Official Review: The Brede Chronicles by P.I. Barrington

[Sarah G]

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The Brede Chronicles" by P.I. Barrington.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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The Brede Chronicles: Book 1, is a sci-fi story, set in New Cairo in the year 2107, and follows Alekzander Brede (a half-human, half alien) in his search for the Vessel of Beket-Ra, with the help of his street-rat friend Elektra Tate.

However, Brede is not the only one after the invaluable treasure, and when his informants are murdered before his meets with them, he realises he has to contend with some high powered opponents wanting the Vessel of Beket-Ra for the power it can bestow.

And so begins the cat and mouse chase to find Intel and the Vessel itself.

I did enjoy this book and thought that the time and setting were very original making it that bit more interesting at the start with a good writing style that pulls you into the world. The book also has a good story line and very strong characters. I will warn, not all the characters are easily relatable. I found this difficult to overcome but I understand why it was needed. The main character in this book, Brede, is half human, half Amphidian. The Amphidians as race are supposed to be a harsh people who see fear as a weakness, and as a result, are quite different to humans, meaning in some situations the main character acts in a way that is entirely unexpected. Some choices I struggled understanding, which made me have a lack of empathy for the character. I know that this will not be the case for all readers though so take this comment with a pinch of salt.

The issues I had with P.I.Barrington’s writing is that, at times, the story felt a bit rushed. It did become difficult when the ellipses sometimes meant a jump forward in time, instead of change in character monologue. This was not always made obvious and became confusing. An example of this would be when we are told a character is pregnant for the first time in the chapter (not going to say who ) and it had not been mentioned at any point before in the book and then suddenly, they are giving birth without warning. I think this could be improved by more story filler between the main plot points to make the story feel fuller instead of major plot point then an ellipsis then another major plot point.

The last issue I found, which was quite odd, was the spelling of the Vessel switched back and forth in the book between Beket-Ra and Beket-Re. Something small, I know, but it did get annoying.

I gave this book a rating of 3 out of 4 stars. The story line has everything you could want and was well thought through, I just felt the story was a bit rushed at times which let the story down. If this was not the case then I would have given the book 4 stars.

I would recommend this to older readers, as there is strong language and scenes of a sexual nature.

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The Brede Chronicles
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[Vermont Reviews]

Excellent Review.

Vermont Reviews

[Sarah G]

Thank you very much