Shawn Speakman
Author of Unfettered: Tales by Masters of Fantasy
About the Author
Series
Works by Shawn Speakman
The Briar Sword Monk 7 copies
The Unfettered Knight 2 copies
The Splintered King 1 copy
The Everwinter Wraith 1 copy
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Gender
- male
- Nationality
- USA
- Places of residence
- Seattle, Washington, USA
- Education
- University of Washington, Seattle
- Occupations
- webmaster
bookseller
Members
Reviews
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 20
- Also by
- 6
- Members
- 938
- Popularity
- #27,380
- Rating
- 3.7
- Reviews
- 26
- ISBNs
- 35
Ok, so, I read the original short "The King-Killing Queen" (which is part 1 of this novel) in an anthology that I Kickstarted and read last year. At that time, this was one of my favorite entries and I remember saying I wished it was a full novel. Lo and behold, shortly after that, a Kickstarter was announced for a novel-length version! I backed it, and with shipping from the UK, this book cost me about $65.
I say all this because the cost of the novel does play into my disappointment with it. It's probably one of, if not the most, expensive books I own and damnit, I'm MAD about it.
Almost as soon as I started reading this book, I wondered what I liked about it the first time. Suddenly, the writing felt overly simplistic and painfully repetitive. After I'd finished part 1, I grabbed my copy of the anthology to compare the two. I thought maybe the initial short story had been (poorly) reworked as part of the novelization. I was wrong. I spot-checked quite a bit of part 1 and the original short, and they appear to be, word-for-word, the same.
How could I have liked it so much 6 months ago, and now feel both bored and frustrated by it?! I don't know, but that's what happened.
I didn't like any of the characters, the dialogue is painful, the plot is slow-moving and predictable, and the writing is so frustrating! I felt like I was being talked down to, or that maybe this was written for children (in a way that didn't feel compelling, because actually I love a lot of children's books and this is not a diss on the genre), except that people sometimes say "fuck" or try to kill each other. Normally, I would have DNF'd this at the halfway point, but I'd spent too much money for that and plodded on.
ONLY TO FIND OUT IT'S THE FIRST IN A SERIES.
I should have known. But I was taken by surprise and didn't even get any closure in terms of the plot. I don't know if I'll read the rest of the books - I certainly won't be backing any more Kickstarters; if they're traditionally published and eventually make their way into my library system, maybe I'll give them a read...but maybe not.
I would still be annoyed with this book if it had cost me a more typical amount of money, so I realize that some of my anger is tied to how much I spent and that's 100% not on the author. But damn, I really wanted to love this and I really didn't.… (more)