Scan barcode
A review by ashleylm
Beyond the Pale by Mark Anthony
2.0
To be fair, I bailed on this somewhere near the beginning, but (in terms of pages read) would be definitely the middle of most books ... this book is long.
Too long, as it turns out, as it just feels stretched out and sloggy. There are a few decent/interesting moments, and then everything crashes to earth again as uninteresting people do expected-fantasy-trope things. It may very well get better near the end, or in book two, or four, but I'm not going to wait for that any more (this year I've really taken "life is short" seriously ... my Dad died, and I'm feeling mortal, and my worst fear is that I'll die some day without having read all my favourite undiscovered books ... and time spent on a book that definitely won't be a fave is time wasted. So I bail).
The beginning is a bit Stephen King-ish, and then the just-past-beginning is a bit Donaldson-ish (i.e. Thomas Covenant), and as I've said neither is very grabby. Still, others have liked it--if you're a huge fan of slow set-up, little explanation, and travelling in woods, go for it. If you're after a lesser-known, fun, fantasy series from a few decades ago, I'd read Duncan's Magic Casement series instead.
(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s).
Too long, as it turns out, as it just feels stretched out and sloggy. There are a few decent/interesting moments, and then everything crashes to earth again as uninteresting people do expected-fantasy-trope things. It may very well get better near the end, or in book two, or four, but I'm not going to wait for that any more (this year I've really taken "life is short" seriously ... my Dad died, and I'm feeling mortal, and my worst fear is that I'll die some day without having read all my favourite undiscovered books ... and time spent on a book that definitely won't be a fave is time wasted. So I bail).
The beginning is a bit Stephen King-ish, and then the just-past-beginning is a bit Donaldson-ish (i.e. Thomas Covenant), and as I've said neither is very grabby. Still, others have liked it--if you're a huge fan of slow set-up, little explanation, and travelling in woods, go for it. If you're after a lesser-known, fun, fantasy series from a few decades ago, I'd read Duncan's Magic Casement series instead.
(Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s).