Review of The Spectral Island

[Vivian Stones]

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "The Spectral Island" by Stephen de Burges.]

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2 out of 4 stars

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The Spectral Island is a unique story showing the audacious efforts of a ragtag group of individuals in thwarting the hostile takeover of an island filled with rare mineral deposits.

It follows Dr Christopher Jamieson 'Chris', who is called upon by a government security agency to monitor and report back on suspicious activity on an island. He accepts and departs. He is soon joined by Emmeline Freemont - a security operative with the CGHQ who joins in as the security threat of the island increases. In a bid to discover the island's secrets, they enlist the help of island natives. The natives include Rosie, a language research informant, her husband, Danny, and Madame Lemessurier, a hotel proprietress, amongst others. The tale that unfolds is the attempt to uncover the plot of those seeking to conceal their interest in the island under the cloak of a religious revolution.

The originality, attention to detail and careful description of the island's environment is top notch. Also admirable is the story's acknowledgement of Swahili, the likeable characters and careful detailing of the hospitality of island dwellers, all of which give the narrative an unusual authenticity.

However, there were undeniable concerns along the way. Firstly, the narrative was awash with abbreviations and technical terms (a glossary of these terms would have been greatly appreciated, e.g. DPRK, FCO, TOR, e.t.c). These terms were neither explained in the story nor at the end of the story, thereby causing distractions and making the story challenging to follow.

Secondly, the length of the chapters seriously harmed the story in some ways. Many of the book's chapters could have been integrated into one another, effectively making the story compact, wholesome and fast-paced, but the chapters were chopped short and sometimes even without little or compelling principal incidents. For example, chapter 11 majorly considers Rosie and Danny, and chapter 36 covers the discussion amongst ambassadors, e.t.c, to the end that the story felt drawn out and fragmented.

Because of this and the resultant length of 52 chapters, any initial excitement turns into tedium, and by chapters 43-48, the narrative had lost most of its narrative punch and descriptive fervor. There is also a noticeably absent lack of real suspense, urgency or danger.

Finally, the break of the book into seven parts which I believe the author had valid reasons for hurt the pacing of the story. This is because any break in the story, whether into a chapter or a part, triggers a resultant break in the story's flow to the reader. Therefore the breaks, both into chapters and parts, made it appear that events were occurring slowly, and yet the book's chapters were many.

Despite all these, Stephen De Burges makes a fine attempt with The Spectral Island. It is a professionally edited work. I recommended it to individuals who appreciate stealth and concealment stories. I rate it 2 out of 4. While I found the book promising and interesting, there were several negative aspects which deterred my appreciation of the book.

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The Spectral Island
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[Vivian Writes]

Audacious is a good word to use for characters who try to fight greed and injustice. Greed for natural resources often throws while societies into generational problems, and I’d like to see the author’s fictional tale on this.

[Shadreck Rogers]

The storyline sound impressive and has a feel of a Hollywood movie.

[NetMassimo]

I understand getting annoyed when a novel contains a lot of acronyms and is fragmented because of chapters that are very short. It's a shame, as it has good potential. Thank you for your honest review!