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A review by skylacine
Pip en het Magische Koninkrijk by Linn van den Heuvel
1.0
Technically the rating I'd give this book would be two stars, however due to the presence of an AI-generated cover I had to lower my rating to one.
If the author/publisher can't be bothered to respect artists by not giving us AI slop as a cover, I can't be arsed to give this book a higher rating. I didn't initially notice when buying the book that the cover was AI, and now I've already read it so I guess it's too late.
Also, AI aside, I'm a bit surprised at this book getting so many positive reviews because I just don't see it. This book was quite a painful read because it literally felt like a checklist.
"Go see character A". "Pass this test". "Travel to this island". "Pass this other test" "Go see character B". "Pass yet another test" "Fetch this McGuffin". "Pass the final test". Etc, etc. I didn't feel like a flowing story but rather like a grocery list of events these characters had to go through and then just ended up passing without too much fanfare. Where is the story, the flow, the obstacles, the passion?
The author's writing also feels very telling and not much like showing. Like I legit have no idea what most of the locations or characters look or feel like because they're barely described. The characters also feel awfully static. They grow in abilities, but not much character-wise.
Also despite this being a traditionally published book I found some glaring mistakes such as one time the story mentioning "the king and king" when it means "the king and queen". Or referring to the villain Gray Wind as "Gray Wolf". Or one paragraph where the formatting is just completely messed up. Obvious mistakes really shouldn't be in a final product like this, especially if you're asking money for it.
Even without the shitty AI cover this wouldn't be a good book in my eyes. Skip this one.
If the author/publisher can't be bothered to respect artists by not giving us AI slop as a cover, I can't be arsed to give this book a higher rating. I didn't initially notice when buying the book that the cover was AI, and now I've already read it so I guess it's too late.
Also, AI aside, I'm a bit surprised at this book getting so many positive reviews because I just don't see it. This book was quite a painful read because it literally felt like a checklist.
"Go see character A". "Pass this test". "Travel to this island". "Pass this other test" "Go see character B". "Pass yet another test" "Fetch this McGuffin". "Pass the final test". Etc, etc. I didn't feel like a flowing story but rather like a grocery list of events these characters had to go through and then just ended up passing without too much fanfare. Where is the story, the flow, the obstacles, the passion?
The author's writing also feels very telling and not much like showing. Like I legit have no idea what most of the locations or characters look or feel like because they're barely described. The characters also feel awfully static. They grow in abilities, but not much character-wise.
Also despite this being a traditionally published book I found some glaring mistakes such as one time the story mentioning "the king and king" when it means "the king and queen". Or referring to the villain Gray Wind as "Gray Wolf". Or one paragraph where the formatting is just completely messed up. Obvious mistakes really shouldn't be in a final product like this, especially if you're asking money for it.
Even without the shitty AI cover this wouldn't be a good book in my eyes. Skip this one.