1 out of 4 stars
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Aluria centres around Jason Conner, the heroic protagonist of this novel. Once an innocent teenager, he merges his soul with an ancient spirit named Aluria to save his love Tessa and his life changes forever. He trains to become stronger and more powerful in order to protect his beloved city Canton, where he assumes the role of a vigilante and works to defend the citizens from the evil Raiz who is desperate to destroy his loved ones.
One of the first things that I noticed about this book were the descriptions. Or rather, the lack of. Setting the scene and creating an atmosphere is crucial to a good novel, but I felt that the majority of the text was dialogue or Jason’s internal thoughts. These things are obviously important, but the key is to have a good balance between description and dialogue and the imbalance in Aluria took away from my reading experience. I was not able to visualise the world that the author had created and as a result, my interest levels slowly decreased as I progressed.
The language, unfortunately, was also a disappointment. There were some uses of terribly basic vocabulary such as describing Tessa as having “white skin” and “white teeth”. This example is perhaps the worst but nevertheless fairly representative of other instances in the book. In addition, some phrases used by the author were so cliché I actually put the book down in frustration. “Sinister laugh” and “black as night” were among said phrases and I honestly would not expect to find these anywhere other than a children’s book. Furthermore, the dialogue spoken between the characters was quite unnatural in my opinion and it almost seemed forced for the convenience of the plot. For example, in a scene where the villain is revealing his true identity, the other person present asks exactly the right questions to get him to explain the back story that the reader needs to hear to understand further.
Another main aspect of the book that did not meet my expectations were the characters. They came across to me as very one-dimensional: they did not have distinct personalities and voices and almost seemed robotic as a result. The voice that came through all of the characters’ thoughts and speech was very similar, leading me to believe that the author has inadvertently written in his own voice. The lack of development in the characters, as well as stemming from problems with the writing, is also one of the many problems that come from the length of the book. Aluria is around 250 pages – quite short for a novel – and so there was very little space for the characters to develop their own voices and personalities.
I believe that the length of this book has resulted in issues that could have been solved had the author written a longer book. Aluria is simple - too simple, in fact - and it is this lack of complexity that meant that the novel did not have important detail, well-shaped characters or realism. The whole storyline felt so rushed because of aspects such as Jason’s “life energy” not being discussed properly, the general omission of description I mentioned earlier and not really giving the reader enough time to connect with the characters. 250 pages meant that the book should have been a quick read but, for me, it was not. I found it difficult to continue because it was not gripping and I often put it down to do other things.
The one thing I did like about this book was the idea behind it. I have read many fantasy books but I have never read anything like Aluria, which I must give credit to the author for. However, what I read seemed more like a draft than a published novel but I can see it developing more and more and eventually becoming a real success.
At this point in time, however, I regret to say that I rate it 1 out of 4 stars. For me, it did not have the makings of a good book for lack of description, underdeveloped characters and simplicity. All these negatives really overshadowed the unique idea and I was forced to give it a low rating because of this. If you are not bothered by the elements that let me down, then I would recommend this book to fans of the fantasy genre above others.
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Aluria
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