1 out of 4 stars
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The EDEN Democratic Kingdom is a work of fiction by Michel Pelletier. The year is 2048. Michael, the president of Canaventour Marine, has an idea to create an island in the ocean. This island would be home to endangered species as well as a great tourist attraction, but more than that it would be self-sufficient, answering to no one, and even governing itself. It would be called EDEN.
The review of this book is the most difficult I have done to date. I always hope that my reviews are used by the author to correct issues and produce a better product going forward. However, I am not sure that this book can be salvaged for, while there were moments of brilliance, the issues vastly outweigh those few moments.
Although we rarely think of this, the issue of most importance in any book is whether the author can express himself clearly in the language which he has chosen to write. The book takes place mostly in Canada, where the author is from. Mr. Pelletier is French speaking, which becomes very clear in the book. I found many of the usual grammatical errors which indicate poor editing, but I also found phrases that were just badly worded. For example, the author is trying to express that the children are telling their father goodbye, and he uses the phrase “greet their father farewell.” This is one of many examples of inadequate phrasing. If the author chooses to write in English, he must have a good grasp of the language to be understood but here that is in question.
Putting aside the weak use of the English language, the author does an abominable job developing the plot. Chapter one informs us of Michael and the “umbrella project,” but we don’t find out what that actually is until much later in the story. Although we are introduced to Michael in chapter one, we don’t even find out he has children until chapter seven. The author then does little to develop Michael or his wife and children as characters. One of the few moments in which we find out the author actually does know how to tell a story is, in fact, in chapter seven. He devotes this chapter to a back story about Michael’s wife Ghyslaine, her biological mother, as well as a sister named Isabelle she didn’t know she had. After that, the focus is more on the island itself than any of the characters.
Perhaps the most disappointing part of the novel is the amount of technical detail that the author has included. The first half of the novel discusses the actual process of building the island, while the second half is devoted to the island becoming a sovereign entity in and of itself. While I appreciate the time that the author has taken to fully develop the business aspects of this novel, as a reader, I do not need nor do I want to know every single detail. Mr. Pelletier regales us with chapter after chapter of exact specifications for materials as well as the financial details of how those materials are to be acquired. For example, we are told that there are “two hundred and eighteen armored cement floor slabs.” All of these minutiae left me feeling as if I was reading the minutes to a business meeting instead of a fiction novel.
One last thing that bears mentioning is the “Christian” aspect of this novel. The description from Amazon states that “Christian values…are also brought forward.” If you are going to tout that you are using “Christian values,” it needs to be a focus in the story. While the author does throw in a so-called statement of faith here and there, nothing Christian is a part of the plot. Not only that, but the characters do not seem to live Christian lives, often using violence and deception to get their way. Mr. Pelletier would have been better off not having mentioned anything of “Christian values.”
The EDEN Democratic Kingdom was a very grueling, difficult read. The novel was so heavy on technicalities and business details that the author failed to develop the plot or the characters. Therefore I must rate this book a 1 out of 4. Unfortunately, I would not recommend the reading of this book to anyone.
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The EDEN Democratic Kingdom
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