16th July, 2010
Heat
Been busy with summery things as well as re-reading Erikson’s Malazan series. Bwahaha.
Inda by Sherwood Smith.
Another reader suggestion here. I had not heard of Sherwood Smith before but Smith is a fairly well-known Young Adult author with Inda being her first Adult Fiction novel. That being said, the book unfortunately had the feel of a first-time novel even though it came from a seasoned writer.
Firstly, Smith has an irritating habit of changing points-of-view right in the middle of a story segment which often made things confusing for a minute or two while I carefully re-read the section. Also, there were many unexplained things such as a bizarre system of magic seemingly reserved for only the removal of bodily waste and dead bodies as well as sexually segregated society. Males receive one type of military training while females receive another and both are keep secret from one another. Top this off with a somewhat confusing habit of switching between referring to a character with their proper names, their titles or their nicknames and you have a frustrating read at times. Despite these shortcomings, the story does pick up as it progresses and begins to grab your attention about midway through. I found it be reminiscent of something that L.E. Modesitt would write.
I’m thinking that perhaps with a different editor, this book could have been better.
3/5 gogs.
Posted at 5:24 am | Comments (2)
On July 16, 2010 at 11:24 Will R said:
July 16, 2010 at 11:24
Spot on. Smith definitely throws the reader into the complicated geography-based dual-tongue naming system. Though the glossary can help out, it’s annoying to have to flip back and forth. With a different editor, the book would have been MUCH better.
On July 23, 2010 at 4:55 Gog said:
July 23, 2010 at 4:55
Yeah, flipping around isn’t my favorite thing. Maybe this is an argument for the use of an e-reader which could hyperlink to the glossary.