Review: Showdown, WyrdWest Chronicles 1 by Diane Morrison

By Dan Melson on July 4, 2017 12:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

#30days30authors

I got this from a fellow member of the 30 days, 30 authors group

https://www.amazon.com/Showdown-Wyrd-West-Chronicles-Book-ebook/dp/B06XC85VJZ

The Good:

A setting rich in thought, with lots of world-building behind it. The Wild West with Elves and Dwarves and Trolls and many more such things, including magic. This is NOT More Brand New Same Old Thing. Some serious thought has gone into building the world that is the background for the story. I could sit here and pick some things about it to pieces, but I could do that with a lot of good stories. The story works, at least on the surface level. It held my interest for as long as it needed to.

The Needs Improvement

Hops around in time with excessive information-dumps. It's a novellette, and a shortish one, not a novel. I didn't do a word-count, but I would be surprised if it was over ten thousand words. The hopping around in time conducting information dumping was distracting. This would be a better story told in a less non-linear fashion. The climax begs a big question of where the protagonist's father/trainer is.

With that said, each individual segment flows well from start to finish. It comes together to build a coherent picture of the protagonist that makes the climax make sense. I would like to read more.

I would give it about a seven on a ten scale, or three to three and a half stars on the five star system. By Amazon's definitions, a four star product.

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