Book Review: Heather Gladney, Blood Storm
I know you like it best when I hate a book. So I give you:
22) Blood Storm, by Heather Gladney, 276 pages
You all read what I thought of the first book. Well, this one doesn't redeem my negative opinion. Heather visibly improves, but that does not make the flaws of this book less glaring, or more forgivable.
Once more, our supposedly-cool hero blunders from incomprehensible situation to incomprehensible situation, frequently vomiting, soiling himself, and getting smeared with animal excrement along the way. And let's not forget his fits. And keep in mind the burly-thewed man-love he feels for his liege, who has been thoroughly cleansed of his charisma by some truly mishandled characterization.
Gladney still doesn't explain enough about the world. Again, I am not one to want things spoon-fed to me, but she does not give enough bones for me to even form the skeleton of an idea of what the fuck is going on.
People, I hate doing this. I hate it, hate it, hate it. I hate panning books. I like books. Lots. I like words. I read the backs of cereal boxes. It's hard to lose me with words. Unless what you write is dense and incomprehensible. Like Alpha-Bits glued onto a brick.
There's stuff here worth saving. Parts of this book are genuinely good, the language is often pretty, and I even cared about two (2) of the characters by the end. But there's so much better stuff to read out there that I cannot possibly justify picking this book up just to see what the fuss is about.
The plot is haphazard and can't make up its mind where it is going, or what it's going to do when it gets there. Making things worse is this: Blood Storm is the second book of a trilogy the third book of which was never released, and it ends on a tremendously angsty cliffhanger.
Judging from the fact that book three was never released, and that Gladney's web presence is tenuous and seldom-updated at best, I am betting we will not see book three anytime soon. I wish I could say that's a shame, but the best I can manage is that I just don't much care. I'd be interested to see something new from her, since she has real talent, but a third book featuring these characters just isn't going to blip on my radar. 4/10
22) Blood Storm, by Heather Gladney, 276 pages
You all read what I thought of the first book. Well, this one doesn't redeem my negative opinion. Heather visibly improves, but that does not make the flaws of this book less glaring, or more forgivable.
Once more, our supposedly-cool hero blunders from incomprehensible situation to incomprehensible situation, frequently vomiting, soiling himself, and getting smeared with animal excrement along the way. And let's not forget his fits. And keep in mind the burly-thewed man-love he feels for his liege, who has been thoroughly cleansed of his charisma by some truly mishandled characterization.
Gladney still doesn't explain enough about the world. Again, I am not one to want things spoon-fed to me, but she does not give enough bones for me to even form the skeleton of an idea of what the fuck is going on.
People, I hate doing this. I hate it, hate it, hate it. I hate panning books. I like books. Lots. I like words. I read the backs of cereal boxes. It's hard to lose me with words. Unless what you write is dense and incomprehensible. Like Alpha-Bits glued onto a brick.
There's stuff here worth saving. Parts of this book are genuinely good, the language is often pretty, and I even cared about two (2) of the characters by the end. But there's so much better stuff to read out there that I cannot possibly justify picking this book up just to see what the fuss is about.
The plot is haphazard and can't make up its mind where it is going, or what it's going to do when it gets there. Making things worse is this: Blood Storm is the second book of a trilogy the third book of which was never released, and it ends on a tremendously angsty cliffhanger.
Judging from the fact that book three was never released, and that Gladney's web presence is tenuous and seldom-updated at best, I am betting we will not see book three anytime soon. I wish I could say that's a shame, but the best I can manage is that I just don't much care. I'd be interested to see something new from her, since she has real talent, but a third book featuring these characters just isn't going to blip on my radar. 4/10