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A review by ladyelfriede
The West Passage by Jared Pechaček
2.5
Like most books, I wanted to like this book. And I do...in some cases.
However, this review is a call out to ALL publishing houses.
Care about your debut authors more and maybe, I don't know, pay the editors or authors more.
What you have is a good ass author here that did not have a backing of either of an editor, publishing house, or resources for anyone else to care in the product besides the author themselves. And usually this shit stems to the editor being forced to get through a ton of manuscripts, their not getting paid enough to give a shit, or they are simply not interested. The whole entire logistic department of a publishing house psychologically, is a crap shot for debut authors.
Authors aren't very good at hog tying and killing their darlings, so the editors and the publishing houses need to step in and do their jobs. It's so evident in this book it's not funny. It's sloppy.
The author himself uses pretentious wording when you can just say "a spiky tower" instead of using an archaic word for it no one has heard of in the 21st century, thereby, breaking immersion and forcing the reader to look the word up.
The prattling of different rooms while I loved it, it can get a lot if you don't break the monotony of "see room. Go to another room. Go to another room." without any semblance of life to it.
As an art piece, I get what this book was trying to go for. An early medieval fantasy with French roots that reads more like a document than an actual book.
As a history book, good.
But y'all need to understand:
This is hell for a reader to go through.
Please, either I one day push my own publishing house or y'all need to step your game up.
The ball's in your court.
Prose: as stated above, the author couldn't hog tie and as such, the prose is monotonous and the author couldn't decide what to get rid of and kept way too many things that should have just been pared down. He also has a way of describing something that takes 5 lines, when a simple "the curtain is blue" type of shit could be used. I get he was trying to be archaic, and this can work for fans of Tolkien. But as a fan of Tolkien, it doesn't work here.
Use of a lot of pretentious words kept to the archaic theme, but even an avid reader as me, if I have to look up a word every other page, that breaks the immersion way too much.
VERY confusing what the author is trying to say sometimes which probably adds to this art piece as being a puzzling dream like palace. (Not often, but enough you notice)
One last thing, a lot of reactions were a hit and miss and it's hard to come to the conclusion that a character reacts appropriately or not.
Plot: Good actually. Not predictable, except the climax was predictable and so was the major plot twist.
Pace: Slow as molasses but tries to hype itself up a few times. Mileage will vary every now and then.
Characters: All morally gray in some aspects. Maybe except Frin cause we don't get much out of them. Other than that, the characters were solid.
You might not get some things about them however, most of it is explained as the story goes on. Yeah, I'm lookin' at you, plot twists.
Vibe: Excellent. You really feel you're in abandoned city and it's medieval French vibes. The chapter pictures help cement the vibes outstandingly.
Worldbuilding: This carried the book SO HARD. You can tell the author put a lot of love into the world he created. Down to minute details of palace, characters, epigraphs, everything. The magic system isn't used by people. The palace IS the magic system.
As I said, I want to love this book and I love the worldbuilding and vibe so hard. So if you come this far and you still want to give this book a try, some recommendations:
Skim the wandering of rooms if it starts to get dull until a paragraph seems interesting. Your mileage will be way better.
2.5/5
(more points in WB, Vibe, Plot, and Chars. However, the prose tanks everything so hard that the magic of this book is broken thanks to lack of resources from publishing houses. Please do your jobs.)
However, this review is a call out to ALL publishing houses.
Care about your debut authors more and maybe, I don't know, pay the editors or authors more.
What you have is a good ass author here that did not have a backing of either of an editor, publishing house, or resources for anyone else to care in the product besides the author themselves. And usually this shit stems to the editor being forced to get through a ton of manuscripts, their not getting paid enough to give a shit, or they are simply not interested. The whole entire logistic department of a publishing house psychologically, is a crap shot for debut authors.
Authors aren't very good at hog tying and killing their darlings, so the editors and the publishing houses need to step in and do their jobs. It's so evident in this book it's not funny. It's sloppy.
The author himself uses pretentious wording when you can just say "a spiky tower" instead of using an archaic word for it no one has heard of in the 21st century, thereby, breaking immersion and forcing the reader to look the word up.
The prattling of different rooms while I loved it, it can get a lot if you don't break the monotony of "see room. Go to another room. Go to another room." without any semblance of life to it.
As an art piece, I get what this book was trying to go for. An early medieval fantasy with French roots that reads more like a document than an actual book.
As a history book, good.
But y'all need to understand:
This is hell for a reader to go through.
Please, either I one day push my own publishing house or y'all need to step your game up.
The ball's in your court.
Prose: as stated above, the author couldn't hog tie and as such, the prose is monotonous and the author couldn't decide what to get rid of and kept way too many things that should have just been pared down. He also has a way of describing something that takes 5 lines, when a simple "the curtain is blue" type of shit could be used. I get he was trying to be archaic, and this can work for fans of Tolkien. But as a fan of Tolkien, it doesn't work here.
Use of a lot of pretentious words kept to the archaic theme, but even an avid reader as me, if I have to look up a word every other page, that breaks the immersion way too much.
VERY confusing what the author is trying to say sometimes which probably adds to this art piece as being a puzzling dream like palace. (Not often, but enough you notice)
One last thing, a lot of reactions were a hit and miss and it's hard to come to the conclusion that a character reacts appropriately or not.
Plot: Good actually. Not predictable, except the climax was predictable and so was the major plot twist.
Pace: Slow as molasses but tries to hype itself up a few times. Mileage will vary every now and then.
Characters: All morally gray in some aspects. Maybe except Frin cause we don't get much out of them. Other than that, the characters were solid.
You might not get some things about them however, most of it is explained as the story goes on. Yeah, I'm lookin' at you, plot twists.
Vibe: Excellent. You really feel you're in abandoned city and it's medieval French vibes. The chapter pictures help cement the vibes outstandingly.
Worldbuilding: This carried the book SO HARD. You can tell the author put a lot of love into the world he created. Down to minute details of palace, characters, epigraphs, everything. The magic system isn't used by people. The palace IS the magic system.
As I said, I want to love this book and I love the worldbuilding and vibe so hard. So if you come this far and you still want to give this book a try, some recommendations:
Skim the wandering of rooms if it starts to get dull until a paragraph seems interesting. Your mileage will be way better.
2.5/5
(more points in WB, Vibe, Plot, and Chars. However, the prose tanks everything so hard that the magic of this book is broken thanks to lack of resources from publishing houses. Please do your jobs.)