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A review by the_broken_cog
Cephrael's Hand by Melissa McPhail
1.0
DNF 15%
I like complex worlds with depth. I like characters that have flaws and virtues in equal measure.
This book certainly has the first one. The unfortunate reality, however, is that the complexity is very much a case of being told and not shown. There are tons of references to things in the world which absolutely require you to go to the glossary at the back to make sense of. There are books where glossaries at the back are a nice addition, but not totally necessary. The Wheel of Time, as long-winded and intricate as it is, can be read without having to flip to the back of the book every other page. Cephrael's Hand? Not so much.
The names involved are needlessly obtuse. They're either practically unpronounceable gobbledygook, or so similar to the names of other characters in the book that you lose track of whether they are even distinct characters. Sometimes the names are misspelled and are, in fact, the same characters.
The author seems to like hiding some information that would be good to know as a reader while practically forcing you to read a miniature primer to have a hope of understanding the world even slightly. When you do read it, it is just a dry list of cross-referenced definitions of other parts of the glossary.
This book suffers from characters that fail to grab your attention early on, a serious case of "tell, don't show", and intentional obfuscation of the plot to the point where I don't even know why I was supposed to care. There is nothing about this book that makes me want to continue on.
I like complex worlds with depth. I like characters that have flaws and virtues in equal measure.
This book certainly has the first one. The unfortunate reality, however, is that the complexity is very much a case of being told and not shown. There are tons of references to things in the world which absolutely require you to go to the glossary at the back to make sense of. There are books where glossaries at the back are a nice addition, but not totally necessary. The Wheel of Time, as long-winded and intricate as it is, can be read without having to flip to the back of the book every other page. Cephrael's Hand? Not so much.
The names involved are needlessly obtuse. They're either practically unpronounceable gobbledygook, or so similar to the names of other characters in the book that you lose track of whether they are even distinct characters. Sometimes the names are misspelled and are, in fact, the same characters.
The author seems to like hiding some information that would be good to know as a reader while practically forcing you to read a miniature primer to have a hope of understanding the world even slightly. When you do read it, it is just a dry list of cross-referenced definitions of other parts of the glossary.
This book suffers from characters that fail to grab your attention early on, a serious case of "tell, don't show", and intentional obfuscation of the plot to the point where I don't even know why I was supposed to care. There is nothing about this book that makes me want to continue on.