Review by gzar1124 -- Rescued by E. Alan Fleischauer

[gzar1124]

[Following is a volunteer review of "Rescued" by E. Alan Fleischauer.]

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2 out of 4 stars

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Taking place within the western era, Rescued by E. Alan Fleischauer
is a mediocre fantasy that joins cowboy John Thurgood Thomas, referred to as JT, and his trusty .50 caliber as he encountered a wagon carrying bounded and battered women. As JT makes the lawful choice of jumping into action to ‘Rescue’ the damsels in distress, this brave action results in a wild adventure containing betrayal, romance, danger, and making enemies along the way.

Despite being a short read with only 258, Rescued unfortunately feels lengthy and could potentially leave the reader with a need to put-off or procrastinate further reading. What the book makes up in adding onto a popular genre, it lacks pretty much anything else: The main character has little to no reason or motivation behind his actions and seems to only be providing services out of the goodness of his heart - A normal everyday gesture yes, but this is only pushed to absolute extremes causing the protagonist to be portrayed as a “yes-man” or a doormat rather than a strong, kind character the author attempts to create.

Near all the characters featured, especially the female cast with the exception of two, are one dimensional and forgettable. The women are sexualized or dimwitted, unable to think for themselves, and heavily dependent on the main protagonist. Any female character was immediately reduced to appearance upon first impression regardless of the circumstances, to such a high degree that even during the aftermath of a suspenseful bank heist, the main protagonist still felt the need to comment on the bank teller’s “attractive blond” appearance despite her draping herself over her deceased father’s body in absolute hysterics. The only two roles that avoid this treatment would be deuteragonist who was immediately set as a love interest for JT, reducing a potentially independent and strong role to a lamb that required protection and sheltering as though they were helpless. As well as the Antagonist, who had high potential at being a very interesting and clever opponent for the protagonist, was completely thrown down the drain when she was made needlessly lesbian just so she had a justifiable reason to further comment on any women’s appearance and was even sexualized at times. The male cast has its fair share of poor writing as well, They’re reduced to bumbling, incompetent men that are near immediately overpowered by the main protagonist and in return, the protagonist is made unrealistically - even by fictional standards - powerful and can come out alive after a scuffle with two wanted outlaws with only a few scratches.

The poor writing featured within Rescued is very apparent within the first few pages. Descriptive words such as ‘Evil’,’Evilly’, and ‘Smirks’ are repeatedly used throughout the story, The author feels the need to explain the personality of a character rather than allowing their actions explain their true nature, and the general structure of the story feels like something that an English teacher would advise their students to avoid in their writings. The lack of spelling errors does make the experience a tad more bearable, but it’s still heavily overshadowed by the multiple issues and does not prevent the reader's need to audibly state: “Yes, They’re evil, We get it. Please move on with the story”.

All in all, I would rate Rescued by E. Alan Fleischauer 2 out of 4 stars. The story does have some potential and the antagonist was a very interesting character to follow at times, but overall the one-dimensional characters, heavy sexualization of women, and poor writing, unfortunately, make the experience unenjoyable and borderline offensive. There are many other stories of the same genre that contain the same premise that are more than capable of overshadowing this story. I would recommend this story to those who enjoy the old west and action, but - again - there are other books that could do it so much better.

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Rescued
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[kdhutchinson]

I love a good cowboy novel! I hate to hear that you feel this one fell flat. Though I think a lot of the aspects of character development and plotlines that you mention could be attributed to just being tropes of the genre, I appreciate your objective analysis.

Thanks for the review!