Customer Reviews

Talion: A Medieval Mystery

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Karen Stokes has written an absorbing story that captivates your senses. Talion is set in 15th century England. This mystery includes intrigue, illusion and suspense. It is superbly written and a must read for all of you who like a bewitching tale. It is in line with her other books as being beyond the reader's expectations. The way she creates her characters and descriptions puts the reader right in the story, as if it were happening to them. I highly recommend it.

This book might have been good but for three things:
1. Unbelievably atrocious spelling, punctuation, and grammatical errors. I'm very understanding about the occasional typo that slips past editing, but every. single. page!! There is no way this book was edited at all. Maybe spellcheck, but even there the homophones got through.
2. A very stilted delivery, particularly with regard to dialog. One of the reasons I don't even try to write is because I can't manage the dialog. After reading this, I'm encouraged to go ahead and write anyway.
3. Violation of the cardinal writing rule: "Show, don't tell." Characters were decidedly one-dimensional with their motives being explained at length in narrative, instead of letting their personalities develop and show the reasons for their actions.

In terms of plot and premise, I think this book *might* have been great, but so very much was lost to the grammatical errors, near-total lack of punctuation, and artificial speech patterns. Even the author's blurb on the back cover has an example of the grammar problem (something along the lines of "She lives in ThisTown, State, where she spends her time. Entertaining guests and doing volunteer work." I don't remember the exact wording and refuse to pick the book up again, but you get the gist.)

Ms. Stokes: PLEASE get an editor! Items 2 and 3 might have been excusable, were it not for the overwhelming presence of item 1. It was so bad that I'm willing to VOLUNTEER to edit (for grammar) two chapters of your next book, to show you what a difference it can make.