I was very excited aboout reading Pike's Quest because I'd read positive
reviews about it, and followed the blog of the author, KJ Bennet. The blog is extremely well written and holds many excellent pieces of advice which a young writer could only expect to obtain after years trying to break into the business. I knew the writing would be great, but I have to be honest and say I was not a fan of the novel.
Firstly I have to be honest and say that I only managed to get through the first half of the book, I couldn't
push myself any further, so if the book changed miraculously in the second half
then I wouldn't know.
The main things I disliked about this novel were
the pace and the characters. The pace is strange. The first big event of Pike
meeting Morlock happens instantly, so we have no time to get our bearings of the
surroundings or even the characters. In Fantasy the hero's quest is always larger than life and have deverstating consequences. The journey pushes the hero so much and challenges them and so it is vital that the reader is
interested and cares for the hero, otherwise why would we want to dedicate weeks
of our lives to reading about them. So the problem with Pike's quest starting so
quickly is that the world hasn't been established, which leaves us confused, and
we don't yet know Pike. After this first event the action is incredibly slow and
I found it quite boring. It seems completely irrelevant to the rest of the
story, as it's just Pike being explained, at a snail's pace, what he's supposed to do
on his quest, as well as meeting some characters. The character's are not developed and
not rounded in the slightest. In faireness to the writer, I think he has
intended this novel to be more about the jokes and not the characters, but I
personally found the lack of characterisation to be the reason I didn't want to
read on. I think my idea of funny is also very different from the
writer's.
On a positive note the writing itself was of a high standard.
It was easy to read and description was particularly well done. Also the premise
of the story is unique and interesting, but I just don't think it was executed
strongly.
I won't recommend this to anyone I know, but from reading the
other reviews on Amazon, it is clear that those people enjoyed it.
This story is like marmite,
you will either love it or hate it.
2/5
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