Official Review: Jack Strong and the Red Giant
-
Gynxie_Masters
- Posts: 30
- Joined: 07 Aug 2014, 15:18
- Bookshelf Size: 3
- Reviewer Page: onlinebookclub.org/reviews/by-gynxie-masters.html
- Latest Review: "Jack Strong and the Red Giant" by Heys Wolfenden
Official Review: Jack Strong and the Red Giant
[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Jack Strong and the Red Giant" by Heys Wolfenden.]
Share This Review
Jack Strong and the Red Giant is a Science Fiction novel written by the author, Heys Wolfenden. I give this book a 1 out of 4 star rating and this is why:
Wolfenden writes about a boy who grows up poor. He feels unappreciated by his parents, and is a pariah amongst his school peers. After getting frustrated, he runs away from home and encounters a space ship. The ship abducts him and flies away, leaving behind everyone and everything he knew. He then meets the supporting characters and thus begins their very exciting space adventures.
The story itself is a great idea, however; I would suggest obtaining an editor to check the author's writing. The book is poorly written and not in just a few areas. It felt like there was a grammar error in every paragraph. Some paragraphs were nothing but run-on sentences. For example: “He barely had time to breathe but what the creature attacked him again, its sharp fingernails poking and jabbing at his eyes as its small nose twitched and prodded as it sucked in his scent”. This was the entire paragraph. What could have been written alternatively is “He barely had time to breathe before the creature attacked him again. Jack squirmed in pain as the creature's sharp nails poked and jabbed Jack's eyes. The creature's nose twitched and prodded, obviously inhaling the boy's scent”. Granted, authors can write this specific paragraph a great many ways to avoid such a long run-on sentence. Again, this book is full to the brim in errors like this one and I found it painful to get through. Also, I read this book on my Kindle and the formatting was horrible. I had page numbers in the middle of a sentence.
My first complaint about the characters is understanding Jack. I really like most of the characters, but at the very beginning of the book I really dislike Jack. I thought he was an insufferable, ungrateful kid and I did not want to get to know him. However; as I read through he grew on me a bit, starting with his first meeting of Grunt. From there it got a bit better, but I really would have rather felt bad for him in his home settings, versus disliking him. He also yells a lot in frustration. That really agitated me and took away from the story.
The next thing that I disliked was the history Wolfenden sets up for Jack. It is conflicting, to say the least. Jack is a flunking student, yet when the space ship opens a viewing point for Jack to see out, he is now a scholar of Geography and knows exactly where he is, even though he is on a different continent. I can assume that he has never been to this continent, since his family is so poor, but how do I really know? There is no history or background to support his knowledge. However; there is background and history to support that he is failing in school. Jack also assumes he is the first boy in space. The reason this conflicts is because the book seems to be written in a modern setting, and he has some knowledge of aliens and space crafts. He cannot prove he is the first boy in space, so this makes Jack seem presumptuous. I had to do a lot of guess work with Jack. A character should have a strong background, so the reader is not left guessing, unless there is closure in the book or next book, and in these instances, there was no closure to see where his magical knowledge came from. The writing is just contradictory from the knowledge the author gives the reader.
I would like to add though, that I did not feel emotionally connected to the characters. I have cried over deaths, break-ups, and other bad situations. I was not emotionally tied to these characters at all. I really believe it was due to the writing and grammatical errors.
What I do like about Wolfenden's work is that he is a colorful author. He is very descriptive and paints a great picture that was fairly easy to imagine. If it had not been for the supporting characters, the truly great idea of what the book is supposed to be, and the colorful descriptions I would have quit reading the book. Nevertheless, I read through to the end. I found the ending to be fairly predictable, yet good and satisfying.
In conclusion, I think that it is a great story. It has such great potential! However; at this point in time I can only give it a 1 out of 4 star rating because I believe this book needs to be rewritten with better grammar and detail to the characters before it can be sold. I would not tell anyone to buy this book. I would, however, tell them to buy the book if all the grammar errors were corrected.
***
Buy "Jack Strong and the Red Giant" on Amazon
Share This Review
Wolfenden writes about a boy who grows up poor. He feels unappreciated by his parents, and is a pariah amongst his school peers. After getting frustrated, he runs away from home and encounters a space ship. The ship abducts him and flies away, leaving behind everyone and everything he knew. He then meets the supporting characters and thus begins their very exciting space adventures.
The story itself is a great idea, however; I would suggest obtaining an editor to check the author's writing. The book is poorly written and not in just a few areas. It felt like there was a grammar error in every paragraph. Some paragraphs were nothing but run-on sentences. For example: “He barely had time to breathe but what the creature attacked him again, its sharp fingernails poking and jabbing at his eyes as its small nose twitched and prodded as it sucked in his scent”. This was the entire paragraph. What could have been written alternatively is “He barely had time to breathe before the creature attacked him again. Jack squirmed in pain as the creature's sharp nails poked and jabbed Jack's eyes. The creature's nose twitched and prodded, obviously inhaling the boy's scent”. Granted, authors can write this specific paragraph a great many ways to avoid such a long run-on sentence. Again, this book is full to the brim in errors like this one and I found it painful to get through. Also, I read this book on my Kindle and the formatting was horrible. I had page numbers in the middle of a sentence.
My first complaint about the characters is understanding Jack. I really like most of the characters, but at the very beginning of the book I really dislike Jack. I thought he was an insufferable, ungrateful kid and I did not want to get to know him. However; as I read through he grew on me a bit, starting with his first meeting of Grunt. From there it got a bit better, but I really would have rather felt bad for him in his home settings, versus disliking him. He also yells a lot in frustration. That really agitated me and took away from the story.
The next thing that I disliked was the history Wolfenden sets up for Jack. It is conflicting, to say the least. Jack is a flunking student, yet when the space ship opens a viewing point for Jack to see out, he is now a scholar of Geography and knows exactly where he is, even though he is on a different continent. I can assume that he has never been to this continent, since his family is so poor, but how do I really know? There is no history or background to support his knowledge. However; there is background and history to support that he is failing in school. Jack also assumes he is the first boy in space. The reason this conflicts is because the book seems to be written in a modern setting, and he has some knowledge of aliens and space crafts. He cannot prove he is the first boy in space, so this makes Jack seem presumptuous. I had to do a lot of guess work with Jack. A character should have a strong background, so the reader is not left guessing, unless there is closure in the book or next book, and in these instances, there was no closure to see where his magical knowledge came from. The writing is just contradictory from the knowledge the author gives the reader.
I would like to add though, that I did not feel emotionally connected to the characters. I have cried over deaths, break-ups, and other bad situations. I was not emotionally tied to these characters at all. I really believe it was due to the writing and grammatical errors.
What I do like about Wolfenden's work is that he is a colorful author. He is very descriptive and paints a great picture that was fairly easy to imagine. If it had not been for the supporting characters, the truly great idea of what the book is supposed to be, and the colorful descriptions I would have quit reading the book. Nevertheless, I read through to the end. I found the ending to be fairly predictable, yet good and satisfying.
In conclusion, I think that it is a great story. It has such great potential! However; at this point in time I can only give it a 1 out of 4 star rating because I believe this book needs to be rewritten with better grammar and detail to the characters before it can be sold. I would not tell anyone to buy this book. I would, however, tell them to buy the book if all the grammar errors were corrected.
***
Buy "Jack Strong and the Red Giant" on Amazon
Latest Review: "Jack Strong and the Red Giant" by Heys Wolfenden
