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Title: Nothing new under the sun
Review: The rehashing of every Fantasy gimmick under the sun--from Tolkein to Le Guin to McCaffrey to Brooks--got so grating after a while that I was relieved when I got near the end of the book. The characters fail to resonate (and why should they when they're carbon copies of other, earlier works) and never engaged my sympathy. The use of language was also a weak point, and especially the constant use of other words than "said." when there is nothing wrong with "said." Overly flowery and pretentious language was grating, with examples of "visage" and "raiment" and their like sprinkled throughout the book.Overall, considering the author's age, it's not bad as a first attempt, but there are any number of stories like it already out there by more experienced writers, not to mention on fanfiction.net. I would suggest readers interested in a good Fantasy book head towards the original texts instead of this derivative one.
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