Pamela Luke profile

I get the impression that the author is the type who is able to write movie tie-ins within six weeks, but he does do it well. There are action pieces and there seem to be chunks missing, whether these are to be filled in by other writers in other Transformer novels who knows, but things seem to happen too quickly and too conveniently.

There are some good ideas, but Mr English doesn’t give himself time to develop them fully, perhaps he does not have the luxury as he is publishing the story himself. He introduces characters like they’re soon to go out fashion and they disappear from the story as quickly as they appear. The author also repeats phrases with regards to certain characters that many times that it makes the character somewhat annoying. I’m not sure whether anyone from Mr English’s market audience has read this book but I found that it needed be a bit more thought out, but maybe he has as there is the promise of a sequel at the end of this book.

The enemy is a faceless presence, alien to the land of Tir, his forces are savage and vicious for the sake of it. Considering that our protagonists are children; such savagery is surprisingly brutal as some of them experience it first hand or are witness to it. The author on his website mentions Tolkien, Pullman, C.S. Lewis and Gaiman when he speaks about fantasy, here he has drawn elements that are reminiscent of all these authors and has produced a book that takes us on an fast-paced, action-packed and truly fantastical journey along the Snowmelt River. I would be willing to suspend my disbelief longer to continue the journey as there is more of this tale to be told. I have given this book 8.5 out 10.

With Corbett being an ex soldier and Ranulf an ex convict they are able to execute a few action pieces quite well. Sir Hugh’s passion for getting at the truth is what makes him a bit of an idealist and sometimes the conclusions to his cases are not always what the King wants to hear. Ranulf is a darker horse than his master, however his character is more interesting than Corbett and it would be interesting to read of an adventure where Ranulf goes solo. Would he make a mess of it without the wiser Corbett to restrain some of his more passionate reactions? Or would he be successful, like Lewis without Morse?