I was very excited when I received this audiobook in exchange for an honest review. I enjoy fantasy novels and hoped that this novella will introduce me to the rest of the books set in the same setting.
Some of the positives:
– The author does a great job with descriptions. The city of Amaford comes to life with its bustling market, poor Bridge districts and its slums as well as wonderful descriptions of its people.
– Many of the supporting characters are great, such as Ma, the stern but loving tavern owner and Grubbs, the fruit seller.
– The narrator’s voice for the main character and many of the other supporting characters is great.
The negatives:
– The author needs to master dialogue. Many conversations, especially those that include confrontations degenerate into bad cliches. This is by far the weakest point of the novella.
– Character development is uneven. Jim, the main character starts off as slightly sarcastic urchin (a word an urchin shouldn’t be able to use in conversation) and descends into a useless clumsy weakling, who takes on the blame for things that are out of his control. One of the other important characters is so abusive towards him, I was stunned that he was portrayed as Jim’s best friend.
– The performance of the female voices and some of the male voices wasn’t great. At times, I felt that the narrator’s pacing was a lot faster than the pace of the book to the book’s detriment.
– The story didn’t end on the cliffhanger, which I believe was the intent. Instead it kind of dragged along for the last few chapters and instead of wanting to find out more, i was relieved when it ended.
All in all, I would say the story requires some rework, but the author’s main strength lies more with world building rather than character creation.