Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Interesting but...., June 8, 2005
It is obvious that this author has some talent, because he manages to be inventive and original in a field where the authors as well as the readers are often jaded and bored of the cliche characters and plots. His characters are refreshing and the main problem with them is the lack of in-depth interaction that the reader has with them. This novel is not really a novel at all, in my opinion. It is a collection of short stories that involve the same group of characters throughout, but it is cunningly disguised as a novel by using "filler" transitions between the stories. The problem with this is that while there are many interesting characters, like hackers with huge attitudes, millenia old vampires, genetically engineered humans, werewolves, and secret government agents that somehow all manage to avoid the boring over-used cliches, for the most part each of them are only present in small parts of the book. As a result, the reader only gets a small sliver of them. I think these six sections could easily have been made into 6 novels, but the way they are, I felt cheated and have little attachment to these interesting and new characters, I find my self always asking "And then what happened?" I see so much promise in these short sections, they could have easily become something along the lines of Jim Butchers Dresden Files and Simon Greens Nightside, but they way they are now, it seems like they are summaries of novels, or the first draft, with the major character and plot sketched in roughly, but none of the minor quirks and idiosyncracies and details worked out that make or break the story.
I would recommend borrowing this from the local library, but not buying it.
Hopefully, this author will improve over time, or perhaps stand up better to his editors and publishers.
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10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Digital Knight - A pretty good first time novel, February 9, 2004
Synopsis
Digital Knight is a series of stories narrated by the book's hero, Jason Wood, a private detective/computer geek/accidental paranormal expert. The stories chronicle his adventures as he, along with his close lady friend and psychic Sylvie, stumble into the world of the not so normal, and find that it's even more not so normal than they'd ever expected. Strange things abound, from real-live werewolves, to a vampire who is older than anyone expects to an ancient myth that turns out to be true... sort of.About the Book:
A first work for its author, Digital Knight is an interesting book in that it represents a body of work that shows how an idea can evolve over time. Clearly, Mr. Spoor didn't originally intend the characters to take the course they did, based on the first couple stories alone. What appears to be a simple series of stories involving vampires and werewolves and paranormal such things, turns into a strange albeit entertaining alternate mythology with a lot more in it than simple vamps. The evolution of the idea turns out not to be that bad of a thing. Spoor manages to take the clichés' of these old wives' tale bad guys and creates something entirely different and unique, albeit far fetched at times. The effect is such that the reader makes discoveries at the same pace as the author and characters do. It makes for a fun read. Ultimately, the stories easily keep your interest throughout, and a number of the characters are interesting enough to make you care about what happens to them. Be warned though, if you're looking at this book for traditional vampire/werewolf series of stories, these are not them. Digital Knight is more sci-fi related than traditional folk-lore. Likewise, if you're looking for hard, deep sci-fi stories, you won't find them here, though this certainly qualifies as both sci-fi and Fantasy. Spoor's Digital Knight stories read more like detective short stories, while being light on the detective part. Overall, this is a fun read, and a pretty good entry for a first time author. I'm looking forward to a follow-up to Digital Knight or other books from Spoor.
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14 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Author On "Digital Knight", September 24, 2003
"So why didn't you give your book 5 stars?" is probably the first or second question to come to mind if anyone's reading this one. And the answer is "I don't want to bias results too much one way or the other". Also, if I'm taking the star rating as an objective scale, I can't honestly say I think my writing (yet) stacks up next to my favorite authors' works.Digital Knight, which I describe these days in a nutshell as "MacGyver meets the X-Files and Buffy the Vampire Slayer", has a long history prior to publication, having had parts of it posted on the Net as early as 1992, and parts written quite some time before that. A shorter version, made up of three of the six sections found in the paperback, was available for purchase online a few years ago. The story of how it came to be published is very long, though pretty amusing, and can be summed up as following the perilous course of having insulted the right person in the right way at the right time, followed with appropriate behavior afterwards. After reading Digital Knight, it's likely the reader will have questions; all of my projected solo works take place in the same general universe, but anywhere from half a million years in the past to several thousand years in our future. As such, there are going to be things that are seen in the book which, as they are not central to the plot of Digital Knight, are only sketchily described; they will be more clearly explicated in other works. None of my immediately projected works are "series" in the sense that you have to read one to enjoy the next; while you may recognize certain elements, it won't require that you have read the other books. I welcome comments on my work, good and bad. Keep in mind: I write to entertain. I have no illusions or ambitions about writing Great Literature; all I want to do is write stories that the reader can say "hey, that was fun!" about once they're done. Thanks for reading!
Ryk E. Spoor
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