Official Review: Design Of Life by Martyn Anthony Rich

[Max Tyrone]

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Design Of Life" by Martyn Anthony Rich.]

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2 out of 4 stars

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Design of Life is a supernatural crime thriller written by Martyn Anthony Rich. It is a debut novel chronicling the anguish and triumphs of Tom Hawthorne within a pivotal point in his life.

Tom, initially a worthless antihero whose life seems to worsen every passing day, receives a bit of a redemption call when one night a man possessed of rage attempts to take more than money from him. Strained relationships with his family, his friends, and his girlfriend, as well as a drinking problem and sour attitude toward life, cause Tom to accept an offer made to him by a salty drug dealer. It is only a short time after that Tom receives the sharp edge of ill fate into his chest, thus spiraling him into a game of gory and supernatural cat-and-mouse that threatens all that he knows and all that he knew to be true. Now, this alone could pass for an interesting premise; however, the circumstances in which the reader finds Rich’s characters complicate the plot, but not so much as to provoke confusion.

Looking at the plot, it is fast-paced and nicely done—for the most part. The problem arises in the narration, for Tom, whilst telling the story, seems to be very involved and at times drops obvious hints, vaguely alluding to the future. It would not be such a problem if he did not abuse it—especially for the first hundred pages or so, thus creating overdrawn periods in the text. What somewhat alleviates this problem, though, is a split third-person narrative that does a concise enough job at giving another needed dimension to the story.

There are slight errors for editing in the text, but not enough to put the book down. Also, the quotes on fate and those from the main character can get annoying, since the reader does not need a constant reminder of the purpose of the novel. However, I do believe at its core what Rich put to text is from the heart; and the plot and the action scenes—(boy, does he write these with adrenaline)—kept me reading to its fair end. It was a refreshing read for someone who has read straight fiction novels for some time.

Save for its plot, its action scenes, and its intent, the novel suffers greatly from the first-person narration, its lapsing pacing, and the unnecessary quotes. I rate this with two out of four stars as it should not go without more attention, for there is heart in the novel. I recommend others that are generally interested in supernatural stories with positive messages to read this book.

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Design Of Life
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[Eyre-thee-well]

Informative review. I am not all too keen on supernatural or crime thrillers, and I am not sure this would be the book to get me started on the genre. But I am sure this will appeal to other readers.

[ashley_claire]

Great review!

[Max Tyrone]

Thank you both for your kind words on my words on the author's words.

Hey Eyre, I suppose this is how I review. It took me maybe a week to go from impulse to this. I really appreciated your thread! See you around the forums!

[Eyre-thee-well]

You too, Max Tyrone! Thanks for showing me how it's done!

[bluemel4]

Wonderful review. Very insightful and well written.

[Max Tyrone]

Wonderful review. Very insightful and well written.

Thank you for the complement!

[bookowlie]

What an interesting review! I agree that too many quotes in a story can get annoying. I read a book recently where there were long quotes at the beginning of each chapter. Some of the quotes were interesting, but it became overdone and tedious after the first few chapters.

[Max Tyrone]

What an interesting review! I agree that too many quotes in a story can get annoying. I read a book recently where there were long quotes at the beginning of each chapter. Some of the quotes were interesting, but it became overdone and tedious after the first few chapters.

Yeah, this novel has a lot of that going on--around forty chapters worth. After maybe chapter ten, I stopped and just read the author's content.

By the way, that's one of my favorite Groucho quotes!

[amybo82]

I enjoyed your review! Like you and Bookowlie, I find too many outside quotes to be tedious and unnecessary in a novel. It's frustrating when they distract from the book's content. Despite that, this sounds like a pretty interesting book!

[Levi]

Good job on the review!! I like the fact that you list the strong points of the text before the inevitable beat down that is the critical section of each review. You also show belief in the author in spite of the errors, and that good natured belief and constructive style of criticism is what I like to see.

[ananya92]

Nice, detailed review. It seems like better narration would helped the plotline a lot.

[Max Tyrone]

To the preceding three posts, thank you!

@ amybo82: I don't think a lot of people enjoy having outside quotes thrown at them every chapter haha. Like I suggested, I would read straight through, directing yourself to the author's content.

@ Escapeartist: I appreciate the fact that you liked the fact of this particular review style!

@ ananya92: I definitely agree with you; however, like I said in the review, the author does utilize a third-person narration coupled with the initial first-person, and I strongly believe that it helps the overall story. Had it been purely third-person, it would have been a totally different experience. Maybe a stronger, (I guess) more relevant first-person narration would have kept the story concise.