The Circuit: Executor Rising by
Rhett C. Bruno
My rating:
2 of 5 stars
So I got this as a free download on an Instafreebie email. I didn't really know what to expect going into this, but I am a sci-fi lover so thought I would give it a go.
This is the first 2 star review I have given in a long time; I so wanted to be able to give this 3 stars, as I was reading I was prying that things would get better but they didn't.
This book had all the right elements and could have been amazing, but to me it felt as though all the chapters were in the wrong order:
The book 'blurb' sets up the world that this is suppose to be, and says that Sage Volus is going to be the one to fix it with the aid of Talon Rayne. To me, this implies that these are the main characters of the book, however you have to get nearly a third of the way through before even meeting either of them, and the journey of them meeting and working together only lasts for a few chapters in the middle of the story. If it were up to me, I would make the chapter that we meet sage in Chapter 1, and then within the next couple of chapters introduce Talon. As it is, the first third of the book focuses on the character of Cassius Vale and his 'mission'. This then, in my opinion makes the whole point of the story moot, as within the first 2 chapters the mystery part of the story, the bit that should be uncovered by our 2 main characters is revealed to us. Because of this the book has no flow or real point to it. Rather than having a story that runs alone the lines of:
Introduce main characters (Sage and Talon) - event that puts sage in place to meet Talon - They meet, end up agreeing to work together, form a team, set off on a mission, all the while trying to figure out who is behind it all (which we learn at the same rate they do, so you have a reason to keep reading,) - They figure it out - there's a battle of some sort - resolution to the story (plus potential set up for next book)
We really get:
Loads of time with the bad guy - little bit of time with who are meant to be the main characters - main characters go their separate ways - lots more time with the bad guy but not for any particular reason.
To me this really had no natural flow to it. As well as this the meeting between Sage and Talon, shows that they are immediately captivated by each other and et this relationship never goes anywhere; which I feel was a shame because it was set up so well. I can't get over that fact that no chemistry was developed between the two of them. And I don't think this is because the author can't write relationships, because he can. I thought that relationship he created between Talon and his daughter was incredibly well written and was very believable, as were the relationships between talon and his friends.
I also felt that there was too little explanation as to how humanity got to be where it is at in this story and not enough explanation about the different things such as the Gravitum element. I can take a guess and say that it has something to do with gravity, but I'm still not sure even after reading the book. I also felt that the Cassius and ADIM chapters were slow, which is unfortunate as they made up the majority of the book.
In summary, I feel that this book had a lot of potential, but it didn't deliver. There was to little backstory to set up the world and therefore you never fully understand the reasoning or importance of the events that are taking place. I don't feel that the story had a natural flow to it and the character relationships could have been developed more. I honestly feel that this book could be much improved by reordering what is already there, adding in some backstory and description and also by developing the characters and their relationships.
I really wanted this book to improve as I read it so I could give a higher rating, but I was left disappointed. Unfortunately I don't think I will be getting the next one to see if these issues have been resolved.
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