Official Review: A Demon's Quest The Beginning Of The End

[Lisalovecraft]

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "A Demon's Quest The Beginning Of The End" by Charles Carfagno.]

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2 out of 4 stars

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If you like listening to your friends recount their characters' exploits in fantasy role-playing games (RPGs) like Dungeons and Dragons, then you will enjoy A Demon’s Quest: The Beginning of the End by Charles Carfagno, Jr. This fantasy novel is set in a unique world full of strange creatures and secret fighting societies.

The book starts with a series of seemingly unrelated incidents. As I began a new chapter, I wondered when the story would go back to previous events that were left unfinished. As each chapter went on, I gave up hope that the author would return to follow up with the previous character’s adventures. However, later chapters were more obviously interconnected. I still cannot figure out how the first chapter relates to the rest of the story. This book is one of three so I am guessing that connections will become known in later books. This decreased my overall enjoyment of the book, as I was unable to find a cohesive overall theme or story arc.

The world itself is stellar. I enjoyed reading about the different humanoid creatures in the world. There were also many different fighting organizations. The details of these organizations were very fleshed out. There was a focus on martial arts and hand to hand combat. This is something I have never been that interested in, but this book changed that. The pacing of the story was great, and there were lots of action and fight scenes. The fight scenes were very detailed and well-written.

Character development was lacking. I did not have a chance to gain any emotional investment into the characters. I didn’t really care what happened to them. The characters’ motivations were generally told and not shown, which was a negative. I felt as if the author was just relaying a series of events. The character met someone who gave him a task. On the way, the character went into a cave. He went into different rooms of the cave and fought monsters and gathered treasure. Nothing elevated this to the level of high fantasy. The characters just reacted to events that happened to them.

I struggled with rating this book. I liked it, but felt it had potential to be much better. I am giving this book a rating of 2 out of 4 stars. The world is interesting and I feel that readers who are looking for ideas for their next fantasy role playing campaign might find some good material here. The action and combat scenes were excellent. General fantasy readers may be disappointed with the lack of character development and lack of overall cohesiveness. I have a feeling that plot lines may interconnect in later books, and larger story arcs may become more prominent. However, it is important for an author to make each book in a series stand alone for readers to keep reading.

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A Demon's Quest The Beginning Of The End
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[bettybug35]

Seems like it could be an interesting read, but I'm not sure it's for me. Nice review!

[Jesska6029]

It's great the world built in this book is so developed! I love when I get to discover new worlds in books. It's a shame the character development is not as great. Really nice review!

[Lisalovecraft]

Thanks for the feedback!

[Levi]

Great job Lisalovecraft. You managed to intrigue me with the overall storyline and yet were very informative as to the lack of character development. I love the way you described it as well, somewhat humorous and yet, again, very informative. (Character goes into a cave... Finds treasure) I laughed and yet I understood exactly what you meant. Had I read this without knowing what errors to look for, I would be even more disappointed.

[bookowlie]

Great review! I can feel your frustration. It's difficult to enjoy a book if the characters are flat.

[Lisalovecraft]

Great job Lisalovecraft. You managed to intrigue me with the overall storyline and yet were very informative as to the lack of character development. I love the way you described it as well, somewhat humorous and yet, again, very informative. (Character goes into a cave... Finds treasure) I laughed and yet I understood exactly what you meant. Had I read this without knowing what errors to look for, I would be even more disappointed.

Ha!! Thank you for your comments! I try to make my reviews interesting and readable while also being informative, so I appreciate hearing your feedback.

I think fantasy is a tough genre to write, and with some more character development the series has much potential

-- 01 Jul 2015, 19:52 --

Great review! I can feel your frustration. It's difficult to enjoy a book if the characters are flat.

Yes! There needs to be a little more to the characters for me to become fully immersed in a story.

[amybo82]

Your first sentence made me laugh out loud. Weirdly, I used to love to watch my friends play video games, but I never liked to play them myself, so that sentence caught me right off the bat. While the book probably isn't one I'd enjoy, I think your clear and concise review is great!

[bluemel4]

Wonderfully well written review. I agree about books in a series being stand alone. Especially the first book in the series. Usually author's get the characters right, but the world building is off. The series sounds like it has potential, but there is a lot lacking in the set up.

[ananya92]

Nice review. It's disappointing that the characters are rather dull.

[Lisalovecraft]

Your first sentence made me laugh out loud. Weirdly, I used to love to watch my friends play video games, but I never liked to play them myself, so that sentence caught me right off the bat. While the book probably isn't one I'd enjoy, I think your clear and concise review is great!

I don't think that's weird at all! In fact, people recording themselves playing video games is quite a popular YouTube thing these days (my kids love watching videos of people playing Minecraft on YouTube) so I guess you could say that you were a trendsetter!
Thank you for your kind comments, and I'm glad you enjoyed reading the review!

-- 10 Jul 2015, 23:30 --

Wonderfully well written review. I agree about books in a series being stand alone. Especially the first book in the series. Usually author's get the characters right, but the world building is off. The series sounds like it has potential, but there is a lot lacking in the set up.

Thanks! I think this book has the opposite problem. The world building is very detailed. With some more fleshed-out characters I can see this being a great series.

-- 10 Jul 2015, 23:30 --

Nice review. It's disappointing that the characters are rather dull.

Thanks!

[Cee-Jay Aurinko]

This book has a great cover. I used to love RPG games as a kid. War Craft, Lord of the Rings, Sega's Shining Force, just about anything that has mythology in it. But, I like reading more. It's been years since I've dived into an RPG game. I would say that I would love to get this book, read it, explore the scenery, meet the monsters, but the thing you mentioned about the first chapter kinda bugs me. Does it play any sort of role in the book at all? If not, why do you think the author put it there in the first place? There has to be a reason. Overall, exemplary review. Man I love this word. Ex-Em-Pla-Ry. Love it. Love the review. Love the cover. Love mythology. Pray I don't fall into the habit of playing RPG games again. I have to finish my own book. Games will just steer me away from completing it.

[Lisalovecraft]

The cover was really cool. I'm a huge fan of D&D and many other RPG's, which is one of the reason that I picked this book. I'm not sure, but I assume the events in the first chapter may be explored further in later books in the series. It was really frustrating that it was left unresolved, as I kept wondering when the story would return to those characters. I felt that the story would be better if it wrapped into the other story lines somehow. You are working on a book? That's really cool! What's it about?

[Keith80]

Nice review. As an ex-martial artist and long-ago boxer I would probably be interested in the fight scenes. Too bad that the characters are not too well developed, but it is easier to describe fights than peoples' feelings or emotional responses. Your review is good enough that I am now doubtful about getting the book when there are so many others to choose from with better scoring reviews.