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A review by readundancies
Scorpica by G.R. Macallister
Did not finish book. Stopped at 20%.
So let’s be clear, the 89 pages I’ve read were not all in chronological order. I read like the first 46 pages and then the last part of the book to make up the difference. I tried to go back to Chapter 4 and continue onwards but as soon as I realized it was going to be a multi-POV affair, I came to the very quick conclusion that I am very much not in the mood for a multi-POV fantasy experience at the moment.
That coupled with the noticeable lack of dialogue and the not entirely engaging characters from what I had read up to that point? Well, that just brings us to another episode of the constant DNFing I do as a mood reader who never knows what she’s in the mood for until she’s knee deep in a new book and struggling with her ability to stay enthused about the plot.
Because the premise seems like something I should be into, especially since I’ve read from Greer MacAllister before and previously enjoyed her work to a fair degree. But something about the execution was screaming that this is not my kind of epic fantasy story.
And the minute I knew that to be wholeheartedly and 100% true was when I saw the map.
Now granted, to be fair, I place high expectations when it comes to literary maps - I like them to impart some sort of knowledge about the story before I even dive in. I always rigorously immerse myself in maps within novels, especially in the fantasy genre because in any sort of adventure setting I need that sense of direction in a geographical context as I read along and follow the routes that characters take as the plot progresses. There is a nerdy little cartographer that lives in the back of my brain and she is a feisty one. A high quality map can be such a turn on for me before even starting the story.
This map? Has quite a lot left to be desired if I’m going to be honest. The fact that the country of Paxim, right smack dab in the middle of the map was missing the letter A, beyond irked me. And we’re not even talking about the full on antipathy I had towards the wide expanses of just empty space - no towns were indicated, the topographical aspects of the map consisted of the castle kingdom drawn in for Bastion, a handful of islands not all of which were named and mountains. Some ranges, other randomly situated small clusters of peaks, and even various rock croppings within the Godsbones, but that’s it. No oasis within the desert nation, no other nations with buildings within their invisible borders nor their suspiciously straight ones, and definitely not a single tree or any form of vegetation in sight.
Should I be analyzing the map to such a degree before dipping my toe into the stories being told within the world that is depicted? Who knows. There is every possibility that the lack of map features is alluding to the Drought of Girls that plagues The Five Queendoms. But even if that’s the case, I can still say that the map was not doing the book any favours from my perspective. In fact, I hate to say it but it was more so making me be negatively predispositioned towards the story and that was at a point where I wasn’t even sure entirely what the story was about.
At this point, I’m not interested in this story, so I’m calling it quits.
And there’s no shame in that.
At least, that’s what I keep telling myself.
That coupled with the noticeable lack of dialogue and the not entirely engaging characters from what I had read up to that point? Well, that just brings us to another episode of the constant DNFing I do as a mood reader who never knows what she’s in the mood for until she’s knee deep in a new book and struggling with her ability to stay enthused about the plot.
Because the premise seems like something I should be into, especially since I’ve read from Greer MacAllister before and previously enjoyed her work to a fair degree. But something about the execution was screaming that this is not my kind of epic fantasy story.
And the minute I knew that to be wholeheartedly and 100% true was when I saw the map.
Now granted, to be fair, I place high expectations when it comes to literary maps - I like them to impart some sort of knowledge about the story before I even dive in. I always rigorously immerse myself in maps within novels, especially in the fantasy genre because in any sort of adventure setting I need that sense of direction in a geographical context as I read along and follow the routes that characters take as the plot progresses. There is a nerdy little cartographer that lives in the back of my brain and she is a feisty one. A high quality map can be such a turn on for me before even starting the story.
This map? Has quite a lot left to be desired if I’m going to be honest. The fact that the country of Paxim, right smack dab in the middle of the map was missing the letter A, beyond irked me. And we’re not even talking about the full on antipathy I had towards the wide expanses of just empty space - no towns were indicated, the topographical aspects of the map consisted of the castle kingdom drawn in for Bastion, a handful of islands not all of which were named and mountains. Some ranges, other randomly situated small clusters of peaks, and even various rock croppings within the Godsbones, but that’s it. No oasis within the desert nation, no other nations with buildings within their invisible borders nor their suspiciously straight ones, and definitely not a single tree or any form of vegetation in sight.
Should I be analyzing the map to such a degree before dipping my toe into the stories being told within the world that is depicted? Who knows. There is every possibility that the lack of map features is alluding to the Drought of Girls that plagues The Five Queendoms. But even if that’s the case, I can still say that the map was not doing the book any favours from my perspective. In fact, I hate to say it but it was more so making me be negatively predispositioned towards the story and that was at a point where I wasn’t even sure entirely what the story was about.
At this point, I’m not interested in this story, so I’m calling it quits.
And there’s no shame in that.
At least, that’s what I keep telling myself.