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landminecat's review
3.0
Another fun story. This third instalment in this loveable series is a hundred or so pages longer than the first two short and sweet novellas. Unforunately I don't think it benefited much from that extra page count. I found myself losing interest in a few places, and it's still a little rough around the edges in prose and worldbuilding, but it was still very enjoyable on the whole. Most of all, I continue to adore Lil. She's just great.
I'll be back for book 4 once i get through some of my other reading backlog.
I'll be back for book 4 once i get through some of my other reading backlog.
nigelbaker's review
3.0
The first book of the series (Free-Wrench) I rated a five star book, the second got a four star and this one gets three stars. Things seem to be heading downwards faster than a deflated airship.
The problem is that the first half of the book was just too slowly paced. Things pick up in the second half when the action finally happens. What this book needs is a good editor to trim the excessive talking as there is rather a lot of it in the first half.
The story is just OK, but suffers from not enough plot to make it interesting. The best part of the story is the mustache twirling villain of Luscious P. Alabaster. Maybe over the top and without depth, he gives the book a fun tone and offsets the darker themes.
Overall it feels like a novella stretched out to novel length, an average read.
nigelbaker.name
The problem is that the first half of the book was just too slowly paced. Things pick up in the second half when the action finally happens. What this book needs is a good editor to trim the excessive talking as there is rather a lot of it in the first half.
The story is just OK, but suffers from not enough plot to make it interesting. The best part of the story is the mustache twirling villain of Luscious P. Alabaster. Maybe over the top and without depth, he gives the book a fun tone and offsets the darker themes.
Overall it feels like a novella stretched out to novel length, an average read.
nigelbaker.name
davep's review
3.0
3rd instalment that follows on the story of the rag-tag crew of the Wind Breaker and their exploits. Still good, but all becoming a bit predictable.
cavalary's review
3.0
Note: The review refers to the edition included in [b:Free-Wrench Collection: Volume 1|37537365|Free-Wrench Collection Volume 1|Joseph R. Lallo|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1516042345l/37537365._SX50_.jpg|59138557].
Somewhat to my surprise, Ichor Well is more like a proper book in terms of size, albeit at the low end of that range. The final chapter again delivers in terms of the action, while until then there's space for more details and dialogues, a slower pace and more of a focus on the characters. In terms of this latter aspect, more nuances are added to the fug folk and a few are fleshed out a little more as individuals, though I'd say enough with the names, especially last names, that are variations of white or white objects already! On the other hand, not much is being done for the Wind Breaker's crew, the only visible effort being to continue to develop Lil but even that failing to produce worthwhile results.
Another notable problem is that it often feels like the author is thinking with his fingers. Effort is being made, but the "guts" are showing, many of the thought processes going into worldbuilding and potential outcomes of the action seeming rather dumped on the page, often by putting them in the mouths of characters. The clear impression is that, by attempting something more ambitious, the limits of the author's skill become far more obvious in every way.
Admittedly, Lucius is such a caricature of a villain that it's hard to take anything seriously with him in the picture, and the fact that those points previously made about some of the things wrong in our world and the calls to fight against them are also lost in the details would also seem to indicate a story that's not meant to be taken too seriously, at least not anymore. But, in that case, the pace is too slow and the real action too little, too late, leaving Ichor Well uncomfortably straddling between the simple adventure that [b:Skykeep|25064518|Skykeep (Free-Wrench, #2)|Joseph R. Lallo|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1439742850l/25064518._SY75_.jpg|44748471] was and the much more ambitious work that at other times it seems to strive to be. I'd still call it the better book, but its flaws are harder to dismiss.
Somewhat to my surprise, Ichor Well is more like a proper book in terms of size, albeit at the low end of that range. The final chapter again delivers in terms of the action, while until then there's space for more details and dialogues, a slower pace and more of a focus on the characters. In terms of this latter aspect, more nuances are added to the fug folk and a few are fleshed out a little more as individuals, though I'd say enough with the names, especially last names, that are variations of white or white objects already! On the other hand, not much is being done for the Wind Breaker's crew, the only visible effort being to continue to develop Lil but even that failing to produce worthwhile results.
Another notable problem is that it often feels like the author is thinking with his fingers. Effort is being made, but the "guts" are showing, many of the thought processes going into worldbuilding and potential outcomes of the action seeming rather dumped on the page, often by putting them in the mouths of characters. The clear impression is that, by attempting something more ambitious, the limits of the author's skill become far more obvious in every way.
Admittedly, Lucius is such a caricature of a villain that it's hard to take anything seriously with him in the picture, and the fact that those points previously made about some of the things wrong in our world and the calls to fight against them are also lost in the details would also seem to indicate a story that's not meant to be taken too seriously, at least not anymore. But, in that case, the pace is too slow and the real action too little, too late, leaving Ichor Well uncomfortably straddling between the simple adventure that [b:Skykeep|25064518|Skykeep (Free-Wrench, #2)|Joseph R. Lallo|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1439742850l/25064518._SY75_.jpg|44748471] was and the much more ambitious work that at other times it seems to strive to be. I'd still call it the better book, but its flaws are harder to dismiss.
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