alas, only 3 stars...
AMAZON UK £9.99
AMAZON US
$ not available
AMAZON CA $17.99
Military
Ancient Greece
It is very hard to judge some aspects of
this book as the mobi file supplied by the publisher was extremely poor quality
which did not make it easy to read the text: indents all over the place and
littered with typos. ARC editions (Advanced Reader/Review Copy) do often have
uncorrected typos as they are a pre-final proof read version and are for review
only, not for sale but they should
still be produced to a quality standard where layout and presentation is
concerned – not resemble a low-grade first draft.
In theory this would mean instant rejection
by Discovering Diamonds as we insist
on good quality presentation, but we are placing a review to highlight that
traditional mainstream publishing is not always up to scratch, especially where
technology is concerned. Indie writers are all too often ridiculed for this
sort of sloppy output. We sincerely hope that these production errors are not
in the printed book version or final e-book edition.
What one can discern of the writing
itself is as good as you would expect (typos are assumed to be the fault of
poor editing by the publisher, although the annoying point of view flipping,
the head-hopping that drains scenes of their power is all the author's...where was the editor’s input?) and Iggulden does
present another gritty story.
King Darius is dead and he had to choose
his successor as no throne can be secure if there is no heir, worse still if
there are two, which does not bode well for Cyrus, the second son. Taking his
responsibilities seriously, Artaxerxes does exactly as he is advised by his
father - he is going to execute his younger brother and thus remove a threat
before it can materialise. But Cyrus is no mere figurehead and he is takes his
leadership of the Persian armies as seriously as his brother takes being king.
It cannot end well for both.
I wasn't as gripped as I should have been
as there was a lot going on for little progress, long passages of conversation
between characters that seemed only to make the same point over and over, and
then the passages of plot-furthering action were rushed and not fully explored.
There is a lot of anti-climax and the pivotal parts of the story seem again to
be rushed.
It is clear what interests Iggulden from
this novel and if a reader's interest is equal, they will find much to satisfy,
but I do feel the text is not disciplined enough in its execution to make the
most of every scene, passing over some scenes that should carry more weight,
and are even referred back to by Iggulden, but are at the time included almost
as an afterthought.
This is readable and the research is
remarkable, but I expected more from this author, his editor and his publisher.
© Nicky Galliers
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Thank you for highlighting the problems that face mainstream authors when their publishers cannot produce a decent draft for ARC do they think readers and reviewers are stupid? I do feel sorry for the authors however as you say indies, many of whom work really hard to produce high quality products, are derided for not being 'real' authors and yet the standards that the industry expect are not always produced by those who have most of the market. Thank you again
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