any new character burst on the scene. I was dissapointed to find that I was starting to skip paragraphs, then pages & finally had enough & put it down before the (long in coming) climax. I will finish it - one day!
Rainy day! Finished the whole book! What a pity that the entire book was not written in the same styl as the last few chapters. Finally the action hotted up entertainment level skyrocketed! Sooo, a few stars to add.

Let me preface by making it clear that I get no thrill from giving a bad review. I wanted to like this book. I suspect that the author and I are very close in our politics and world view. I think the recent finds on Flores are fascinating and could be fantastic venue for a novel, science fiction or otherwise. Unfortunately this is not that novel.

First, and least forgivable, are the technical errors. The author has a difficult time maintaining point of view and time sense. A paragraph may start out in third person/past tense but end up in second person/present tense. This is very distracting from the story. The author chose to use American style measurements (distance in miles, temperature in Fahrenheit). Scientists, especially when outside the United States, are very unlikely to do this, and it is very rare to see in a modern science fiction story. Minor spoiler: "Plaque" is rarely fatal, I think he means "Plague".

All that aside, I could have forgiven this had the characters, and their relationships been executed well. Unfortunately they are not. Both protagonists are very thinly defined and worse yet, unlikable. The male is simply an ass, but not a well defined one. The female is so lightly sketched that Dejah Thoris seems rich by comparison. They have little or no back story. The male is a troublemaker, who got into trouble, then made it worse by getting in more trouble. The female may have sprung fully formed from her faculty advisor's forehead on her first day of grad school. Neither seems to have the patience for any sort of scientific endeavor, much less their purported fields.

I could forgive poorly defined protagonists if the villains were interesting. But again, I am disappointed. A mustache to twirl would not bring him to the level of Snidely Whiplash. He isn't even evil enough for me to cheer his inevitable demise.

The plot would be barely adequate if the characters were fascinating. They are not, so it is not. It is an absolutely generic quest plot. Homo floresiensis could have been replaced with a magic ring, the ark of the covenant, or the land of lost socks with little more than a search and replace. Not enough to forgive the weak characters.

One final note, the author needs to keep better track of resources. Weapons only have so many shots, food only lasts so long, and video camera batteries need to be recharged.

I really cannot recommend this novel. It is not irredeemable, but I suspect that the author is either very young, or rather elderly. A good editor, or a co-writer could make this a very enjoyable romp.

Loved the story. It is unique and well thought out. Just needs a good grammatical editor. I would give it 5 stars if the author would clean up the grammar, spelling and other mishaps in the text.

GOD dose not forget any of his kids so too me it is just lame and u can tell the person who made this book