This
review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained
therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to
copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions.
Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot, Librarything & Bookype by
Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: The Copper Assassin
Series:
Tales of Wyverna #1
Author: Madolyn Rogers
Rating:
3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages:
238
Words: 88K
Gorbo
Oribul, a young rich spoiled youngling of a semi-important house, has
too much time on his hands. When the pleasures that keep his peers
occupied begin to pale for him, he starts looking elsewhere. When an
assignation with a water wizards leads him to overhearing of a plot
to destroy the ruler of the city of Wyvernia, Gorbo starts down a
path he can never turn back from.
Having
found out that an unstoppable magical construct, known as the Copper
Assassin, has been recovered from a city that destroyed itself using
the Assassin, Gorbo must figure out how to stop the assassin from
killing the Warlord and plunging Wyvernia into civil war and utter
ruin.
Overcoming
many odds, picking up a magical spider sidekick, making his way
through magical obstacles, Gorbo is able to warn the Warlord. She in
turns uses the confusion of events to take down the usurper, control
the construct and recruit Gorbo into her ranks.
The
book ends with Gorbo realizing he's entered a phase of life that he
desperately wants to escape from. The problem is the only way to
escape is to go deeper into the system setup by the Warlord.
This was an “ok” read. I have a bad feeling I'm reaching that
stage of life where I'm starting to see more and more of “read
that, been there”. This had some cool ideas and while the world
building was a bit rough nothing in it turned me off. But it just
felt like I've read it all before.
I'm going to lump all my negatives in one paragraph, just so it
doesn't seem I'm doing nothing but ragging on this book. First off,
Gorbo gets break after break and it really bothered me. Plus, at 18
he's preternaturally wise. Then there was this couple of sentences
and one in particular really bothered me:
Gorgo
prowled forward, nerves on edge. No sound startled him, no shadow
moved, yet the frozen deathliness of that place only frayed his
nerves more. The view around him never changed. The icy glob of light
never neared. Hairs prickled along the back of his neck, and sweat
chilled his skin.
Can
you pick out the offending sentence? I asked Mrs B, our household's
resident holder of a Bachelors English Lit degree and she said it was
technically correct. It felt like fingernails on a chalkboard to me
though. Finally, the Copper Assassin is described as a female even
when in construct form. I'm including a high res cover at the end of
this review because it is so awesome. Does that look in anyway what
you'd describe as female? Nothing in the book description led me to
the conclusion that it was female and while covers usually lie their
backsides off, I'm still choosing to say the cover adequately shows
the Copper Assassin.
Most
of the good stuff was more like “not bad” stuff. For an indie
book, I noticed no errors nor did the writing throw me out of the
story. Gorbo (Mr Gorbo, TEAR DOWN THAT WALL! Hahahahahhahaa) was
fleshed out enough as a character that he had zero cardboard attached
to him. He wasn't an idea of a character but WAS a character.
Sometimes indies seem to have problems with that, but not here
thankfully. The little magical spider was a good touch and wasn't the
least bit creepy.
To
end, if there had been more books immediately available (this was
released this past March I believe) I would have read them. As it is,
I'll wait a couple of years to see what else Mrs Rogers produces in
this series. Hopefully I'll remember :-/
I'd
like to thank Off the TBR for bringing this book to my attention. He
showcased it in a Book
Haul and the cover immediately caught my eye. I don't think
he's reviewed it but I couldn't find any way to search his site to
confirm one way or another.
★★★☆☆
