B. Justin ShierCritiques
Auteur de Zero Sight
Critiques
There are definitely editing errors that detract from the flow of the book, but that's the least of the problems.
The greatest problem is actually the characters - and when your whole book is centered around developing your two protagonists, that's a bit of a problem.
Dieter is a boy struggling to make it out of his crap town in Las Vegas and get a college. He has something called the Sight that allows him to be aware of things around him as well as see intent. When he makes it out, headed for a magic college, he meets the other protagonist... dun dun dun, the love interest.
Rei is probably one of the worst characters written in novel history. She's gorgeous, athletic, witty, smart, talks like she was born in Victoria, England, and is a vampire. Of course Dieter falls over her like a love-struck boy and there the two caricature of people go. I honestly don't see a flaw in either of them - and as characters, that makes them failed characters. When you write about perfect people, there's no room for them to grow or develop. It isn't a coming-of-age story anymore, it's a "let's put perfect people into situations and watch them get out of it with no problem". Their interactions are abnormal and not believable. He takes her odd quirks without blinking and they rapidly hit it off - which goes completely against the way their backgrounds would suggest. Unnatural - hurts the flow of the book.
It takes 25% of the book to even get to the girl and from there, I'm already rolling my eyes at how much the protagonist Dieter is up in his own head. The amount of action/dialogue is minimal, which is never a good recipe for balance or for story movement.
It aims to be a sort of Harry Potter story with the whole magic and college system, but ultimately fails to deliver any sense of wonder or interest of their world. I honestly don't care for the characters or the world. It bores me halfway to death.
One star because I dropped the book after the magic action started (and it didn't interest me). So perhaps it gets better. Perhaps. But I doubt it. I skimmed through about 200 pages and all of it looked rather mind-numbing.
I don't recommend this to anyone.
There are definitely editing errors that detract from the flow of the book, but that's the least of the problems.
The greatest problem is actually the characters - and when your whole book is centered around developing your two protagonists, that's a bit of a problem.
Dieter is a boy struggling to make it out of his crap town in Las Vegas and get a college. He has something called the Sight that allows him to be aware of things around him as well as see intent. When he makes it out, headed for a magic college, he meets the other protagonist... dun dun dun, the love interest.
Rei is probably one of the worst characters written in novel history. She's gorgeous, athletic, witty, smart, talks like she was born in Victoria, England, and is a vampire. Of course Dieter falls over her like a love-struck boy and there the two caricature of people go. I honestly don't see a flaw in either of them - and as characters, that makes them failed characters. When you write about perfect people, there's no room for them to grow or develop. It isn't a coming-of-age story anymore, it's a "let's put perfect people into situations and watch them get out of it with no problem". Their interactions are abnormal and not believable. He takes her odd quirks without blinking and they rapidly hit it off - which goes completely against the way their backgrounds would suggest. Unnatural - hurts the flow of the book.
It takes 25% of the book to even get to the girl and from there, I'm already rolling my eyes at how much the protagonist Dieter is up in his own head. The amount of action/dialogue is minimal, which is never a good recipe for balance or for story movement.
It aims to be a sort of Harry Potter story with the whole magic and college system, but ultimately fails to deliver any sense of wonder or interest of their world. I honestly don't care for the characters or the world. It bores me halfway to death.
One star because I dropped the book after the magic action started (and it didn't interest me). So perhaps it gets better. Perhaps. But I doubt it. I skimmed through about 200 pages and all of it looked rather mind-numbing.
I don't recommend this to anyone.
With I first read the summary of this novel, I admit that I was less than enthusiastic. The two main protagonists sounded like your typical underdogs: one a talented but untrained "nice guy," and the other an angst-ridden social outcast with immense skill. It was an unexpected delight, therefore, to discover original, well-defined personalities and odd bits of humor that elevated these characters beyond their tropes. Dieter was surprisingly charming for a total nerd, while Rei's dual nature and strange appreciation of puns were as entertaining as they were fascinating. Other characters received the barest of consideration in terms of development of personality, however, and while this is not unexpected for a plot-driven novel, one could only hope that they are not as one-dimensional as they seem.
Following the idea of cliches and overused plot devices, the concept of a "magic school" has been done, and done quite thoroughly. Even so, the author manages to differentiate Elliot College by its particular approach to magical theory and education. There is a tongue-in-cheek handling of supernatural stereotypes that is executed particularly well.
Deviating from the squeaky-clean approach to YA fiction, Zero Sight is unabashedly frank in its use of crass language and its descriptions of violence. While some may protest the inclusion of expletives and intricate detailing of battered bodies, these literary choices lend a sense of realism to an otherwise fantastical novel. Battles are brutal by nature, and shying away from the ugliness would have detracted from our understanding of the characters involved. Similarly, Dieter's struggle with his libido is one to which all teenage boys can relate (or so I surmise, never having been one myself).
As a whole, the book is very well written; the biggest drawback lies in the great number of typographical errors. They range from "forth" for "fourth" and the occasional extraneous word to the unforgivable misuse of "it's" for "its," or rather, of apostrophes as a whole. Further proofreading is definitely warranted.
Overall, Zero Sight is an engaging, realistic fantasy novel with likable protagonists and a fast-driven plot. I look forward to delving into other books in this series.
Hide and Read
(Review copy provided by the author)
Auteur LibraryThing
B. Justin Shier est un auteur LibraryThing, c'est-à-dire un auteur qui catalogue sa bibliothèque personnelle sur LibraryThing.
Liens
Ce site utilise des cookies pour fournir nos services, optimiser les performances, pour les analyses, et (si vous n'êtes pas connecté) pour les publicités. En utilisant Librarything, vous reconnaissez avoir lu et compris nos conditions générales d'utilisation et de services. Votre utilisation du site et de ses services vaut acceptation de ces conditions et termes.
on the one hand the autor makes extreme amounts of comparisons refering to earlier points in the protagonis life or just to general speach patterns used in the world. On the other hand there happens to little. For me it feels like the book got pumped up in its word count but lacks of actual plot.