Ink of Blood

(I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review).

(This review may contain spoilers).

I’ve seen a few different versions of Alice in Wonderland and I thought this was quite an interesting version of the story. I liked the idea of the fairy tales being echoes from different worlds.

I found Alice an interesting character, though I wasn’t sure if I really liked her or not. I found it hard to see her as different to her first appearance, despite the fact that she’d grown up by ten years. She still seemed very immature and not emotionally healthy enough to have the romance that started towards the end of the book.

Seeing the contrast between the Wonderland Alice originally went to and the one she ended up in later was quite scary. It was sad to see the way the creatures of Wonderland were treated… and although Ace did make a good villain, it was difficult to see him as a balanced one.

I couldn’t help but feel sympathy for the animals in Wonderland… but I liked seeing that there were still some aspects of Wonderland for at least part of the first half of the book. It was also good to see the Mat Hatter… though not so much towards the end.

I liked the way the different stories merged together in one universe. I felt a lot of sympathy for Pinocchio and it was nice to see the friendship he formed with Jimmy. I also liked seeing Peter and Alice interacting together as they learned that they were both from well-known stories.

I did like the fact that this book had a lot of tension in it and it wasn’t clear if the characters would survive or not. I didn’t really think much of the White Rabbit, but I could see how he’d become the way he was.

I would have liked a bit more explanation about how the echoes bled through to different times that were far outside the time periods both Alice and Peter were in, but I did think it was an interesting explanation for why certain things were different. It was also good to see Robin involved… and how he was connected to everything.

Although this book did clearly come to an end, I would be interested in reading more books by this author in the future.

(I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review).

(This review may contain spoilers).

I’d probably give this book (or short story, really) 3.5 stars out of 5. The plot idea was really intriguing, but I did feel that the storyline could have been expanded upon. I found it quite difficult to get to know Dayton. I did feel that he seemed to accept everything a bit too quickly… and there was very little evidence of culture shock.

It was good to see Dayton interacting with the other sailors on the ship and I did like the fact that the Captain didn’t actually just believe Dayton… though it was a bit difficult to understand what Dayton’s purpose on the ship actually was.

There were some good elements of tension involved, but the foreshadowing wasn’t subtle or hinted at and I was disappointed that the tension wasn’t expanded upon.

I did think that most of the other characters seemed accepting and told Dayton their secrets straight away, while I think it would have been more realistic to have them more suspicious of him, especially since he was supposed to be assumed to be a stowaway. I did think that Sarah was an interesting character, though I was very confused by her apparent relationship to one of the other characters. I would have liked some more details about that… and more about the relationships between the other sailors and the Captain.

I thought Floyd was a really interesting character, despite the conflict between him and Dayton. It would have been nice to see more of him, but his justification towards the end of the book about the squid was interesting. And I would have liked to know the fate of Sarah’s brother… as well as see her have some reaction to leaving the life she’s known by the end.

There were bits and pieces I felt were left hanging and weren’t explored in the way I felt they could have been. The idea of the time travel was intriguing, but the ending did have a bit of deus ex machina about it.

I’d read the next book in this series if it was expanded upon and there was more of a culture shock… but if the next one is as short, I don’t think there would be enough to draw me in.

(I received a free copy of this book in exchange for a review).

(This review may contain spoilers).

I really liked the blurb of this book, as well as the front cover. While the plot wasn’t an entirely unique one, I thought it was an interesting twist on the ‘person/group of people find themselves in another world’.

I did think it was interesting to see the characters and how capable they were when they were playing the game. While I’ve never LARP-ed myself, I didn’t have any problem picturing the teams in my mind. What I didn’t like, however, was the listing off of the characters… and that I had no idea what any of them looked like, which made it difficult to differentiate between them at times.

While it was good to see that the characters had different names, it would have been good to see more explanations as to why some of them were chosen.

I did feel that the plot was very simplistic in places. There was a lot of potential, but I felt that the connections between many of the characters weren’t given the time to develop. I felt that Raina especially wasn’t given much of a personality outside of her crush on Bohair… and speaking of Bohair, I actually didn’t like him very much by the end of the book. At the same time, I thought that Piper’s changed feelings towards Bohair were random and not foreshadowed at all.

There were some quite good elements in this book, especially where the fight scenes were concerned. However, I found it very difficult to believe the characters from modern-day Earth could defeat warriors apparently training for actual fighting in a fantasy world. I was also disappointed not to see much of a culture shock… or for the characters to have any sort of reaction to actually having to kill people.

I would have liked to see more of the world and the interactions expanded upon, rather than glossed over. I found it very difficult to care about the characters who were wounded, because I hadn’t connected emotionally to them.

As it stands, I don’t think I’ll read a sequel to this book, since I found it difficult to connect to the characters… but I would read one if it was changed and expanded upon, allowing me to connect to the characters and care about them.