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Title: The Captain of the Monte Cristo
Author: Sarah Wilson & John Gunningham
Rating: 1 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 147
Words: 41K
From the Publisher
Love, betrayal, and revenge … in space.
Edmund Dante is a promising young officer in the Company, but when his loyalty to his ship’s captain endangers the crew’s future, his betrayal is inevitable. Years later, Edmund and his unusual bio-ship – The Monte Cristo – are out for revenge. Will Edmund be able to go through with it when he realizes what it will cost?
Lovers of space opera, classics, adventure, and LitRPG will love this action-packed short novel. Follow Edmund Dante and his sidekick Jack through the futuristic society in the Company and watch them accomplish his ultimate revenge.
I knew going into this that it wasn’t going to be a fantastic read. At about 150 pages, it wouldn’t be feasible to expect a great story from one of the greatest stories ever told (The Count of Monte Cristo) but I did have hopes it would be a good story.
In all fairness, the potential for a good story was there. The idea that everyone dueled in the future via virtual reality game called Baccarre, while not original, was fun to read about. Having the Monte Cristo be a living spaceship was cool.
But.
The author’s idea that portraying Edmund at the beginning as a “good” guy because he won’t kill even pirates who are attacking their ship and putting everyones’ lives in danger? I was in complete agreement with the other characters about him (ie, it was the height of selfishness, self-centeredness and childishness). Baccarre was just another take on Yugioh and “It’s time to da-da-da Duel!” virtual fighting. The Monte Cristo as a super smart living ship came straight from the manga Gankutsuou. Then having Albert be Edmund and Mercede’s son and Mercedes dying, it was just too much of a change for no good reason.
Add in that the writing was simply workmanlike and in no ways brilliant? If you’re going to try to retell a classic story, your writing had better live up to original. Both Wilson and Gunningham, in terms of skill, belong to the group of people who write fan fiction and post it online, hoping some idiot will support them. It wasn’t even badly written, which almost makes it worse. It was just completely pedestrian.
I looked at other reviews online before posting this and people were giving it 5 stars and saying great and wonderful it was. Either they are shills, or they are idiots or they wouldn’t know a good book if I hit them over the head with it. This was NOT a good book. I don’t care if you liked this book, because taste is subjective (sadly), but it is not a good book in any way, shape or form. So don’t say that it is. It is trash and the authors should be ashamed of writing such subpar crap and sullying the good reputation of The Count of Monte Cristo. I’ve seen that they have done the same thing to Moby Dick but that was released in 2017 and there’s nothing else from the duo since them. But Wilson has managed to pump out 120 “books” on Amazon, so that should tell you all you really need to know.
★☆☆☆☆
