Bookworm Speaks!- Hero of My Dreams!

Bookworm Speaks!

Hero of My Dreams

By J.R. Pitts

****

Acquired: From Word Slinger Publicity in exchange for an honest review

Series: N/A

Publisher: Outskirts Press (January 18, 2016)

Paperback: 338 pages

Language: English

****

The Story: The peaceful planet of Arklardin is under attack by Dragoon from the planet Zahrbruk. King Dinaar dispatches four lieutenants to find a commander, somewhere in the universe, to train his troops and lead them into battle. Alex Freeman, a veteran of Vietnam is the man they convince to help.

****

WARNING: This Review May Contain Spoilers!!!

The Review: On the surface, this seems like it would be a pretty nice book. It hits all the proper marks of a wish-fulfillment fantasy: A chose one, a war against an evil tyrant, save and romance the princess, aliens that inexplicably, look and work human. 

Nothing particularly groundbreaking but still a good, happy, science-fantasy romp. 

Alas, for Bookworm, this was one dream with that did not come true. 

The truly unfortunate thing about this book is that there is a genuinely compelling story that is sadly buried amidst the poor writing. While reading this story, Bookworm was actually interested in these characters and what their ultimate fates would be come the stories conclusion. The romance that Alex Freeman goes through can be rather touching at times. You can tell the author put some genuine effort into it, even if it does stray into soap opera levels quite frequently. 

One scene that is actually rather heartwarming is when Alex returns home to visit his family and brings his new family with him. Those moments are few and far between though. Because in spite of the fact of genuine heart, this book’s writing is so slipshod and overdone that reading this book became a task that Bookworm dreaded. 

There is a line near the ending where the princess literally says something along the lines of: “With the lead of this pencil, I shall at least have enough for my final strike…”

What?

Come on!

If everything wrong with this book could be stripped down to one, singular, adjective, it would be this one:

Melodramatic. 

This book is almost one long violation of the writing rule: Show, don’t tell. Being a science fiction piece (ostensibly) sometimes telling, or exposition, is sometimes a requirement but in the text we have here, the author seems to make it their mission to spell every though that come’s into their character’s heads and worse still, make them say it out loud. 

This happens from beginning to end. When Alex gets first abducted by the Arklardin, he goes through a range of events capped of with the spoken statement:

“Damnit!” he shouts, “I can’t move! I’m like a mouse caught in a trap. My handgun is useless and I am completely at the mercy of this thing!”

We don’t need to know that! We do not need every little thing that goes through his head. explained to us! Bookworm does not believe that this was meant to be a book for preschoolers. This almost panders to the readers in a level that some may actually find insulting. No one may have gone broke assuming the lowest common denominator but this thing doesn’t even do that well. The writing is just plain lazy!

The world-building is next to nonexistent. This society is obviously meant to mirror the traditional medieval fantasy archetype, but there is no feeling to it. The reader really get a good mental image of what this world is like. If there was any point where this book could have actually used some exposition it would be when the reader sees the castle or the uniforms of the soldiers or the aftermath. We do not get that though. By then, the reader is so discouraged by the amateur-level writing choking it all to death, that it is overlooked. 

The pacing of the story is skewed as well. It describes Alex Freeman getting married to Princess Kumari, her pregnancy, and then the birth of their daughter. All of that happens over the span of three or four chapters and there is nothing to indicate that over a year at least has happened. For that matter, in the chapters following that, the daughter has transformed into a toddler. One could make the argument that this is in fact another planet and pregnancy, birth, and maturation are faster here. If that is the case however, it is never mentioned. 

It is like a sitcom on television, where one episode is dedicated to the birth of said baby but in the very next season or episode, the child in question is now three-years old. 

As stated above, the story actually has some heart to it, but Bookworm barely remembers anything about it. The villain: nothing. Side characters: There were side characters? Only the two main characters: Alex Freeman and Princess Kumari have anything resembling substance about them and even then, they are in the shallow end of characterization. The romance is right up there with the romance scenes from soap opera and bad romantic comedies, pointlessly cheesy and sappy. 

From what Bookworm can tell, this was also supposed be war story as well, but honestly is so glossed over that Bookworm forgot about it a few times. 

Final Verdict: Professionalism is critical to be a successful critic and writer of criticism. One must keep an open mind and even the work being review is not very good. It’s okay to use strong language but don’t get too personal.

This had to be said though…reading this book was not a dream, it was a nightmare. 

Two Dream Bubbles out of Five

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