Review by AbbyGNelson -- Aluria by Tyler Cook

AbbyGNelson · Post by **AbbyGNelson** » 29 Jan 2018, 10:35

[Following is a volunteer review of "Aluria" by Tyler Cook.]

1 out of 4 stars

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Alura is a name that means divine counselor. Aluria, while a slightly different name, likely harkens to this meaning and is a character that inhabits, empowers, and advises the main character Jason Conner.

Aluria is a fantasy, action adventure novel written by Tyler Cook that follows Jason as he takes on the responsibilities of a hero after Aluria, an ancient spirit, merges with his soul giving him new, incredible capabilities.

In his first encounter with Aluria, Jason seemingly defeats a dark and sinister foe – Raiz. With this new power, Jason dedicates his life and ability to protecting those he loves as well as the innocent. Defeated but not deceased, Raiz returns to fulfill his quest of obtaining a magical artifact that will allow him to have infinite power to put towards his dark ends.

I had seen others compare this story/character to Batman, but the similarities in the first half of the book are so plentiful that it’s honestly distracting. If I was told that this was a Batman re-telling or fan fiction before reading, I would have believed it. Luckily the last third of the book takes the story to a different place, which allowed me to start enjoying the story for its own merits or lack thereof.

There are huge problems with this story, specifically, the descriptions, dialogue, character development, and plot progression.

One of the worst things a story can do is tell the reader what happens instead of showing them. Telling a reader what happens in a story causes the language to feel stunted; the author just supplies information instead of painting a complex picture for the reader. It makes it difficult for me as the reader to dive into and get lost in the story because I must decipher what the author means. For instance, here is a quote from the first few pages of the book, “He knew that she could read mystery in [his eyes].” As a reader this pulls me out of the story because it doesn’t really mean anything, and I have no idea what the author is trying to communicate. There were so many sentences and descriptions that seemed like fluff and wasted space that could have been filled with meaningful content.

The dialogue is the same. It feels stunted and inhuman; a means to tell a story but not edited and worked on enough to sound natural. What teenager says, “I can barely recall anything about you. We need to correct this.”?

The next huge issue for me was character development. I don’t think Jason ever changed or grew in the story. When an ancient spirit fuses with his soul and starts talking to him, a rather unexpected and life-changing experience, he seemed a bit concerned. Since he was faced with the dark and looming Raiz, he had no choice but to accept the situation with Aluria, but then he never questions the strange and fantastical situation he’s in ever again. A few pages after his initial concerns with fusing with Aluria, he accepts his responsibility ‘to stand as a symbol for justice and hope’. This mindset is where he stays for the rest of the book. Jason is mister superhero perfection. He is always doing the noble thing. He’s too perfect and that got boring. There is one time in the book when he questions an action he had to take as a hero, but Aluria gives him a speech about his duty as a hero so he grits his teeth and keeps going. He was so close to having a truly deep moment, but instead of pausing and allowing this to happen the story keeps going.

In addition to Jason, I have issues with how Tessa was portrayed in this story. Tessa, while an intelligent and powerful character, is not allowed to act in this story. She is not given the time to shine, because this story is not about her and is not long enough to give her more opportunities to act. She is just a device used by the author to give Jason motivation and to move the plot along. I enjoyed meeting her as a character and the potential she had, but nothing came of it. That was extremely disappointing for me.

Last is plot progression. While I did not have an issue with the entire plot, there were many important plot points/events that either didn’t make sense or did not seem like natural conclusions/payoffs to the situations that were set up. In one situation a character was ordered to do something, but instead he gave an absurd excuse allowing the plot to progress as the author wanted it to. Having good setups and payoffs that drive a story are integral to making the plot believable, interesting, and engaging. This book has few if any truly interesting setups and payoffs. One complement I can give this story, and the progression, is that it has good pacing. While much of the plot made me cringe, all scenes included were necessary and progressed the story.

The biggest problem I see with Aluria is that the hand of the author permeates the entire story, as seen through the stunted descriptions, the drab dialogue, the underdeveloped characters, and the non-sensical plot progression, so that it is impossible for Aluria to stand on its own. For this reason, I rate this book 1 out of 4 stars. This book had issues with all the main components of a good story. Maybe with some more work and perhaps a longer more complex story, Aluria could truly come to life. For readers who want something simple, and don’t mind an uncomplicated hero, perhaps this story would be a fun quick read, but I would not truly recommend it to anyone.

******
Aluria
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Connie Otwani · Post by **Connie Otwani** » 05 Feb 2018, 16:29

I have enjoyed reading your review. It's unfortunate the book has nothing to write home about. I hope the author will rework his descriptions, dialogue, character development and plot progression so his book effectively tells what he intended.

AbbyGNelson · Post by **AbbyGNelson** » 05 Feb 2018, 16:45

Cotwani wrote: ↑05 Feb 2018, 16:29 I have enjoyed reading your review. It's unfortunate the book has nothing to write home about. I hope the author will rework his descriptions, dialogue, character development and plot progression so his book effectively tells what he intended.

I hope so too! There as a good amount of potential without following through in the execution.

Roggyrus · Post by **Roggyrus** » 06 Feb 2018, 03:29

What a shame, the premise of the book is spirit possession in which the victim is transformed into a superhero, and I could have liked it. Too bad, the issues of writing mechanics overtook the interesting plot. Could some spirit out there possess a likely editor that could fix all these anomalies? Maybe, that would be a potential storyline. Thanks for your review, we are advised accordingly.

