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A review by zoes_human
Iron Bloom by Billy Wong
Did not finish book. Stopped at 20%.
It's wonderful to read a book with a capable, confident, autonomous heroine who doesn't invest half her mental energies into obsessing over boys. I applaud the author for writing her in appropriate clothing and armor instead of having her fight the hordes clad in a metal bra with a matching g-string. It's great to read a story with a girl front and center in a role traditionally reserved for a male character. I really wanted to love this book for all that. All of that is why it gets 2 stars instead of 1.
The writing's just not compelling. It reads like a post-shift work recap. The facts are simply relayed with no flair, no poetry, no excitement. There was something stiff and awkward about the prose. It felt like reading the whole time. At no point was I ever able to lose myself in the story.
And the characters were flat. The main character knows her own her own mind so fully that she suffers no genuine internal conflict, and her abilities ... Sigh. It's like someone rolled up a level 1 D&D character who has 20 for all their stats except for two 18s in dexterity and charisma. It's just too much.
I would love to see this writer work with others who have the correct knowledge base to teach him how to fix all that, how to put something truly original from within into his work, how to sound his own voice. I want to support someone who is putting genuinely competent female characters into a genre which has done so badly by them, but the book is just not up to par.
I sincerely hope Mr. Wong keeps working at this until his writing is on the same level as his vision.
The writing's just not compelling. It reads like a post-shift work recap. The facts are simply relayed with no flair, no poetry, no excitement. There was something stiff and awkward about the prose. It felt like reading the whole time. At no point was I ever able to lose myself in the story.
And the characters were flat. The main character knows her own her own mind so fully that she suffers no genuine internal conflict, and her abilities ... Sigh. It's like someone rolled up a level 1 D&D character who has 20 for all their stats except for two 18s in dexterity and charisma. It's just too much.
I would love to see this writer work with others who have the correct knowledge base to teach him how to fix all that, how to put something truly original from within into his work, how to sound his own voice. I want to support someone who is putting genuinely competent female characters into a genre which has done so badly by them, but the book is just not up to par.
I sincerely hope Mr. Wong keeps working at this until his writing is on the same level as his vision.