I invested in both books of Rachel Gillig's Shepherd King duology because 1) it supported my favorite indy bookstore, 2) I wanted to try a new-to-me author and 3) I haven't read any gothic fantasy (actually I didn't know there was such a genre, so there's my excuse.)
The author seems to be extremely well educated, working as a teacher and an artist before trying her hand at the Publishing biz. Orbit did a great job with the cover art. The books are hefty. Those are the positives.
I did read the first book up until page 113, which was a deliberate extra effort on my part. When I don't care for a novel, I rarely go beyond thirty pages. Life is too short to waste on books that leave me cold. So I feel that I did give the author a pretty fair chance to engage me and convince me of her universe.
The story did not, alas. While the characters were obviously, painstakingly crafted, none were sympathetic. Out of boredom I found myself rooting for a while for the classically evil stepmother, as at least she was a little interesting. One of the characters speaks in nothing but verse in italics (so you know they're thinking it!) and that became tedious after the first conversation. The protagonist was a darker Mary Sue who basically broke all the rules of the world-building for no logical reason I could fathom. Also, some of the word choices, particularly for the families and some of the locations, seemed rather unfortunate.
The biggest problem: there are magical cards as the center of the conflict, something like Tarot but not really, and probably added as a hopefully shrewd marketing tool if the books blew up and there was an op for merchandising. Yet for some reason I kept involuntarily envisioning Pokemon every time the cards were mentioned, inventing cute little critters in my head to go with the supposedly terrifying powers of these cards, which I admit was entirely inappropriate given the gravity of the story.
Please note: I was born long before the card playing/fandom everything generations. I am also not a writer who uses marketing tools as plot devices. Likely my career has suffered because of both.
Anyway, I finally gave up on page 113. I have no intention of reading book two. I will donate the books to another favorite indy bookseller of mine so they can reach someone who may appreciate gothic fantasy of this nature.
Next up is a blind date with a book: Dead Ends by Sandra Balzo. Perhaps it will prove an interesting mystery that I don't figure out in the first chapter. A girl can always hope. :)
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