AbbyGNelson · Post by **AbbyGNelson** » 06 Feb 2018, 11:49

Roggyrus wrote: ↑06 Feb 2018, 03:29 What a shame, the premise of the book is spirit possession in which the victim is transformed into a superhero, and I could have liked it. Too bad, the issues of writing mechanics overtook the interesting plot. Could some spirit out there possess a likely editor that could fix all these anomalies? Maybe, that would be a potential storyline. Thanks for your review, we are advised accordingly.

Haha, yes! Hopefully an editor will be possessed to fix this poor story. Thanks for you comment

RebeccasReading · Post by **RebeccasReading** » 06 Feb 2018, 15:28

What a great review! Nice work! I probably would have avoided this book anyway based on the topic, but now I know to definitely steer clear.

Manang Muyang · Post by **Manang Muyang** » 06 Feb 2018, 16:36

AbbyGNelson wrote: ↑06 Feb 2018, 11:49
Roggyrus wrote: ↑06 Feb 2018, 03:29 What a shame, the premise of the book is spirit possession in which the victim is transformed into a superhero, and I could have liked it. Too bad, the issues of writing mechanics overtook the interesting plot. Could some spirit out there possess a likely editor that could fix all these anomalies? Maybe, that would be a potential storyline. Thanks for your review, we are advised accordingly.
Haha, yes! Hopefully an editor will be possessed to fix this poor story. Thanks for you comment

Hey, that sounds like a good plot: A murderous red pencil! Seriously, it seems this book lacks allure, and the author didn't heed his divine counselor. I couldn't see how Jason compares to Bruce Wayne, unless there's a cave or a Joker perhaps.

Thanks for the thorough review, AbbyGNelson!

AbbyGNelson · Post by **AbbyGNelson** » 06 Feb 2018, 19:30

RebeccasReading wrote: ↑06 Feb 2018, 15:28 What a great review! Nice work! I probably would have avoided this book anyway based on the topic, but now I know to definitely steer clear.

Don't want to read about super heroes? I don't blame you, they are waaaay to prevalent in movies, books, and TV right now.

AbbyGNelson · Post by **AbbyGNelson** » 06 Feb 2018, 19:30

Miriam Molina wrote: ↑06 Feb 2018, 16:36
AbbyGNelson wrote: ↑06 Feb 2018, 11:49
Roggyrus wrote: ↑06 Feb 2018, 03:29 What a shame, the premise of the book is spirit possession in which the victim is transformed into a superhero, and I could have liked it. Too bad, the issues of writing mechanics overtook the interesting plot. Could some spirit out there possess a likely editor that could fix all these anomalies? Maybe, that would be a potential storyline. Thanks for your review, we are advised accordingly.
Haha, yes! Hopefully an editor will be possessed to fix this poor story. Thanks for you comment
Hey, that sounds like a good plot: A murderous red pencil! Seriously, it seems this book lacks allure, and the author didn't heed his divine counselor. I couldn't see how Jason compares to Bruce Wayne, unless there's a cave or a Joker perhaps.

Thanks for the thorough review, AbbyGNelson!

He actually does basically have a bat cave

but no Joker. Thanks for the note

Jordan David · Post by **Chelsy Scherba** » 08 Feb 2018, 23:59

Oh boy, so sorry you didn’t enjoy this book! I loved your review, it was very articulate about all the areas that need improvement. I hope the author can use this feedback to make a terrific story, because I can see the potential and opportunity for the writer to develop their talents. Nice job!

AbbyGNelson · Post by **AbbyGNelson** » 10 Feb 2018, 11:40

Momiji1987 wrote: ↑08 Feb 2018, 23:59 Oh boy, so sorry you didn’t enjoy this book! I loved your review, it was very articulate about all the areas that need improvement. I hope the author can use this feedback to make a terrific story, because I can see the potential and opportunity for the writer to develop their talents. Nice job!

Thanks Momiji1987!! I hope that they can make it better too

cosmographist69 · Post by **cosmographist69** » 17 Feb 2018, 08:53

As you are aware i read and reviewed this narrative and, as an avid fan of batman and a critic of modern comic films, I can connect and sympathize with the author's desire to incorporate a standard, if not dully repeated hegemonic hero movie tool (that of providing an origin story a la superman, batman begins, all the spiderman reboots) and then completely break it from the inside. He is not in any way a virtuoso with words and has his problems admittedly with character depth - but most best selling authors lack complexity in their crafts and the average book-reader does not and can not expect anything that breaks and challenges their fixed perceptions as fed to them by the bastardized superhero genre in general. As I stated in my review, Cook's inclusion of some dark and interpersonal, emotional themes of mortality greatly transcend from the cookie cutter set-up. In conclusion, a diamond in the rough. Certainly not perfect but intriguing.

E G Suth · Post by **E G Suth** » 21 Feb 2018, 15:35

I agree with everything you stated in your review apart from you're comments about Tessa. I thought that she was the highlight of the story and brought some well needed charisma to the book. However, a very informative review which I enjoyed reading.

AbbyGNelson · Post by **AbbyGNelson** » 21 Feb 2018, 17:08

E G Suth wrote: ↑21 Feb 2018, 15:35 I agree with everything you stated in your review apart from you're comments about Tessa. I thought that she was the highlight of the story and brought some well needed charisma to the book. However, a very informative review which I enjoyed reading.

I think that's fair. I was critical around Tessa because I hoped for more from her character! Thank you

Polgesteirg · Post by **Polgesteirg** » 22 Feb 2018, 12:19

You review was very well written and detailed, I much enjoyed it. I agree with your concerns about character development and dialogue. I also got the feeling that the dialogues were not very human or realistic. I can sympathize with the author's initial efforts but I think he doesn't carfe too much about solving the problems with this book at this point. Maybe in the future he'll take its potential and make something better out of this.