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A review by errantdreams
Crecheling by D.J. Butler
4.0
Why must so many guys portray women as fiercely competitive with and unable to trust each other, particularly in love? Why must their young female characters always be on the arm of one man or another? It's a bad stereotype that leaves a black mark on an otherwise original and interesting book.
That brings us to the good stuff. Butler really does give his characters–the one glaring exception being Cheela–a great deal of depth. Characters have emotional range and real personality. I think if he hadn’t been so set on that one stereotype he probably could have made Cheela less one-note as well (this is one reason why stereotypes suck–because they tend to circumscribe your writing in certain ways). Magister Zahara in particular is enigmatic and has some interesting effects on the story. Eirig is my favorite character with his sense of humor, and Cheela is my least favorite because she’s such a shrieking harpy.
The action is quite good. The weapons are vicious, and all the Crechelings are skilled in their use. There are all sorts of violent potential ends awaiting the unwary once away from the System, and Butler is clever in getting the most out of them. There’s also plenty of good skulking around and use of tactics. I did have a little difficulty with the fact that a character lost most of an arm and it barely slowed him down (before getting any medical attention other than a tourniquet he still climbed a rope quite handily, and no one ever stopped him to comment on the fact that he’s newly missing half of his arm). There’s plenty of tension, and other than the one item above I really enjoyed this book, despite the fact that dystopias and Westerns aren’t my favorite genres. The fact that the author really made it about the characters kept things engaging and interesting.
Consider my rating a 3.5.
Original review posted on my blog: http://www.errantdreams.com/2018/10/review-crecheling-d-j-butler/
That brings us to the good stuff. Butler really does give his characters–the one glaring exception being Cheela–a great deal of depth. Characters have emotional range and real personality. I think if he hadn’t been so set on that one stereotype he probably could have made Cheela less one-note as well (this is one reason why stereotypes suck–because they tend to circumscribe your writing in certain ways). Magister Zahara in particular is enigmatic and has some interesting effects on the story. Eirig is my favorite character with his sense of humor, and Cheela is my least favorite because she’s such a shrieking harpy.
The action is quite good. The weapons are vicious, and all the Crechelings are skilled in their use. There are all sorts of violent potential ends awaiting the unwary once away from the System, and Butler is clever in getting the most out of them. There’s also plenty of good skulking around and use of tactics. I did have a little difficulty with the fact that a character lost most of an arm and it barely slowed him down (before getting any medical attention other than a tourniquet he still climbed a rope quite handily, and no one ever stopped him to comment on the fact that he’s newly missing half of his arm). There’s plenty of tension, and other than the one item above I really enjoyed this book, despite the fact that dystopias and Westerns aren’t my favorite genres. The fact that the author really made it about the characters kept things engaging and interesting.
Consider my rating a 3.5.
Original review posted on my blog: http://www.errantdreams.com/2018/10/review-crecheling-d-j-butler/