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21 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Poorly written or translated. Either way there is better out there, September 14, 2009
This review is from: Ring of Fire (Century Quartet, Book 1) (Hardcover)
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Rating System:
1 star = abysmal; some books deserve to be forgotten
2 star = poor; a total waste of time
3 star = good; worth the effort
4 star = very good; what writing should be
5 star = fantastic; must own it and share it with others
Blurb from back cover: "Every Hundred Years, humankind is put to the test. Every hundred years, four young people must take on an enormous challenge. Another century has passed, and the children have been chosen. The challenge begins in Rome, the city of fire."
1) I like the concept of a four part challenge covering four books with four kids who each plays a key role in completing the challenge
2) Right at page 8 my fears were realized when the writing of the character's actions, dialog and emotions was just HORRENDOUS. I don't know if this was due to the translation and/or the author is just a novice writer. Either way, it doesn't get much better throughout and only the cleverness of parts of the story keep the reader half-interested.
3) I like the cover and inserts. Eye-catching!
4) Did I mention the author seems to play the hand of God card too often?! There never is really any threat as things always miraculously work out perfect for our four protagonists...then again why wouldn't it? I mean after all they need to survive three more books. But still the suspension of belief was pushed passed reasonable limits in some cases.
5) If you don't want to care about the characters or appreciate the writing, then hold on to the mystery of the story. That has some meat to it, which is the main reason I didn't give this a one star.
I know. I know. I hate rating a book so low, but I read a LOT of YA books (just finished bk 2 of the Hunger games. Very good read!) But let's face it, there are more and more authors trying to break into this booming market of YA. That is especially good and bad for the audience as more good books and more poor books will be available and until you read it (or read the reviews) you won't know which is which.
Personal recommendation is move on unless the story concept and pretty inserts intrigues you.
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15 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Well crafted in spots, poorly woven in others., September 5, 2009
This review is from: Ring of Fire (Century Quartet, Book 1) (Hardcover)
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I am chagrined to say that I didn't really enjoy the first half of this book, yet I will give it 4 stars anyway. Read on to see why.
For those of you who would appreciate an executive summary, here it is. Ring of Fire is a classic "clue hunt" book in the style of the Dan Brown's "da Vinci code". If you are a fan of great storytelling and seeing clues masterfully woven together into a surprising and compelling resolution... you won't find it here. That criticism being levelled, the book is "amusing" and "fun to read". There are much worse books out there. If you are on the fence about gifting this book to a teen, go ahead and do it. Its good enough.
Now the long version...
This story is juvenile fiction, and I am an adult. So reading it and writing the review require some care, because its easy to hold the author accountable to higher standards than necessary. Juvenile fiction can be great, but, by definition this sort of "clue hunt juvenile fiction" is part of a training ground for young adults who are still building their skills at story inference and deduction, with the story and its subplots geared on that level.
As a father of 4, I read a fair amount of juvenile fiction and enjoy watching the storyteller spin their tale, much as I might enjoy watching someone else artfully wrap a thoughtful gift for their child, and thinking to myself "oh, they're going to love that part". Unfortunately, Ring of Fire didn't quite deliver that feeling to me.
Overall, I found this book to be amusing. The basic theme of the book is that the kids have to unearth an ancient secret and "do some good". The story is constructed as four teenagers, each with their own "gift". The first book is mostly about Elettra, and she has some "power" gift. I suppose that the other books may focus more on the other characters. The gifts of the other characters are hinted at, but too vaguely for my liking. There is some mild drama but more suspense, which is good because it is juvenile fiction and so it should be lighter reading. I appreciated the overarching ideas that "history matters" and "we all are a part of some greater good".
Pros:
1) the author does a fair job of plot development. I feel that a lot of work went into researching the locale and the locale was then presented in a compelling and interesting way.
2) the clue hunt is well done in my opinion, although it does sometimes require a bit of faith on the part of the reader. I don't like it when books require you to make excuses for why things happen the way they do. And I sometimes found myself making excuses for the book. While other readers may feel that these are huge flaws, I do not. Its Juvenile Fiction.
3) i found the full color insert pages to be "neat" and a real plus for juveniles, who might enjoy having something more tangible to view. I think this is particularly true since many juveniles may have a difficult time picturing exactly what Rome looks like.
