Review by Ktwills79 -- The Elf Archive - Book Two of the...
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Ktwills79
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Review by Ktwills79 -- The Elf Archive - Book Two of the...
[Following is a volunteer review of "The Elf Archive - Book Two of the Magi Charter" by Jordan David.]
2 out of 4 stars
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In The Elf Archive - Book Two of the Magi Charter, by Jordan David, we follow the lives of Santa’s elves, which are dissected in great detail. This second book starts with a mysterious house fire where the main character’s (MC) Uncle is killed. Not knowing where to turn, the MC allows himself to be led away by a stranger promising great things. The story then picks up at the North Pole with the former head of the elf recruitment office, Mistletoe Green, angrily interrogating his spies. The author makes it clear that you aren’t to know whom he’s spying on, but that it’s an elf from the first book in the series who has seriously angered Mistletoe.
The book then begins following Noel Night, one of Santa’s elves. Five years ago in book number one, Noel was made head of the historical department, a newly created position developed for the sake of chronicling the lives of the past and present Santas. The reader is taken through Noel’s daily activities, including the annual Reindeer Games, some matchmaking for Santa, and Noel’s hunt for a long-lost library. Mistletoe Green is intent on preventing Noel from discovering the library archives for reasons known only to him. There is very little action until the last third of the book.
I found it a very interesting idea to create an entire world around the North Pole and the lives of Santa’s elves. This book seeks to ‘explain’ how the legend of Santa has persisted for over two thousand years, and the author has created a unique setting filled with the intricate details of their lives. At times, I almost felt like this book would be an interesting read for children since it deals with such a playful topic, though I believe it was intended to be a sort of mystery that children likely wouldn’t understand.
The pacing of the book made it very hard for me to finish it though. Several times in the beginning I found myself wondering if, and when, the plot would pick up and make itself clear. For a long time it seemed to be just a diary of an elf, and I found it quite boring. Toward the end it picked up and got a bit more exciting, especially as Noel begins to regain some of his human memories. Though the elves do not perform magic themselves, there are definitely a lot of magical elements sprinkled throughout the book. At the end of the book the author introduces a cliffhanger, which is a nice segue into the next book in the series. I didn’t read the first book in this series, and while book number two does pretty well at being a stand-alone, I think it might have made more sense overall if I had read the first story.
Unfortunately, this book has more grammatical/spelling errors than any book I have ever read. Wrong words were often used such as ‘clam’ instead of ‘calm’, or ‘grown’ instead of ‘groan’. Words were often missing, making the sentence hard to understand. Lines like, “Noreaster scrounged up his eyes as he did when thinking while watching the other elves pester White, no doubt he was thinking up a new story.” are grammatically incorrect and are run-on sentences. This breaks the flow and makes the story hard to follow. I encountered more than 10 errors within the first 10 pages and they continued throughout the entire book. Because of this, and because of the slow pace of the story, I am giving this book 2 out of 4 stars. If you like somewhat magical topics with a bit of mystery, then I think you will like this story. If you are too distracted by grammatical errors, or like a fast-paced plot, then this book is not for you.
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The Elf Archive - Book Two of the Magi Charter
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2 out of 4 stars
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In The Elf Archive - Book Two of the Magi Charter, by Jordan David, we follow the lives of Santa’s elves, which are dissected in great detail. This second book starts with a mysterious house fire where the main character’s (MC) Uncle is killed. Not knowing where to turn, the MC allows himself to be led away by a stranger promising great things. The story then picks up at the North Pole with the former head of the elf recruitment office, Mistletoe Green, angrily interrogating his spies. The author makes it clear that you aren’t to know whom he’s spying on, but that it’s an elf from the first book in the series who has seriously angered Mistletoe.
The book then begins following Noel Night, one of Santa’s elves. Five years ago in book number one, Noel was made head of the historical department, a newly created position developed for the sake of chronicling the lives of the past and present Santas. The reader is taken through Noel’s daily activities, including the annual Reindeer Games, some matchmaking for Santa, and Noel’s hunt for a long-lost library. Mistletoe Green is intent on preventing Noel from discovering the library archives for reasons known only to him. There is very little action until the last third of the book.
I found it a very interesting idea to create an entire world around the North Pole and the lives of Santa’s elves. This book seeks to ‘explain’ how the legend of Santa has persisted for over two thousand years, and the author has created a unique setting filled with the intricate details of their lives. At times, I almost felt like this book would be an interesting read for children since it deals with such a playful topic, though I believe it was intended to be a sort of mystery that children likely wouldn’t understand.
The pacing of the book made it very hard for me to finish it though. Several times in the beginning I found myself wondering if, and when, the plot would pick up and make itself clear. For a long time it seemed to be just a diary of an elf, and I found it quite boring. Toward the end it picked up and got a bit more exciting, especially as Noel begins to regain some of his human memories. Though the elves do not perform magic themselves, there are definitely a lot of magical elements sprinkled throughout the book. At the end of the book the author introduces a cliffhanger, which is a nice segue into the next book in the series. I didn’t read the first book in this series, and while book number two does pretty well at being a stand-alone, I think it might have made more sense overall if I had read the first story.
Unfortunately, this book has more grammatical/spelling errors than any book I have ever read. Wrong words were often used such as ‘clam’ instead of ‘calm’, or ‘grown’ instead of ‘groan’. Words were often missing, making the sentence hard to understand. Lines like, “Noreaster scrounged up his eyes as he did when thinking while watching the other elves pester White, no doubt he was thinking up a new story.” are grammatically incorrect and are run-on sentences. This breaks the flow and makes the story hard to follow. I encountered more than 10 errors within the first 10 pages and they continued throughout the entire book. Because of this, and because of the slow pace of the story, I am giving this book 2 out of 4 stars. If you like somewhat magical topics with a bit of mystery, then I think you will like this story. If you are too distracted by grammatical errors, or like a fast-paced plot, then this book is not for you.
******
The Elf Archive - Book Two of the Magi Charter
View: on Bookshelves | on Amazon
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