First things first, the cover of the book is fairly uninspiring and does not do much to attract the reader. The blurb is a little more intriguing and it was this that convinced me to give the book a try. Unfortunately, the book that follows is not gripping or well written.
The book follows the adventures of a teenager who becomes the first male to win access to a magical realm. He naturally accepts the chance to rule his own world and dives in. He is there for not very long before he tries to come home and manages to break into one of the other realms. One meeting with a Barbie obsessed nutcase later and he moves into the next realm... and then the next... followed by the next.
The actual plot of this book has promise and for this alone it gains two stars. However the world building, history, characterisation and even dialogue are underwhelming and never rises above the mediocre. The male protagonist is approaching Gary Stu levels of lunacy, the female characters are unmemorable and one note and many queries just aren't dealt with. For me to suspend my disbelief in the basic plot, that magic is discovered and just allowed to be given out as a lotto prize, the writing has to make me forget the nagging question of why does this happen?
I give Matt kudos for managing to tie in LARPing, Lolis and Barbie into one book, but it isn't well written enough to pull it off. I recommend he turns in the book to a professional editor and gets some advice. He has some excellent ideas, it's unfortunate that the writing couldn't get those ideas across.
**
The book follows the adventures of a teenager who becomes the first male to win access to a magical realm. He naturally accepts the chance to rule his own world and dives in. He is there for not very long before he tries to come home and manages to break into one of the other realms. One meeting with a Barbie obsessed nutcase later and he moves into the next realm... and then the next... followed by the next.
The actual plot of this book has promise and for this alone it gains two stars. However the world building, history, characterisation and even dialogue are underwhelming and never rises above the mediocre. The male protagonist is approaching Gary Stu levels of lunacy, the female characters are unmemorable and one note and many queries just aren't dealt with. For me to suspend my disbelief in the basic plot, that magic is discovered and just allowed to be given out as a lotto prize, the writing has to make me forget the nagging question of why does this happen?
I give Matt kudos for managing to tie in LARPing, Lolis and Barbie into one book, but it isn't well written enough to pull it off. I recommend he turns in the book to a professional editor and gets some advice. He has some excellent ideas, it's unfortunate that the writing couldn't get those ideas across.
**
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