4) the overarching values were excellent. Importance of friends, doing what you need to do, the importance of history and learning and its effect on the future, accepting those who are different ... these are all present and well crafted.
These pros were enough to get it to 4 stars.
Cons:
1) The first half of the book was a bit lopsided to read, sometimes requiring conscious effort to continue. (The second half of the book held my interest very easily.)
2) Character development seemed poor. The other three characters seemed to get in Elettra's way often and to be very shallow. There was the angry/cynical one, the go getter, and the placid one. Some subplots seemed unnecessary and forced, to provide some characters with more "face time". In addition, I feel that the author should work harder on differentiating characters by HOW THEY SPEAK. Most dialogue could have been interchangable between characters.
3) There are some things that weren't tied together by the end of the book. I'll only give you one example. In the beginning, Elettra is patiently trying to catch a mouse. the author suggests that she enjoys the delayed gratification and the patience required. But I never saw where this was leveraged later in the book. Certainly, i could make the inference that the entire plotline supported this, because she didn't give up. But this is a bit tenuous and forced, and i would never expect my 13yo to "get it". This delayed gratification preference was presented as a part of her character, but in the rest of the book she comes across as being impulsive. If the author was trying to save this tie in for another book, then I feel she made a mistake. its a particularly grevious mistake considering that this book should be teaching juveniles how to make connections in stories, instead it would seem to encourage them to ignore details. I could comment more on this, but this con is getting a bit long.
I will give the book to my 13 yo, who I think will enjoy it. And I will probably read the second book, when it comes out. its good enough. But its my sincere hope that the author puts a bit more effort into "characters" and "weaving together details". Its critical in this "clue hunt" genre.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Decent Story, Neat Setting, September 17, 2009
This review is from: Ring of Fire (Century Quartet, Book 1) (Hardcover)
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Elettra of Italy, Harvey of New York, Mistral of France, and Sheng of China all end up in Elettra's room by sheer coincidence. If coincidence is what you call it when 2 extra families are mysteriously booked in the only open room in the small hotel Elettra's family operates. The bunch of 12-year-olds, who seem to get on pretty well, and can speak the same language, find out they all have birthdays on Feb. 29th. It only gets weirder when they seem to cause a district-wide blackout then are given a briefcase by a man who later turns up dead. Urged by an unknown force, mostly emanating from Elettra, they work to solve the clues in the briefcase that have something to do with a historical 'Ring of Fire'. Events are set in motion, and they must work together to work against the evil killer (and whoever sent him) who's hunting them down.
Book 1 indeed - only about half your questions are actually answered, which isn't bad, just kind of sad (because I don't intend to read anymore). I wasn't sure if I liked the ending either. The plot is OK, though all the historical stuff is nice. And a couple parts did pleasantly surprise me.
I liked that it's set in Rome, and the author takes you all around historical places. The scenes were set very well.
The characters... not so much. I understand it's translated, perhaps not very well, but I felt the characters were not well defined. Like I could describe them a little as individuals, but for most part they weren't that different from each other. At least Sheng says 'hao' a lot, I liked that, and though its subtle I felt the characters had developed a bit by the end ('grown up' a little I suppose).
Their actions didn't always make sense. Now, it's a while since I've been 12, but even kids have reasons for doing things. Nothing major, really, just -- why did they decide to wander alone at night in the middle of a blackout during a snow-storm instead of waking an adult or (heaven forbid) waiting until morning? Stuff like that.
One thing really baffled me -- why they were so quick to go around looking for clues and talking to strangers, but didn't bother asking their parents or other acquaintances any questions (did Elettra not know anyone around where she lived?).
In the end, it was kind of entertaining, but aside from some neat visuals I didn't gain much from the book. I DO, however, recommend it to children around 8-12, if only for the setting, and because it's not a stereotypical book. And if the sequels really do take place in each of the different cities the kids are from, that might be really fun to read.
Recommended fantasy books: Ella Enchanted, The Thief (The Queen's Thief, Book 1), Power of Three, Prophecy of the Stones, The, and Children Of The Lamp: The Akhenaten Adventure.
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