Official Review: Gluttony (The Spider Mushroom Quest, Boo...
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npandit
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Official Review: Gluttony (The Spider Mushroom Quest, Boo...
[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Gluttony (The Spider Mushroom Quest, Book One)" by Dawn Marshallsay.]
Out of all the books that I have read so far through this online book club, this is the only story that from the first line captured my enthusiasm and made me feel excited to continue reading. “The Spider Mushroom Chronicles: Gluttony” is written by a relatively young author who, I am willing to predict, is going to have a long and very fruitful career.
The story is about a half-goblin, half-human girl called Ivy, who lives in a sort of goblin village, but because of her outsider status, is never fully accepted among her goblin relatives. Her grandmother, one of the goblin ‘elders’, notices a special quality in her, and gives her a task to go on a journey to collect magical mushrooms stems—that when united will give her to ability to change into a full-blooded goblin. Ivy begins this task, unsure of herself and of whether she even wants to lose her humanity; and on the way meets a friend who helps her. She stops in a town run by a wizard called Magnus, that has houses constructed of poisonous gingerbread; and her journey explores a potential way to overcome the human weakness of gluttony—by caring for and loving another sentient being.
Though the narrative moves fairly quickly and is not overly-detailed and descriptive, the characters pop out at you, quite vivid and alive, and the story manages to create very crisp visual imagery. However, there is a sense of choppiness to the flow and organization of the story—which consists of an overwhelming number of chapters that are only about a page or two long, that detracts a little from the pacing and flow. Overall, the work gave me the sense that it was written by someone with an abundance of talent, but a limitation in organization—(something that will probably be honed and refined through more experience). If some of the chapters were combined together, and a little more description was added to the narrative, I think it would have helped to better maintain the pacing and the flow of the story.
After reading this book, I get the definite desire to read the later books that come in the series, and I want to know what happens to Ivy on her journey. I also want to know more about this world and the people in it—and more detail and description on what this world is like than what was given to me. Whatever its organizational shortcomings, this story is unique, imaginative, well thought out, entertaining, and written very clearly by someone who was born to tell stories. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys the fantasy genre—but if people like me, who mainly read non-fiction –can find this story exciting, it suggests that it’s got appeal for a broad group of people, and for this I give it a rating of 4 out of 4.
***
Buy "Gluttony (The Spider Mushroom Quest, Book One)" on Amazon
Out of all the books that I have read so far through this online book club, this is the only story that from the first line captured my enthusiasm and made me feel excited to continue reading. “The Spider Mushroom Chronicles: Gluttony” is written by a relatively young author who, I am willing to predict, is going to have a long and very fruitful career.
The story is about a half-goblin, half-human girl called Ivy, who lives in a sort of goblin village, but because of her outsider status, is never fully accepted among her goblin relatives. Her grandmother, one of the goblin ‘elders’, notices a special quality in her, and gives her a task to go on a journey to collect magical mushrooms stems—that when united will give her to ability to change into a full-blooded goblin. Ivy begins this task, unsure of herself and of whether she even wants to lose her humanity; and on the way meets a friend who helps her. She stops in a town run by a wizard called Magnus, that has houses constructed of poisonous gingerbread; and her journey explores a potential way to overcome the human weakness of gluttony—by caring for and loving another sentient being.
Though the narrative moves fairly quickly and is not overly-detailed and descriptive, the characters pop out at you, quite vivid and alive, and the story manages to create very crisp visual imagery. However, there is a sense of choppiness to the flow and organization of the story—which consists of an overwhelming number of chapters that are only about a page or two long, that detracts a little from the pacing and flow. Overall, the work gave me the sense that it was written by someone with an abundance of talent, but a limitation in organization—(something that will probably be honed and refined through more experience). If some of the chapters were combined together, and a little more description was added to the narrative, I think it would have helped to better maintain the pacing and the flow of the story.
After reading this book, I get the definite desire to read the later books that come in the series, and I want to know what happens to Ivy on her journey. I also want to know more about this world and the people in it—and more detail and description on what this world is like than what was given to me. Whatever its organizational shortcomings, this story is unique, imaginative, well thought out, entertaining, and written very clearly by someone who was born to tell stories. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys the fantasy genre—but if people like me, who mainly read non-fiction –can find this story exciting, it suggests that it’s got appeal for a broad group of people, and for this I give it a rating of 4 out of 4.
***
Buy "Gluttony (The Spider Mushroom Quest, Book One)" on Amazon
Latest Review: "Travel Instincts" by James C. Jensen
