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Official Review: The Weather Vane by Gedalia Gershon
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- Tomah
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Re: Official Review: The Weather Vane by Gedalia Gershon
- Awesomeliker
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Tomah wrote: ↑13 Apr 2020, 17:25 [Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The Weather Vane" by Gedalia Gershon.]
The battle between good and evil rages across several planets, universes, and timelines. Amidst this eternal conflict are the Ascendant, a group of people from Earth chosen to join the Guild of the Greater Good in the fight against the Eternal Enemy. They board The Sea Star ship to Exland but on their way are attacked and end up stranded. Whether it’s a stroke of luck or misfortune, this happens to leave them near the Eternal Enemy’s current whereabouts. Will they find a way to Exland or will they mount a resistance right under their foe’s nose?
Gedalia Gershon’s The Weather Vane is an ambitious and creative novel, combining fantasy and science fiction to deliver a unique take on the classic good versus evil scenario. Souls, magic, and prophecies intertwine with artificial intelligence, 3D printing, and quantum compasses to form a wildly imaginative setting.
Sadly, the book falls into a common pitfall of complex sci-fi stories: it often alienates the reader with jargon and incomprehensible descriptions that are never cleared up. What’s dereality? What’s a derealization engine? What’s the Amulark of Zarganthos? In fact, this doesn’t happen only with complicated phenomena. Some events go by so quickly it’s hard to parse them, forcing one to re-read the passages one or more times. New characters are thrown in the middle of a scene without warning, characters bring up things we’d never heard about before, and entire chunks of time with crucial events are skipped. The reader can’t help but feel they’ve missed several pages, especially since many plot points are never resolved.
While the writing is usually straightforward and competent, there are a few confusing sentences here and there that could use some rewording. That’s not to mention the instances of sheer word salad, such as: “On Earth, the entropy in the directorate of the administration of the mission objective precipitated a non-rigorous cataloging of the fathmic depths of the magical oceanic planet and the Gaians were not discovered.”
The novel features an enormous cast of characters, to the point where it’s easy to keep forgetting who's who. As a result, it’s unlikely that the reader will connect to anyone, especially since many characters are introduced only to die or disappear moments later. Even the protagonist has little character development other than becoming more powerful (moreover, the reason why he’s so strong isn’t ever clearly explained).
Though The Weather Vane had everything to be one of my favorite novels of the year, it fails to live up to the fullest potential in its current state. In my opinion, the author would benefit from working with a developmental editor or beta reader that could point out the flaws in character development, exposition, and plot. As mentioned earlier, however, the book is competently written; I haven’t found any errors. I would’ve rated this 2.5 out of 4 stars if I could, but my final score is 2 out of 4 stars.
Young audiences and people with a queasy stomach might want to avoid the novel, as it features profanities, torture, gruesomeness, and rape. On the other hand, fans of stories combining fantasy and science fiction that don’t mind adult content could enjoy this one.
******
The Weather Vane
View: on Bookshelves
I love the description of the audience that is advised to read this book. If you cannot fully follow the plot, it makes no sense attempting to read this particular book. You gave a comprehensive review. Thanks.
- Tomah
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Caribqueen16 wrote: ↑26 May 2020, 13:32Tomah wrote: ↑13 Apr 2020, 17:25 [Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The Weather Vane" by Gedalia Gershon.]
The battle between good and evil rages across several planets, universes, and timelines. Amidst this eternal conflict are the Ascendant, a group of people from Earth chosen to join the Guild of the Greater Good in the fight against the Eternal Enemy. They board The Sea Star ship to Exland but on their way are attacked and end up stranded. Whether it’s a stroke of luck or misfortune, this happens to leave them near the Eternal Enemy’s current whereabouts. Will they find a way to Exland or will they mount a resistance right under their foe’s nose?
Gedalia Gershon’s The Weather Vane is an ambitious and creative novel, combining fantasy and science fiction to deliver a unique take on the classic good versus evil scenario. Souls, magic, and prophecies intertwine with artificial intelligence, 3D printing, and quantum compasses to form a wildly imaginative setting.
Sadly, the book falls into a common pitfall of complex sci-fi stories: it often alienates the reader with jargon and incomprehensible descriptions that are never cleared up. What’s dereality? What’s a derealization engine? What’s the Amulark of Zarganthos? In fact, this doesn’t happen only with complicated phenomena. Some events go by so quickly it’s hard to parse them, forcing one to re-read the passages one or more times. New characters are thrown in the middle of a scene without warning, characters bring up things we’d never heard about before, and entire chunks of time with crucial events are skipped. The reader can’t help but feel they’ve missed several pages, especially since many plot points are never resolved.
While the writing is usually straightforward and competent, there are a few confusing sentences here and there that could use some rewording. That’s not to mention the instances of sheer word salad, such as: “On Earth, the entropy in the directorate of the administration of the mission objective precipitated a non-rigorous cataloging of the fathmic depths of the magical oceanic planet and the Gaians were not discovered.”
The novel features an enormous cast of characters, to the point where it’s easy to keep forgetting who's who. As a result, it’s unlikely that the reader will connect to anyone, especially since many characters are introduced only to die or disappear moments later. Even the protagonist has little character development other than becoming more powerful (moreover, the reason why he’s so strong isn’t ever clearly explained).
Though The Weather Vane had everything to be one of my favorite novels of the year, it fails to live up to the fullest potential in its current state. In my opinion, the author would benefit from working with a developmental editor or beta reader that could point out the flaws in character development, exposition, and plot. As mentioned earlier, however, the book is competently written; I haven’t found any errors. I would’ve rated this 2.5 out of 4 stars if I could, but my final score is 2 out of 4 stars.
Young audiences and people with a queasy stomach might want to avoid the novel, as it features profanities, torture, gruesomeness, and rape. On the other hand, fans of stories combining fantasy and science fiction that don’t mind adult content could enjoy this one.
******
The Weather Vane
View: on Bookshelves
I love the description of the audience that is advised to read this book. If you cannot fully follow the plot, it makes no sense attempting to read this particular book. You gave a comprehensive review. Thanks.Thanks for the comments!Awesomeliker wrote: ↑26 May 2020, 11:14 It's a shame that such a great idea was wasted... But great review!!