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A review by 101mystic
Marilia, the Warlord by Morgan Cole
1.0
I am not a fan of writing book reviews that aren’t a glowing review. But I read this copy in exchange for a review from netgalley.com, so this will be one of my first negative reviews.
I read this book last night and had a hard time sleeping and got through it. It’s not because I couldn’t put it down, but that is what I was doing when I couldn’t sleep. This book is hefty upfront with info-dumping, and you almost need a primer to the worldbuilding. The first few chapters have a serious pacing issue where I could not figure out what the main character wanted. Often when it was made clear, it would be given to her immediately followed up by a length worldbuilding exposition that lost the emotional beats that should have been there in favour of informing the reader – at length – of the world, it’s history and anything else that someone might need.
And while some people love this worldbuilding style book, where the characters are almost afterthoughts to the actual function of the world, this one doesn’t even seem to withstand the worldbuilding well. The prose is telling the reader more than showing. And the two characters at the front barely respond only to get once again lost in a lot of the tedious amount of worldbuilding.
I read it, but I did not enjoy it at all. The book needs a developmental editor and a structural editor so that the pacing isn’t demolished inside of the worldbuilding aspects. Often I could not figure out what was essential to the actual story and what was simply the author, including it because it was something they worked hard on.
And I get it, when you pour so much of yourself into building a world, it’s fun to share it. But when the amount that is given to you is not allowed to have reverence in the story, it is hard as a reader new to this world to care.
What is has also done is made it so I can barely remember what Marilia or her brother were doing a lot of the time. And that so often the names and the stories of the world were at odds with each other that they slip around seeming to hardly connect.
I don’t suggest this book, especially if you have any level of learning disability.
I read this book last night and had a hard time sleeping and got through it. It’s not because I couldn’t put it down, but that is what I was doing when I couldn’t sleep. This book is hefty upfront with info-dumping, and you almost need a primer to the worldbuilding. The first few chapters have a serious pacing issue where I could not figure out what the main character wanted. Often when it was made clear, it would be given to her immediately followed up by a length worldbuilding exposition that lost the emotional beats that should have been there in favour of informing the reader – at length – of the world, it’s history and anything else that someone might need.
And while some people love this worldbuilding style book, where the characters are almost afterthoughts to the actual function of the world, this one doesn’t even seem to withstand the worldbuilding well. The prose is telling the reader more than showing. And the two characters at the front barely respond only to get once again lost in a lot of the tedious amount of worldbuilding.
I read it, but I did not enjoy it at all. The book needs a developmental editor and a structural editor so that the pacing isn’t demolished inside of the worldbuilding aspects. Often I could not figure out what was essential to the actual story and what was simply the author, including it because it was something they worked hard on.
And I get it, when you pour so much of yourself into building a world, it’s fun to share it. But when the amount that is given to you is not allowed to have reverence in the story, it is hard as a reader new to this world to care.
What is has also done is made it so I can barely remember what Marilia or her brother were doing a lot of the time. And that so often the names and the stories of the world were at odds with each other that they slip around seeming to hardly connect.
I don’t suggest this book, especially if you have any level of learning disability.