What do You think about A Quest For Heroes (2000)?
Completely unimpressed. I had a promotion to get books 1-3 as a bundle so this review is for all three. I don't know where one began and one ended. Problem 1 - Morgan Rice is not a good writer. At one point, she's describing a character's since of purpose in a dream sequence and out of 6 sentences, 3 said the same thing "this is where he was supposed to be." Amazingly, the first and second sentence were nearly identical with only 2-3 words differing. It's like her publisher said, "We need another 1000 words" and instead of adding to the plot, she just decided to add repetitive sentences throughout the existing story. Also, she occasionally uses words she thinks she knows what mean, but she really doesn't. Problem 2 - She has a primary character that is obviously intended to be a strong female character, but she undermines that strength constantly. Every time she acts or speaks with authority, she feels "the power of her father" rising up in her. So really, she's not strong, she's just channeling her dead dad. Also, her world is still horribly sexist and treats women as property and prizes. Problem 3 - Inconsistency. She has a dragon that is large enough its footprints leave "canyons" that are "hundreds of feet deep," but its claws are only as big as trees. She did not indicate ancient redwoods so I'm assuming she intended an typical, large tree. So really its claws are super tiny finger nails? And say they are the size of trees - when a human gets swiped by something that much bigger than him, he doesn't get shred to ribbons. At the right angle he might be cut in half, but not shred. Also, the dragon's legs are only as big as 50 men. 50 six foot men would be only 150 feet tall laid end to end. But the footprints are hundreds of feet deep? This animal also lives on a island. The characters traverse this island for half a day without seeing it. A creature that leaves canyons in the earth when it walks. Really? The "island" would have to be more like a continent. Problem 4 - Just not interesting. Rice wants to be a little George R. R. Martin and have an epic series with a dozens of characters with interweaving plot threads. However, much of it seems completely unconnected, only one or two of the characters is even remotely interesting or written with any depth, and there is no sense of an overarching plot. Remember - I read THREE books in the series and only at the very end of the third book is there any hint of a greater epic plot to accompany this hodge podge of mostly boring stories played out by fairly boring characters. Needless to say, I'll not be picking up another book by this writer and do not recommend them. Each book could be cut in half by a half-way decent editor (and should be). And Rice should have more respect for her readers. You don't have to beat anyone over the head with the same point fifteen times. Once on a page and maybe a reminder or two later in the story sure, but not literally an entire page of "Oh I love him and I hope we can be together."
—hiba
This is a very formulaic fantasy tale, a coming of age story of a downtrodden marginalized teen hero we all want to root for who discovers he has incredible powers and gifts. I don't mind formulaic tales if they are done well, but this seems to be lots of clichés lifted from other works. The characters are on another planet but vacillate between having Celtic or Anglo-Saxon names--well, except for the hero, who is named Thor (such an innovative name for a hero, eh?) Their far off planet sure seems like it's based on a version of the Middle Ages in western Europe to me.As I read along I noticed the style was simple, stark sentences and a quick communication of plot. Perhaps the target audience is young adults or teens? Even with such a dirth of details, there were way too many problems in grammar, spelling, and punctuation. How I wish would-be authors, if they won't learn proper written communication skills, would at least learn the value of a good editor. I noted this was just the first book in a long series, so apparently the author has been churning them out for a while, and either no one has shared this suggestion yet or the author doesn't consider it important enough to take action. To keep me reading, the volume ended with a cliffhanger scene--right in the middle of the action. If you can remember when Batman was on TV in the 1960s,(or even if you can't) it was Wednesday and Thursday nights, so the action stopped with such a cliffhanger on Wednesday to bring you back on Thursday. I'll accept that sort of behavior in a dime novel installment or a comic book perhaps, but some sense of closure to the themed events for this volume is needed in such a coming of age series as well--the author could take a lesson from J.K. Rowling on this point. And please permit me one last complaint, for one error that particularly irritated me: when someone is riding a horse that is proceeding at a leisurely rate, you would write "Thor walked his horse across the meadow" not "Thor walked on his horse across the meadow." Sure he has incredible superpowers, I get it, but he isn't trying out to be a circus performer.
—yeseniadealejandro
Simple and easy to follow without too many storylines. Basically, it is "Game of Thrones" lite.
—late_choco
I love this book So damn much. I couldn't put the book Down. It's So amazing
—Anne125
The only good thing about this book was that it was free on Amazon.
—itziar