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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