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Dan Schwent's Reviews > Scar Night
Scar Night (Deepgate Codex #1)
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Deepgate is a city hanging by chains over a nigh-bottomless abyss. There is an organization of assassins called the Adepts of the Spine that works for the church of Ulcis. One adept, Rachel, is charged with two tasks; training Dill, the last archon of his line, and hunting down Carnival, a rogue angel who claims a soul every Scar Night. Only someone else has begun claiming souls and Carnival is taking the blame...
Sounds good, right? So what's not to like? A lot, as it turns out. The writing screams both "first time writer" and "I desperately want this to be epic fantasy." The writing feels really light at times and completely unsuitable for the epic tone it strives for. The characters are pretty flat and the pace is painfully slow. At 200 pages, very very little had actually happened. There was one battle but it was a fairly ridiculous affair straight out of Pirates of the Caribean 2.
That isn't to say there's nothing to like in Scar Night. I like a lot of the ideas presented within and Deepgate is an interesting city. However, the first 200 pages could easily be condensed into 50.
I'm putting this book back on the to-read pile without rating it. I might have a higher opinion of it when I pick it back up. Right now, I'm not in the mood for a long tedious book that's part of a series.
Sounds good, right? So what's not to like? A lot, as it turns out. The writing screams both "first time writer" and "I desperately want this to be epic fantasy." The writing feels really light at times and completely unsuitable for the epic tone it strives for. The characters are pretty flat and the pace is painfully slow. At 200 pages, very very little had actually happened. There was one battle but it was a fairly ridiculous affair straight out of Pirates of the Caribean 2.
That isn't to say there's nothing to like in Scar Night. I like a lot of the ideas presented within and Deepgate is an interesting city. However, the first 200 pages could easily be condensed into 50.
I'm putting this book back on the to-read pile without rating it. I might have a higher opinion of it when I pick it back up. Right now, I'm not in the mood for a long tedious book that's part of a series.
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by
Amanda
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rated it 2 stars
Sep 09, 2009 09:33PM
So how are you faring so far? I haven't been brave enough to pick up the sequel yet . . .
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It's an interesting world. Not much has actually happend yet though and sometimes the writing feels like its trying too hard.
Those were my sentiments exactly. It's a fascinating world, but sometimes you can see him reaching too desperately for the word "epic."
I'm taking a break. Scar Night is one tedious read.
I've heard that from so many people. I'm no longer planning on reading this book.
Yeah, I should have heeded the warnings. If it wasn't full of interesting ideas, I would have quit long before now. Even if I do push through and finish it, I won't be reading the next two.
I have this on my 'to-read' shelf, but may give it a pass based on your comments. I have way too many books to read and not enough time.
Nancy wrote: "I have this on my 'to-read' shelf, but may give it a pass based on your comments. I have way too many books to read and not enough time."That's exactly why I'm shelving it for the time being. There are good concepts inside but the writing isn't great and it's slow moving. I can't imagine pushing through three of these.
I picked this up at B&N and read a few pages and quickly put it down. The prose was atrocious; I mean really, really bad.
D_Davis wrote: "I picked this up at B&N and read a few pages and quickly put it down. The prose was atrocious; I mean really, really bad. "I didn't find the writing atrocious. More bland. I did cringe on a couple of the similes though. The one where something "glistened like venom" springs to mind.
