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49 of 58 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Minimal character development, October 1, 2007
This review is from: The Summoner (Chronicles of the Necromancer, Book 1) (Mass Market Paperback)
There is a lack of polish, and definitely the run-on sentences and comma splices are distracting, but not necessarily the author's fault (no copy editor?).
The plot is formulaic, but interesting enough that it kept me reading until the end. It had the potential to be very good. However, I felt that it read a bit like a roleplaying game: Here is your mage, a prince on a quest. Here are your warriors, your rogue, your bard, your cleric.
When Kiara makes her first appearance, you get a nearly-MarySue description of her hair color, the length of the hair, the way her hair moves when released from its bonds, etc. Many of the characters were undeveloped, especially the villians. I did not feel I knew any more about the bad guys by the end of the book than at the beginning. Tris' companions were so secondary and shallow that at times I forgot their names and/or roles.
The vampire element was surprising. As in, it was a complete surprise how they popped up suddenly and unexpectedly.
The first half of the book does not seem so much Tris' adventure as it does completing quests for experience points in something like World of Warcraft. "Collect X amount of stones for a cairn and deliver a silver piece to the farm at the edge of town. Speak to the innkeeper for your reward!"
It struck me as being more on par with a very good fanfiction rather than a published novel. If there had been an already-established backstory, world, enemies, allies, and main characters, the minimalist descriptions and actions of the characters would have been acceptable. I felt the author could have fleshed it out into two or three more books.
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68 of 86 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Paint By Numbers Fantasy, June 17, 2008
This review is from: The Summoner (Chronicles of the Necromancer, Book 1) (Mass Market Paperback)
Don't get me wrong, I like paint by numbers fantasy. A paperback novel telling the tale of a young hero who must right wrongs and save the kingdom is a great way to kill time on an airplane, commute, or relaxing on the beach. But only if the author is good at it.
The author of 'The Summoner,' Gail Martin, is not very good at it.
Given that this is PbNF, I didn't expect much when I picked it up on a whim recently. I expected the cardstock characters (evil usurper, dark wizard adviser, plucky princess, bardly bard, etc) and Hero's Journey plot checklist. I just didn't expect it to be so... inept.
The book is too long, first of all. We all know where stories like this are going, so why spend so much time messing around? It's not like there's any character development or anything, so it feels like the author's just yanking our chains for a few hundred pages.
Hint: If you're telling a paint by the numbers fantasy story, your page cap is 400. 300 would be better. 600 is fail. I mean, this is a series, right? Save some for book 2.
The characters are cardboard cutouts of cardboard cutouts. If you have seen one fantasy movie, read one fantasy book, or played one game of D&D, you know them all instantly. The only interesting twist, the main character is like the kid form the Sixth Sense and can see ghosts, is reduced to a chore as he spends most his time whining about it.
Hint: If you spend the more of a fight scene describing how your hero is shocked and aghast at killing a dude instead of describing the actual fight, you're doing it wrong.
Hint: People don't like their characters to be willfully stupid. If the captain of the guard can't do anything about suspicious activity surrounding the king, then perhaps he shouldn't be a captain, huh?
The setting is Standard Fantasy. Again, no problems there, but nobody needs the Geography 101 Info Dump or the Intro to Theology course we get once the quest finally gets underway.
Hint: Don't introduce new cultures/faiths by telling us. Show them so as to make them more real for the reader.
Hint: Of course, if your idea of showing involves long descriptions of boring rituals performed by standard Spunky Princess #2 (Now, with cute animal companion!), maybe you should just skip it all together.
Bottom line is, this book would have been much better for what it is if it were half as long and twice as well written. That way reading 'The Summoner' by Gail Martin would be more rewarding and less like trying to eat a bag of marshmallows - too long, too safe, too sickly sweet.
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23 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
The story has potential but ultimately falls flat, January 18, 2008
This review is from: The Summoner (Chronicles of the Necromancer, Book 1) (Mass Market Paperback)
'The Summoner' by Gail Z. Martin sounded fascinating when reading the cover splash and flipping through the first few pages of the book. The book at first seems like a nice retelling, with a few interesting twists, of the classic story starring a dispossessed young prince seeking to overthrow an evil ruler and reclaim his right to rule. However, clichéd plot arcs, bland characters, overuse of certain literary mechanisms, and weak writing turn what could have been an excellent and thrilling story into a mired mess.
The plot seems so enticing when reading the back cover. A young man turned necromancer trying to free his kingdom from the ruthless rule of his wretched brother really does sound intriguing. Usually such stories involved a knight or at least a mage with a less dubious repertoire of spells than a necromancer. Soon into the book though you find this not to be the case. The story reads more like an adventure module for a pen and paper role-playing game than it does a novel. The dialogue in particular seems incredibly weak and you can go on for pages of what amounts to inane drivel that neither works to move the plot forward or develop the characters in any way. The characters themselves seem bland and flat with many of them having fewer qualities than a cardboard cutout. Some of the characters seem to have so much knowledge and background that in the setting seem ridiculous.
I've never read a book before where I actually became frustrated at the use of several terms or literary mechanisms before reading, `The Summoner'. She paints a really quite nice picture of the religious beliefs of this fantasy world early in the book. From then on though, it seems every other word uttered by a person in the book is, "Goddess" this and, "Goddess" that. By the time you get halfway through the book you start replacing the word with other words just for some flavor. I've also never seen heroes that seem less heroic than the heroes in this book. She uses the Deus Ex Machina approach to solve so many situations that the characters seem more lucky than heroic. Random vampires just show up and dole out information whenever it is needed, slavers take stupid shortcuts through haunted woods (that don't even sound like much in the way of shortcuts), people just happen to know random and weird skills and remember them when opportune. So not only are the characters flat and bland, they aren't really heroic either.
In the end, I give this book a two stars out of five. The story has potential and so I'll probably look at the next book of hers when it arrives in stores. However, there are many major flaws with this book that, at least for me, hampered my ability to enjoy the story. If you enjoy clichéd plots with weak characters then by all means give this book a try, but, otherwise I'd move along and find something else to read.
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