mark monday's Reviews > The Native Star

EH? EH! i tried to like this one, i really did. but after the sorta well-done and atmospheric prologue, it became so increasingly aggravating that my eyes felt almost fixed in their rolled-upwards position. i gave up on page 210. the magic in this alternate version of the western is rather interesting - particularly the idea of credomancy. but everything else... Dear God, make it stop! an insufferable heroine who is chock-full of uninteresting motivations and corny pluck, who one minute spits out "varmints" like a refugee from the Beverly Hillbillies and the next minute decides to complain that it is not proper to smoke in front of a lady, and who - worst of all - comes equiped with a stereotypical yet irritatingly illogical automatic dislike for the high-falutin' male lead. hackneyed and overcalculated dialogue meant to illustrate how much our two characters dislike each other - all the better for them to come together in their inevitable We Really Love Each Other moment, presumably later in the book (happily, i didn't get that far). a strained attempt to parallel magic-users with those communities reviled by conservative religious types as ungodly. flat characterization. misuse of zombies. misuse of a dervish. an occasionally deft use of language that more often stumbles (just two examples: incorrect use of the phrase "derring-do" and naturally PEACH-colored shadows for chrissakes... have you ever seen a peach-colored shadow?). annoyingly aggressive overuse of Old Tymey phrases like "cash-money". a front cover that uses the tagline "Sometimes love is the most dangerous magic of all". a back cover description that ends with "But along the way, Emily and Stanton will be forced to contend with the most powerful and unpredictable magic of all - the magic of the human heart". worst offense, also on the back cover: "In the tradition of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell". seriously, the nerve. as if!