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"No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting"
-Mary Wortley Montagu
-Mary Wortley Montagu
Started losing me in Chapter OneWhy? Because of the infantile dialogue and writing style plus a forced plot. There were some typos also (i.e. assess instead of assesses).Here's some of the issues I had with the story, etc.
Opening chapter, the dad is teaching Peter, his son, the art of magic. The dad gets summoned away from practice and en route (I'm assuming back to the house) he's talking to his son about blocking objects with magic. He says that he's deflected a dozen arrows at once but wishes he could control the trajectory better and has only had success doing this with two at a time. Then he states that he wishes he could make them "fly on their own". He's just been teaching his son to make rocks move, but he can't make an arrow fly? Not a very good magician, I guess. Also, how old is the son that he doesn't comprehend this statement? "It will take time before you are comfortable dealing with objects of varying size and weight." I pushed on though in the hopes that the story, dialogue, etc. would improve. I'll jump ahead to the frogs. Yep, frogs. Oh, and there's Hannah too. Peter is imprisoned and meets Hannah where she whispers that the frogs "don't like talking" and can apparently steal people's voices. Here we run into another, of many, ridiculous plot scenarios. Peter is a magician (I'm assuming older). Why hasn't he, to this point, used his magic to escape his sentence by the frogs for "trespassing in their darn cave"? Why is it that he waits to get everyone out of their cells until Hannah tells him they need to get out. Oh, and his response? "I can get us out, but I have to see the exit first." Um...haven't you seen an exit or layout of the frog's domain when you were taken to and from sentencing? So, suddenly he does magic that he's never done before (it manifests itself where he can see it) to help break Hannah and his cohorts out and protects them while Hannah flies away. Yes, Hannah can fly, which also begs the question as to why she hasn't escaped the many times she's been outside of her cell. In fact, with all of their combined powers, how are they being held captive by a bunch of frogs who spit goo? As I was nearing the end, I was nearly laughing out loud and wanting to cry simultaneously because the absurdities in the plot and the ridiculous dialogue just kept getting worse. So, Peter's supposed to use a sword to complete their quest to "defeat the evil magician who attacked our home", but David tells Peter that his chances of winning are "a thousand to one", so Peter asks how to improve their odds. "You study, you practice, you learn. It's a rather straightforward process." "How do we do that?" "You pick up a book and read, of course." Dear sweet Lord Almighty. I couldn't take it anymore. I quit. I tried. I really did. But this was one of the most ridiculously written plots I'd encountered in a long time. When I run across a book like this where there are so many positive reviews, I have to wonder whether those people actually read the book. Recommended? No.
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