27 of 32 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Standard Pulp Heroics, September 30, 2010
This review is from: Kell's Legend: The Clockwork Vampire Chronicles, Book 1 (Mass Market Paperback)
If you're a fan of old-school pulp fiction barbarian heroes with excessive hyphenation and Incredible Numbers of Significant Initial Capitals, then you'll doubtless love this book.
I'm not, however, so the excessively purple prose conjoined with abrupt diversion into crude cursing was somewhat distracting; the oddly detailed rape scenes were slightly unpleasant (why Mr. Remic felt the need to inform me as to the exact qualities of the villain's equipment is a mystery I feel no wish to investigate); and the characterization was somewhat erratic.
The titular Kell (whose legend is helpfully related at the back of the book) appears to be a faux-scots barbarian who, once he gets over his angst (which takes the better part of a page at the front of each battle), is spectacularly effective at cleaving villainous types--nearly always "albino" in nature; I think that, despite the vast numbers of ways that he has found to describe a villain ravishing a female protagonist, Mr. Remic's thesaurus contains no synonyms for "colorless" or "lacking melanin"--with his sentient and apparently invariably butterfly-bladed battleaxe.
The plot appears driven by the invasion of the subtitular "clockwork vampires;" creatures of grafted flesh and machine--and to Mr. Remic's credit, the concept is rather interesting; in some respects it's reminiscent of the plague victims in S. M. Peters' "Whitechapel Gods." These creatures require "blood-oil" (if you wish to read this book, please get acquainted with that phrase; it appears on more pages than the protagonist) to sustain their functions, and live in oppressive symbiosis with the aformentioned "albino" warriors and some rather nightmare-fuelish "Harvesters."
The female characters come out rather badly treated; one, in particular, is given a rather promising backstory only to fall victim to a random act of violence late in the book. It's rather discouraging, on the whole.
The world-building is accomplished fairly well; the setting seems to have been carefully thought out, with plenty of room for expansion for future books in the series. Individual parts, though, are of varying quality; I half-suspect that some venues were chosen more for atmosphere than for any sort of effective urban planning.
The plot, sadly, is full of missed opportunities; there are many promising threads that are quickly snuffed out or cut off just as they begin to show promise in favor of an apparent desire to keep strictly to a single narrative, that of an irresistable invading army with a few epic heroes who are destined to deus-ex-machina their way into history.
The best that I can say is that Mr. Remic is very aware of his fantasy tropes, and uses them appropriately for his intended venue. There's the obvious Epic Hero, his Beautiful (grand-)Daughter, the Atoning Sidekick, the Evil Villain at the head of the Ominously Named Army...etc. If you happen to be a fan of this sort of ten-cents-a-page writing, then you'll probably enjoy Kell's Legend--if not, find something else with fewer hyphens.
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
It certainly is different., October 2, 2010
It is not your typical sword & magic story; the story has more than one main character, so do not be put off by the title, even though as a main character the hero will certainly shock the readers expecting a young and inexperienced character.
I found it refreshing that the hero does not have to be trained in what he has to do; this does not make the quest any easier, and the turns ans twist in the story keeps it entertaining. Cyborg-vampires are certainly different from all other forms of fantasy books. The story has armies, battles, the odds are certainly against the hero, so it is a book that keeps you guessing what will happen; yet you are not able to second guess it. A good read.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
a new spin, October 10, 2010
Kells Legend follows 4 weary people escaping from a cowardice attack on their town. Two are young university girls, one of their grandfather who happens to be a legend, and a thief who used to be more.They narrowly escape a Harvestor who is so upset that he sends a canker. Both of these villanous beings are working with the vachine clockwork vampire Graal who plans to over take this kingdom and make them his cattle to harvest their blood.
The story begins nicely enough with a retired war hero trying to feed his granddaughter soup and keep her focused on going to university. Then, everything picks up speed and you barrel through this story from one magnificent fight to another. With no breathing room really in between because as the stories twist and turn and more characters re introduced, you don't know who to trust. They make it to the big battle and things start heating up, getting intense, and you feel satisfaction coming. Except then, it just is overrun by the villians, Kell and Saark try to escape to save his granddaughter, and then it ends...almost mid sentence it seems.
I know, this is Book 1, which means there will be a 2. Still, there was no closure to virtually anything. Everyone, literally, is left hanging from cliffs while you have to wait for the next book to be released. It is well written and the action is nice. The new twist of the vampire as well as the other creatures in this text keeps you biting your nails and turning pages. Overall, I did like it. It was difficult to understand when some of the new story lines were introduced, but the characters are great and I like almost all of them. My problem is that when reading the next one, I will have to remember all the plot lines left open from this one since nothing was resolved. Still, it is a good read with tons of action and fighting and heros being developed. So, give it a go because I think it is a good story in the making.
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