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smcscot 's review for:
Beastly Bones
by William Ritter
Expectation is the ruin of all things good. That's what happened to me with this book. My expectations were just too high. I had some issues with this objectively, but the majority of my issues, now that I've had a chance to sit back and think about it, were subjective.
Don't get me wrong. This is still an enjoyable book and I'm still going to continue with the series, especially with the hook at the end (but more to come on that later). Ritter's style is accessible and fun, and his ability to infuse fantastical and mythological features into real practices is quite well done.
My Objective issue is with the plot itself. Ritter brings in a creature (who is the main catalyst for the plot), but the rules surrounding this creature aren't complete. This open ended rule creates a gigantic plot hole for me. I apologize for the vagueness, but I worry that it would be too large of a spoiler if mentioned what the issue is, just suffice it to say that it's there. The second big issue I had was with the plot hook. We had an entire book (and I know it's part of a series, but I believe that every book should have it's contained plot, as well as an overall plot), that was predicated on a mysterious person. The question arose very early on, but then it was never answered. This is poor plotting, especially as a second book of a larger series. It would have been a much stronger choice to keep the plot tight and give an overall arc for the story, rather than just resolving the main issue, and leaving the whole point of this adventure open.
Subjectively, I was disappointed to see so little of Jackaby. The vast majority of this book followed Abigail Rook, which is prudent, but Jackaby seems to go off quite often to gather information by himself, and since the story is told from Rook's perspective, we as an audience don't get to see this. This book was much more of an adventure, rather than the mystery of the first book, and I missed that while reading.
Additionally this book gave a large focus on Rook's archaeological past, but we didn't get to see much of the dig, which I wanted to see more of. The mystery of the book was also given up too soon by a surprise confession rather than by deduction.
Overall, it's a fun series, and you better bet your butt I'm going to continue, but this book suffered from the second novel blues. Hopefully the next in the series picks it back up where the first one left off.
Don't get me wrong. This is still an enjoyable book and I'm still going to continue with the series, especially with the hook at the end (but more to come on that later). Ritter's style is accessible and fun, and his ability to infuse fantastical and mythological features into real practices is quite well done.
My Objective issue is with the plot itself. Ritter brings in a creature (who is the main catalyst for the plot), but the rules surrounding this creature aren't complete. This open ended rule creates a gigantic plot hole for me. I apologize for the vagueness, but I worry that it would be too large of a spoiler if mentioned what the issue is, just suffice it to say that it's there. The second big issue I had was with the plot hook. We had an entire book (and I know it's part of a series, but I believe that every book should have it's contained plot, as well as an overall plot), that was predicated on a mysterious person. The question arose very early on, but then it was never answered. This is poor plotting, especially as a second book of a larger series. It would have been a much stronger choice to keep the plot tight and give an overall arc for the story, rather than just resolving the main issue, and leaving the whole point of this adventure open.
Subjectively, I was disappointed to see so little of Jackaby. The vast majority of this book followed Abigail Rook, which is prudent, but Jackaby seems to go off quite often to gather information by himself, and since the story is told from Rook's perspective, we as an audience don't get to see this. This book was much more of an adventure, rather than the mystery of the first book, and I missed that while reading.
Additionally this book gave a large focus on Rook's archaeological past, but we didn't get to see much of the dig, which I wanted to see more of. The mystery of the book was also given up too soon by a surprise confession rather than by deduction.
Overall, it's a fun series, and you better bet your butt I'm going to continue, but this book suffered from the second novel blues. Hopefully the next in the series picks it back up where the first one left off.