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2flow2 's review for:
On the Edge of the Dark Sea of Darkness
by Andrew Peterson
Woah. I was not expecting in the slightest to like this book as much as I did. In fact, I *loved* it.
After my previous book taking me approximately six months to shuffle through, I was not expecting to tear through this in just a couple of weeks. My first time attempting to read this book in the past (I only made it through a few chapters) I didn't like the intentional silliness of the writing style. This time, however, I didn't have any issues with how the book was written.
Peterson has crafted an intriguing world with lots of unwritten background lore that provides a foundation which can be built upon in many different ways later. Characters have unique, unspoken quirks and moments of obvious growth (some could perhaps critique the growth as *too* obvious, but it didn't bother me) and the whole world around the main characters feels alive and lived in. All of the characters and locations and fictional cultures, histories, and fauna are as entertaining as they are interesting & creative. A lot of love went into creating this world and it is all presented in a unique approach of taking its very un-serious content very seriously.
What I believe Peterson mastered here was writing a story in which the stakes were authentic throughout. I've become accustomed to the Rick Riordan style of writing in which every chapter ends with some sort of dramatic cliffhanger that is immediately resolved in the very next opening paragraph. Nothing truly bad or lasting happens to any of the characters, and it trains you to expect that no risk is ever meaningful or truly a threat to the characters for more than a few pages. Comics books do this very often as well. All characters return to a status quo at the end of each story, and any perceived intense moment on one panel is typically resolved within the next page or few pages. Peterson, in contrast, quickly teaches you that when characters appear to be in trouble on one page, they *really are* in trouble that won't be easy for them to get out of and will have real consequences. Very few times in the story did a brand-new, unexpected character or event suddenly appear out of nowhere to magically solve the predicament that the characters were in on the previous page. Actions and events had meaning and weight.
I also appreciated that despite being a book aimed and teens or tweens, it didn't pull any punches. It was not a case of "every character always survives all of the time" and it didn't use indirect methods to present violence or deaths for everything à la comic books again. The world was fun and at times whimsical, but the hard parts of life were not overly sugarcoated.
Overall, this was a spectacular book and I'm actually excited to read it to my own kids one day. I haven't felt this way about a story in years, since my days of reading Harry Potter and Gregor the Overlander and the like. Great world, gripping plot, fun characters, realistic emotions & reactions, admirable lessons taught, definitely recommend this for anyone looking for some quick and meaningful fiction to read.
After my previous book taking me approximately six months to shuffle through, I was not expecting to tear through this in just a couple of weeks. My first time attempting to read this book in the past (I only made it through a few chapters) I didn't like the intentional silliness of the writing style. This time, however, I didn't have any issues with how the book was written.
Peterson has crafted an intriguing world with lots of unwritten background lore that provides a foundation which can be built upon in many different ways later. Characters have unique, unspoken quirks and moments of obvious growth (some could perhaps critique the growth as *too* obvious, but it didn't bother me) and the whole world around the main characters feels alive and lived in. All of the characters and locations and fictional cultures, histories, and fauna are as entertaining as they are interesting & creative. A lot of love went into creating this world and it is all presented in a unique approach of taking its very un-serious content very seriously.
What I believe Peterson mastered here was writing a story in which the stakes were authentic throughout. I've become accustomed to the Rick Riordan style of writing in which every chapter ends with some sort of dramatic cliffhanger that is immediately resolved in the very next opening paragraph. Nothing truly bad or lasting happens to any of the characters, and it trains you to expect that no risk is ever meaningful or truly a threat to the characters for more than a few pages. Comics books do this very often as well. All characters return to a status quo at the end of each story, and any perceived intense moment on one panel is typically resolved within the next page or few pages. Peterson, in contrast, quickly teaches you that when characters appear to be in trouble on one page, they *really are* in trouble that won't be easy for them to get out of and will have real consequences. Very few times in the story did a brand-new, unexpected character or event suddenly appear out of nowhere to magically solve the predicament that the characters were in on the previous page. Actions and events had meaning and weight.
I also appreciated that despite being a book aimed and teens or tweens, it didn't pull any punches. It was not a case of "every character always survives all of the time" and it didn't use indirect methods to present violence or deaths for everything à la comic books again. The world was fun and at times whimsical, but the hard parts of life were not overly sugarcoated.
Overall, this was a spectacular book and I'm actually excited to read it to my own kids one day. I haven't felt this way about a story in years, since my days of reading Harry Potter and Gregor the Overlander and the like. Great world, gripping plot, fun characters, realistic emotions & reactions, admirable lessons taught, definitely recommend this for anyone looking for some quick and meaningful fiction to read.