The Oldest Trick / Auston Habershaw

The Oldest Trick

(Saga of the Redeemed #1)

by Auston Habershaw

fantasy

copyright 2015

read in February 2017

rated 6/10: read to pass the time

This is an enjoyable book. Worth a rating of seven... except for a few caveats.

It's clearly a book "to be continued". Not to worry, it also has a clear beginning, middle and end. It would be *nice* to read another book in this series. It is not *necessary*.

And yet... My copy of this book contains two parts: The Iron Ring, and Iron and Blood. These are "published together for the first time" !? Come on ! How could you publish just The Iron Ring?! It is clearly just *half* a story... with no wrap-up whatsoever. By good luck I missed the initial publishing rip-off. Yet it still annoys me.

What really knocks a point off the book's rating is the violence.

The villain is evil and I have read many books with an evil villain. Yet this book presents the evil -- the violence of the villain -- in such a way as to make me uncomfortable. Other books have presented equal violence without leaving such a bad taste in my mouth... or, rather, in my mind. I can't explain what exactly causes the difference.

I'm just a bit squeamish. Whatever it is about the writing style, the descriptive style, in this book, the violence worries me. For you, it may not have the same effect. Add a point to your own rating.

Apart from that, it's an enjoyable book. Interesting characters, not always likeable. Good -- complex -- plot. A smart-alec hero who is not too smug. Well, he is, but not annoyingly so. Other interesting characters interact in various ways. Somewhat stereotypical but still fun.

Well worth reading. Except for the nastiness of some of the violence.

====
Dr Nick Lethbridge / Consulting Dexitroboper
Agamedes Consulting / Problems? Solved.
====

"Before your dreams can come true, you have to have those dreams" … Dr Joyce Brothers