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midrel 's review for:
Rites of Passage
by Mike Brooks
Summary: A highly-enjoyable book from start to finish. Definitely one of the better entries in the 40k universe, and one that shows there is a lot that one can write about within the setting and that can be made to fit seamlessly inside it without having to churn out the same things over and over.
Prose: The book is excellently written. Neither dry, nor overwrought. There was no point at which I found myself blinking at some absurd choice of word, relentless barrage of typos, or endless wall of stilted text, which is more than can be said for many other books. 5/5
Plot: The plot made for an interesting story. If you pull out all the dressing, then at its core it is a save-the-world story, but it never really feels so... cliched? Perhaps because of the setting, or because of the way everything is presented, but the author makes a great job of assembling all the elements together so that nothing ever feels extraneous to the story, or like a sloppy implementation of some well-known trope.
At the same time, if there was one element that I was not entirely satisfied with, then that is how the confrontation at the very climax was resolved. 3/5
Pacing: One thing I really enjoyed about the book is that the chapters are almost perfectly-sized for whatever scene they wish to portray. They never drag, and they hardly ever lull. You are constantly and inexorably pulled forward because something interesting is always going on or is about to go on. 5/5
Characterization: This book had one hell of a main character, and an excellent cast of supporting characters to boot. Chetta might well be among my all-times favorites, so fleshed out and interesting she is. The villain was a little less memorable, but was still well above generic, and decently fleshed-out. 4/5
World-building: The story is presented within a setting connected but different to the face of the 40k universe that most often gets portrayed in novels and stories alike. Despite this different, the author manages to make it feel an inherent part of the wider universe in a way that is not reliant simply on using the correct terminology and the like, but that is part of every action sequence and plot point. 5/5
Final score is properly 4.4 stars, but I'll make it five since people review-bombing things out of political spite annoys me.
Prose: The book is excellently written. Neither dry, nor overwrought. There was no point at which I found myself blinking at some absurd choice of word, relentless barrage of typos, or endless wall of stilted text, which is more than can be said for many other books. 5/5
Plot: The plot made for an interesting story. If you pull out all the dressing, then at its core it is a save-the-world story, but it never really feels so... cliched? Perhaps because of the setting, or because of the way everything is presented, but the author makes a great job of assembling all the elements together so that nothing ever feels extraneous to the story, or like a sloppy implementation of some well-known trope.
At the same time, if there was one element that I was not entirely satisfied with, then that is how the confrontation at the very climax was resolved.
Spoiler
Things feel ever so slightly forced from the point our shadow-walker gets into the downed ship while the heroes are scarcely around the corner. The fact he has been so smart until now makes this seems even more stupid, and the fact he is surprised when the heroes subsequently chase him makes it even worse. Also, if Chetta could just broadcast for rescue like she did at the end, why didn't she the moment the ship crash-landed?Pacing: One thing I really enjoyed about the book is that the chapters are almost perfectly-sized for whatever scene they wish to portray. They never drag, and they hardly ever lull. You are constantly and inexorably pulled forward because something interesting is always going on or is about to go on. 5/5
Characterization: This book had one hell of a main character, and an excellent cast of supporting characters to boot. Chetta might well be among my all-times favorites, so fleshed out and interesting she is. The villain was a little less memorable, but was still well above generic, and decently fleshed-out. 4/5
World-building: The story is presented within a setting connected but different to the face of the 40k universe that most often gets portrayed in novels and stories alike. Despite this different, the author manages to make it feel an inherent part of the wider universe in a way that is not reliant simply on using the correct terminology and the like, but that is part of every action sequence and plot point. 5/5
Final score is properly 4.4 stars, but I'll make it five since people review-bombing things out of political spite annoys me.