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A review by kketelaar
A Conspiracy of Alchemists by Liesel Schwarz
1.0
I love to read and rarely do I not complete a book. I made it a tad over halfway in this one, but I found myself not reading at all rather than pick this book up again so I am giving it up.
This story was beyond trite and predictable. I honestly could have finished if that was the only issue. But the problem was that the author seemed to count on the reader filling in the blanks in the narrative through their knowledge of genre tropes. I found myself reading scene after scene, thinking that I knew what the author was trying to get at based, not on what I was actually reading, but on other steampunk fantasy I have read previously.
The author seemed to focus on each individual scene, but not on the cohesiveness of the story as a whole. This was apparent in the numerous inconsistencies in the narrative. Again, something I can usually overlook in SMALL doses. But seriously, when the main female protagonist spends the bulk of the first half of the book annoyed and/or furious at the main male character (the whole hate the one you will love storyline), it is impossible to take a line that then tells us how same female protagonist responding in anger to something is so out of character. WHAT?? She just spent the first half of the book either angry, fighting her attraction to aforementioned male, or asleep. You can't throw in a line telling us how she doesn't loose her temper and expect it to fit her character development when all of her previous actions seem to indicate otherwise.
I could go on - but it seems silly to waste any more time on this one.
This story was beyond trite and predictable. I honestly could have finished if that was the only issue. But the problem was that the author seemed to count on the reader filling in the blanks in the narrative through their knowledge of genre tropes. I found myself reading scene after scene, thinking that I knew what the author was trying to get at based, not on what I was actually reading, but on other steampunk fantasy I have read previously.
The author seemed to focus on each individual scene, but not on the cohesiveness of the story as a whole. This was apparent in the numerous inconsistencies in the narrative. Again, something I can usually overlook in SMALL doses. But seriously, when the main female protagonist spends the bulk of the first half of the book annoyed and/or furious at the main male character (the whole hate the one you will love storyline), it is impossible to take a line that then tells us how same female protagonist responding in anger to something is so out of character. WHAT?? She just spent the first half of the book either angry, fighting her attraction to aforementioned male, or asleep. You can't throw in a line telling us how she doesn't loose her temper and expect it to fit her character development when all of her previous actions seem to indicate otherwise.
I could go on - but it seems silly to waste any more time on this one.