Customer Reviews

When The Gods Slept (The Timura Trilogy Volume 1

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

 

 

An interesting tale of a set of unlikely friends. The plot is captivating and the characters have enough depth for you to understand them and have a sense of how they think and act. A little more depth in describing the world itself would have been appreciated as I still don't feel as if I know it.

While the story was entertaining, the lack of any editing was very distracting. While there are many examples, I will share only one from page 352 (chapter 22):

"Your new title comes flows smoothly to my lips, sir. And I must say it fits very you very well."

I am half way through the second book in the series, and it seems to have been edited, so it is much easier on my pedantic eyes.

All said, a good story that I am looking forward to finishing.

I found this book to be filled with promise that fizzles out at the end. My first quibble with the book is the editing. I know the other reviews have mentioned this issue but it really is distracting. When you get at least, and I may be consevative on this estimate, 50+ typos in a book it's a real problem. It nudges the reader out of the story and ruins the flow. The characters were too formulaic for my tastes. There were no surprises. Each character seemed to act according to script, a very predictable script. This led to very few surprises at the end of the book.

Wow really nice, I was totally entranced by the story. And unlike the more cheesy entries in Fantasy in which the endings are all peachy and everyone is happy, this story actually contains moral dilemma! Anyways, not the best review, I know, but I just really enjoyed the story. The author does a great job of painting a believable world, and humorous characters I can care about. The only issue I have is with the atrocious editing. The book is sprinkled with sentences which make no sense whatsoever, and you have to stop and try and puzzle out what Allan Cole is really trying to say.... Still it was a great read and I'm looking forward to diving into book 2!

Writers, argued Ernest Hemingway, should show and not tell. Allan Cole should have taken that lesson to heart.

In this dreadful novel, Cole shows and then tells a bit too often. The narrative stops and Cole feels the need to tell his readers what they have just read. This novel is 448 pages. It is, one would assume, not intended for pre-schoolers without critical thinking skills. Cole, for example, shows us that his main character has magical abilities and then hides them from his mother. But instead of letting the narration speak for itself, Cole proceeds to inform his reader that the young boy also hid his magical skills from everyone else in the world. If he did not trust his mother with that knowledge, why would he trust anyone else? Most people with a brain can see this. Cole should have trusted his readers. He does not need to tell the readers that a character's "emotions are as large as his frame" or that having all of the family together for breakfast "would be especially important for him this morning."

The story itself and the characters do little to hold the reader's interest. There may have been more suspense had Cole not given away a good deal of the story in the two page prologue. You can give away the ending if the story is well known and you have an interesting take on it--T.H. White's look at King Arthur comes to mind. The characters have strange conversation skills. They go back and forth in their conversation patterns--from stiff and formal language to contemporary casual talk. It's jarring to say the least. This points to bad editing and the rest of the book confirms it. As the other reviews note, there are scores of typos and grammatical mistakes. I often got the feeling that I was reading a memo. If Cole wants to stress something, he puts it in italics. When Cole has people shouting, instead of following centuries of writers in using the exclamation point, he feels the need to send off an instant message AND THE CHARACTERS START SPEAKING IN ALL CAPITAL LETTERS. Words are often randomly capitalized and then not. The plot drags especially since Cole continually gets in the way of the narrative to tell his readers what he just showed them. Cole often jumps into his characters' thoughts and tell his readers what they are thinking. Then he gives us another sentence to tell us the exact same thing. Sometimes, he gives us a third, fourth and fifth sentence--sometimes questions--but tells us nothing that we did not already gather from the first sentence.

An interesting plot and developed characters could make me overlook the poor editing and even redeem the flawed narrative to some extent. But Cole offers neither. Instead, he presents a book that goes nowhere and legions of bland characters. Added with a narrative style reminiscent of a kindergarten teacher reading a book aloud to children and then explaining what it is happening in the pictures and 150 or so more pages than are needed, this book is fatally flawed and an epic failure.

"When the Gods Slept" the first of the "The Timura Trilogy" is a wonderful fantasy. The story follows the hero, Safar Timura and his best friend Iraj Protaras from their youth to their mid-twenties.

Iraj is an orphaned prince exiled to a small village high in the Valley of the Clouds, dreamed of being the next great conqueror. The key to his destiny is Safar Timura, a youth with an awesome gift for sorcery, whose visions foretell Iraj's rise to power. In those visions, Safar stands at Iraj's side, his soul-blasting spells enabling his friend to attain his dreams.

But Safar had other visions with darker portents, and his spellbound knowledge raised secrets better left buried. Safar escapes death many times. The first time is an attack by demons who have learned how cross the forbidden desert. The last is surviving the deepest of betrayals.

The heart of the problem between these two blood brothers is vision. Iraj will become King of Kings. He's fearful Safar wants his position and refuses to believe otherwise. Of course, his paranoia is fed by three well-drawn, power hungry villains. Safar in many ways maintains his innocence. His sole goal has always been to learn sufficient magic to defeat the Demon Moon and save the world from extinction. Not that Iraj believes this.

This book is rich in death and disaster, in intrigue and treachery, love and loss. This book makes you smile, cry, and hurt and the end is a surprise.

By the time I had read half the book, I went to Amazon and bought the second and third books in the trilogy. It reminded me of what makes fantasy so special. Can you tell I loved the book?