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Eldon Thompson
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Legend of Asahiel Karen: I really wanted to like this book. It has most of the fantasy elements that I usually love: sword and sorcery, a map, romance. That said, I can honestly say that I did not enjoy the time it took me to slog through this piece. "Crimson Sword" is the first effort in an expected trilogy by new author Eldon Thompson. The author for some reason debuted in hardcover, an honor he did not earn, in my opinion. The cover art is beautiful and the jacket summary sounds interesting enough which overcame my initial impulse not to read, based on a review in “Romantic Reader.” So why did I dislike this title? Well, to begin with the main character is completely annoying. He has absolutely nothing special about him that would make him a hero beyond the fact that he was born a prince and secreted away at birth. The legendary sword would probably have responded to anyone, or that is how I construed it based on the author’s words. Our hero, Jarom, is whiny, introspective, relatively inept, and cowardly. For a young man who is supposed to be a swordsman, it is surprising that whenever he is involved in a battle, the ‘sword’ seems to direct him as though he were under a spell. The secondary characters are little better than Jarom. His best friend and sidekick is, if at all possible, more whiny than Jarom- his only saving grace being that he, at least, is talented with his weapon of choice. The other member of Jarom’s band is wonderful and would be quite enjoyable were it not for the fact that Thompson gives him an annoyingly incomprehensible accent, which no other group of people seems to have. The love interest is bland and boring. Our hero falls for her in under a week and then proceeds to spend the rest of the book either mooning over thoughts of her, or making bad decisions over her. Even the plot unravels at the end, as if even the author couldn’t stand it anymore and was willing to take any shortcuts in order to end. So please do yourself a favor and do not be deceived by a pretty cover! 6/27/05 NEWS: The second in this series, "The Obsidian Key," has a possible release in May 2006. |
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