DNF Review – The Century’s Scribe (A Fantastic Decade, Book 1) by Brendan Walsh (3/5 stars)
Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Length: 241 pages
Publisher: Black Rose Writing
Release Date: August 27, 2020
ASIN : B089NHH6WK
Stand Alone or Series: 1st book in the A Fantastic Decade duology
Source: eGalley through NetGalley
Rating: 3/5 stars
“Dreden Sharpstand and his father are poor. All the humans and avehos of Kroonsaed are hardly getting by. If not for the bright, enigmatic sea of gas called the Sunitian Sea, life and resources in the town would be prosperous.
But the Sea has secrets of its own…
One night Dreden and his friends are attacked by mysterious men, with weapons they cannot understand. When they strike a second time, they chase the men into the Sea, and are transported to an alternate world, to a city called Brunswald, where technology exists centuries ahead of their time. Since the new world is only populated by humans, Dreden’s friend Gerrika the aveho, a flightless, humanoid bird, becomes an instant celebrity.
When Dreden meets Morell Edland, the son of the richest family in the country, he falls in love with him, and can hardly remember why he ended up in the new world in the first place. Slowly, things start to reveal themselves. A secret, lost history between their two worlds is becoming unraveled, and a seemingly omnipotent force is killing thousands across the world. Just one thing is for sure: Dreden and his friends didn’t end up in Brunswald by accident.”
Series Info/Source: This is the first book in the A Fantastic Decade duology. I got a copy of this book through NetGalley to review.
Story (4/5): I stopped this about 25% of the way in. At that point I still had no idea what this book was about and new characters were still being introduced. We switched storylines between Dreden (who is the son of a poor professor) and spends his time wandering around town with two other friends and another woman who is working on editing a book (yes, it is just as random as it sounds). In between these two stories we hear from random other groups of people. The POV switches mid-chapters at some points with very little rhyme or reason for doing so. Oh, and the Prologue is told from the POV of a dragon (again no idea why).
I usually read books very quickly but was really struggling with this one. It seems written in a very immature way, that makes it strangely difficult to read. Add to that the fact that the story didn’t seem to have a point and the fact that I didn’t give one wit about any of the characters and it just didn’t work for me. This book needs some serious editing and work on pacing.
My Summary (3/5): Overall I have no idea why the other reviews of this book are so high, I feel like everyone else must have read a different book than I did. It definitely wasn’t something I was enjoying reading. I am giving it 3 stars because I didn’t finish it, but based on what I read it’s more of a 2 star type of book.
