Offical Review: Home To Oblivion by Roger Whittlesey

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[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Home To Oblivion" by Roger Whittlesey.]

‘Home To Oblivion’ by Roger Whittlesey is a fantasy story. It is difficult to say much about the premise without either giving too much away or without suggesting an interpretation. However, the three main characters come together on what seems, at first, to by an idyllic tropical island. It is soon revealed they all come from different times, do not know how they ended up here, and have been preceded by others in the same situation. The main protagonist is Prescott Fieldings a 12 year old boy plucked from 1776; his companions are Caleb Thompson, a marine in the Vietnam War and Julian Woodgate, a soldier from World War 1. Between them they carry out an adventure that takes them through a portal and to a place where those that have come before them have gone.

My initial impression on reading was that this was going to be another amateurish fantasy story (I’d venture to say the fantasy genre has the widest cross section of talent when it comes to authors, some amazing, some, well.....). The writing and phrasing were awkward and didn’t make for easy reading. I realise the very formal tone was to represent as chronologically accurate the tale as it is told by his main character Prescott, and I did, to a degree, adapt to it. But I do think if someone had confiscated the author’s thesaurus the narrative would have flowed in a more natural, less distracting way.

Having said that, the story was well thought out and enjoyable and having persevered over the writing style I found the author had quite hooked me with his characters and the intrigue of the premise. Just like Prescott, Caleb and Woody, I too wanted to know what exactly was going on.

Whittlesey’s strength in this work is his characters. He develops their personalities well, if a little clichéd and they are truly likeable which helps the reader take an interest in their situation.

I rated ‘Home To Oblivion’ as 3 out of 4 stars, the style pulls it down a little but the characterisation and feel of the story pull it back up. Definitely worth a read.

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