Literary Musings
  • Tours, Reviews and Other Stuff
  • Reviews
    • Review Policy
    • Reviews A-G
    • Reviews H-L
    • Reviews M-P
    • Reviews: Q-T
    • Reviews: U-Z
  • Book Awards
  • About
  • Links
  • My Books

The Return: Carter Vance

20/1/2015

 
Picture
Okay..

The Return is a modern fantasy novel in the vein of Dan Brown. It starts with the discovery of a modern Templar manual, takes in a healthy dose of Vatican conspiracy, worldwide evil and ends up with the second coming.

Okay.... the problems I had with this book were numerous, extremely so. For starters, the text is bland and the characters more so. We are told that Geoff is a financier and how he stumbles upon this Templar text, but not his back story. He takes this text from a hidden library in his friend's house, doesn't mention it and is suddenly enthused with the idea of finding the Templar history for no discernible reason. There's also no reason why he thinks he's being followed. 

Another issue comes with the villains. They are cardboard cut outs with no menace and the dominatrix killer nun (don't ask) is so random, I can't even think about it.

Then there's the fact that the 'last scion of Christ' plot is lifted directly from Dan Brown, in a book where Dan Brown's novel is alluded to. 

And I will stop there before I begin to rant. 

My recommendations for improvement are:  Give the characters some initial motivation and let us get to know them. Unless you're starting the story in the middle of some action, give us some kind of intro before the story kicks off. Pace the book a little better and lay off the 'beige prose'. I cannot overly stress the importance of a good editor

**

Comments are closed.

    RSS Feed

    Categories

    All
    ****
    Author Spotlight
    Blitz
    Blog Tour
    Book Of The Month
    Cover Reveal
    Excerpt
    Giveaway
    Gone-but-not-forgotten
    Guest-post
    Haunted Halloween
    Interview
    New Release
    Opinion
    Prerelease
    Promo
    Puzzle
    Review
    Top-ten
    Trailer

    Recommended Reads:

    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture

    Book of the Month:

    Picture
    Follow @ClaireWarner5
    Follow this blog
    Goodreads: Book reviews, recommendations, and discussion
    Literary Musings - Reviews

    2017 Reading Challenge

    Claire has read 2 books toward her goal of 120 books.
    hide
    2 of 120 (1%)
    view books
    BannerFans.com
    Get the Button:
    <a href="http://literarymusing.weebly.com/"><img src="http://imagizer.imageshack.com/img540/9935/CBboHb.jpg" border="0" width="180" height="150" alt="BannerFans.com" /></a>

    Challenge Participant
    10 Book Reviews
    Professional Reader
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.