Review of Taj's Sabbatical
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Kshitij Chandra Prasad
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Review of Taj's Sabbatical
[Following is a volunteer review of "Taj's Sabbatical" by Artell Smith and Troy Smith.]
Of all the emotions a book can evoke, sheer anger at its existence is rare. But in the case of Taj’s Sabbatical, it feels entirely justified.
I endured the ordeal of finishing this novel, if only to confirm that its ending was as disappointing as its start. I was not mistaken. Its razor-thin plot is riddled with more gaps than the bullet holes in Sonny Corleone’s body in The Godfather.
Set about 200 years in the future, Taj’s Sabbatical follows Taj Varna, an Enforcer whose husband, Taddy, has been kidnapped by Fayzaan, an evil prince. With the help of his family - both living and dead - and a small army of non-humans, Taj sets out to rescue Taddy.
Diving into Taj’s world felt like plummeting off a cliff into a half-dried, shallow well - painful and jarring. The authors spin yarn after yarn but forget to stitch them together, resulting in an incoherent mess of worldbuilding. By the end, I was still left asking a question as fundamental as: what exactly are Enforcers? This, despite the book being titled Book One: Sol System Enforcer Chronicles.
The number of times I felt baffled was nearly equal to the number of times this world’s own rules were broken for convenience. Take, for example, the synths - humanoid machines supposedly bound by a no-human-kill rule, akin to Asimov’s First Law. Yet, inexplicably, they can be reprogrammed to kill, and they do.
This novel is a graveyard of words, littered with the half-buried remains of subplots and underdeveloped mythos. A revenge subplot is abruptly abandoned midway, as a pivotal character simply vanishes. The Varna family is revered, yet after sifting through this book, I still couldn’t grasp why.
Among its many sins, Taj’s Sabbatical even manages to make sloppy, misinformed research seem like a minor offence. Case in point: the authors mistakenly associate the tradition of throwing colourful paint pigments with Diwali, when in fact it belongs to Holi, a completely different festival.
Finally, any hopes of finding respite in the safe haven of prose from the onslaught of plot holes were also shattered. Instead, I spent considerable energy deciphering phrases like: "plus they connected at a visceral level," "her body was headed for its highest state of entropy," and "LB1 was shrouded in an anomalous null data set."
I give this novel 1 out of 5 stars. Taj’s Sabbatical is an infuriating experience - the only emotion it successfully evokes. It’s an easy miss, and I wish it had stayed that way.
******
Taj's Sabbatical
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Of all the emotions a book can evoke, sheer anger at its existence is rare. But in the case of Taj’s Sabbatical, it feels entirely justified.
I endured the ordeal of finishing this novel, if only to confirm that its ending was as disappointing as its start. I was not mistaken. Its razor-thin plot is riddled with more gaps than the bullet holes in Sonny Corleone’s body in The Godfather.
Set about 200 years in the future, Taj’s Sabbatical follows Taj Varna, an Enforcer whose husband, Taddy, has been kidnapped by Fayzaan, an evil prince. With the help of his family - both living and dead - and a small army of non-humans, Taj sets out to rescue Taddy.
Diving into Taj’s world felt like plummeting off a cliff into a half-dried, shallow well - painful and jarring. The authors spin yarn after yarn but forget to stitch them together, resulting in an incoherent mess of worldbuilding. By the end, I was still left asking a question as fundamental as: what exactly are Enforcers? This, despite the book being titled Book One: Sol System Enforcer Chronicles.
The number of times I felt baffled was nearly equal to the number of times this world’s own rules were broken for convenience. Take, for example, the synths - humanoid machines supposedly bound by a no-human-kill rule, akin to Asimov’s First Law. Yet, inexplicably, they can be reprogrammed to kill, and they do.
This novel is a graveyard of words, littered with the half-buried remains of subplots and underdeveloped mythos. A revenge subplot is abruptly abandoned midway, as a pivotal character simply vanishes. The Varna family is revered, yet after sifting through this book, I still couldn’t grasp why.
Among its many sins, Taj’s Sabbatical even manages to make sloppy, misinformed research seem like a minor offence. Case in point: the authors mistakenly associate the tradition of throwing colourful paint pigments with Diwali, when in fact it belongs to Holi, a completely different festival.
Finally, any hopes of finding respite in the safe haven of prose from the onslaught of plot holes were also shattered. Instead, I spent considerable energy deciphering phrases like: "plus they connected at a visceral level," "her body was headed for its highest state of entropy," and "LB1 was shrouded in an anomalous null data set."
I give this novel 1 out of 5 stars. Taj’s Sabbatical is an infuriating experience - the only emotion it successfully evokes. It’s an easy miss, and I wish it had stayed that way.
******
Taj's Sabbatical
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
Latest Review: Exodus by Jean Hackensmith
