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A review by kartiknarayanan
Black Cross by J.P. Ashman
4.0
Black Cross is a great debut novel by J.P. Ashman as other reviewers have mentioned. It is epic and complicated with dashes of humour, heroism and villainy thrown in for good measure. There are a number of story threads and characters as befits its genre.
The setting starts with a world similar to medieval Europe and then elements of D&D are thrown in midway through the book. I could also see some similarities between Terry Pratchett's The Watch series and the guard in this book. Most of the characters are memorable - the detectives and the assassin (no names to prevent spoilers) were my favourites.
Is it great? Unfortunately, the answer is no. But the potential is there for it to become so. The biggest gripe I have, is its uneven pacing. It took me a while and a couple of starts to get into the story. But, once it started, the pacing kept improving until it was break-neck towards the end. A secondary (but minor) one is the verbosity. I feel that this story would have been tighter with better and merciless editing. Be warned, there is a character whose circumstances will make you cringe.
Overall, I enjoyed it and I am looking forward to the next instalment in the series.
If you liked this review, you can find more like it on my blog Digital Amrit
The setting starts with a world similar to medieval Europe and then elements of D&D are thrown in midway through the book. I could also see some similarities between Terry Pratchett's The Watch series and the guard in this book. Most of the characters are memorable - the detectives and the assassin (no names to prevent spoilers) were my favourites.
Is it great? Unfortunately, the answer is no. But the potential is there for it to become so. The biggest gripe I have, is its uneven pacing. It took me a while and a couple of starts to get into the story. But, once it started, the pacing kept improving until it was break-neck towards the end. A secondary (but minor) one is the verbosity. I feel that this story would have been tighter with better and merciless editing. Be warned, there is a character whose circumstances will make you cringe.
Overall, I enjoyed it and I am looking forward to the next instalment in the series.
If you liked this review, you can find more like it on my blog Digital Amrit