Wednesday, 15 August 2018

Windcatcher Review

Windcatcher (Stone War Chronicles, #1)Windcatcher by A.J. Norfield
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

*Disclaimer* I received this book free from the author in exchange for an honest review.
I really wanted to like this book.
This is the opening book in a large epic fantasy story with dragons which really should be completely my wheelhouse but I found the experience jarring and tedious at the same time.
My main issue that I just could not get past was the author trying to world build with a ridiculous amount of exposition shoe horned into the plot. I understand that Norfield has this entire world stuck in his head and feels the need to get every aspect of what he can see, and has constructed, onto the page but as a lover of epic fantasy I found this amateurish and off putting. Which was unfortunate because there were 2 really interesting events happening at the start of this book that normally I would have been enthralled by but for the constant interruptions to explain back story of characters, lay out of country side and political musterings between waring factions. All of these elements can be left till later when the reader has a) remembered the names of the characters and b) invested emotionally in those characters.
My secondary issue was the lengthy/wordy descriptions for EVERYTHING. We get a blow by blow list of the scratches everyone got in a battle with the enemy... big injuries and deaths only and that can be done in the action sequence please.
I really think if this had just got into the action/ main plot and left the world building to happen organically I think this would be a great book as the elements are all there but buried in to many words for words sake and exposition I would have really enjoyed it but unfortunately it was and I could not bring myself to keep going.

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