All the Paths of Shadow

I can't do it any more. I just cannot keep reading books in the hope that they will get better when it's quite obvious to me that they won't. It took me ten weeks to make it halfway through this book. I can't even begin to tell you how many other books I had started and finished in that time. (Actually, after looking it up on Goodreads, I can. Ten books.)

So, what's wrong with this book? Ugh, what isn't?

Setting: The setting makes no sense. You get take-out coffee and donuts along with newspapers (I think one was called the Times) existing alongside kings that rule from castles, scrying mirrors, talking plants and ships that vanish after they leave port, never to be heard from again. Is this supposed to be a future version of earth? An alternate reality? Another world? You cannot drop things that don't belong together together without an explanation. Which was sadly lacking.

Yang: The Yang (I might be wrong about this, I thought they were the Huang, but another reader called the Yang, so I'm going with someone whose memory of this book isn't as fuzzy as mine) are a people that come from far across the sea. (Where all those ships that kept disappearing were headed.) They are the only people able to circumnavigate the planet (which is still called, incongruously, ‘earth') which, I thought was great. I love it when everyone is not on the same level technologically. However, the Yang are demons, evil, vile, bloodthirsty beasts. At least, that's what everyone thinks because no one has ever actually met the Yang. When you finally see them in the story, you find out that they are a culture reminiscent and physical descriptions practically ripped right from the Chinese. Ugh. Was that really necessary?

Meralda: Our main character. She has a job working for the king as his thaumaturge (yeah, I might not be spelling that right) which is basically a cross between a Royal Alchemist and a Royal Wizard. She worked hard to get this job, as she is both the first woman to hold this office and the youngest. And she, apparently, hates it. She complains about the king and belittles him behind his back. She talks about him as though he's an idiot. She has decided he doesn't trust her or like her because she is a woman. She hates the students she went to classes with because while she has the thankless job of working for the king, they didn't apply themselves as much and have jobs with merchants - which she's sure they are laughing about her lucklessness, even now. Honestly, she's bitter. She's bitter about her life, her job and pretty much everything else that was even vaguely touched on. She thinks everything revolves around her and, once you meet her, you can never forget her. She's miserable. She's a woman. She's the only woman I recall reading about in the first half of the book and she seems to hate women. (Ooh, excellent role model there!) She also has no sense of humor.

In the interest of being fair, (and at the danger of making an already long review unreadable) I'm now going to mention what I liked about the book.

Mug: The talking houseplant. He's got a great sense of humor. Pity that he cannot play off Meralda at all. I really did get a kick out of him and was waiting excitedly for his meeting with the twins. (Unfortunately, that was something that the author decided to completely leave out.

Those two old men: (I do apologize for not being able to remember their names.) I'm sure though that if you've read the book, you know exactly who I mean. They were funny and had a wonderful antagonistic friendship.

Now, I must say, I love the self-publishing industry. I love how more authors get published. I love the unusual books that some of those people write. I just love the industry. But there are some bad things about it. Like how very few authors get critical editors/beta readers. I don't know who they ask to read their books. I don't know if they go up to their significant other and say ‘honey, read my book'. Or if they ask their parents to read it. Or their children. Or their best friend. It seems like every other review for self-published books that I write, I'm saying ‘I wish they had a better editor'.

This book didn't actually make any obvious mistakes. There were no capitalization errors. There were not any glaringly obvious grammar errors (can't speak for the none obvious ones, as I probably wouldn't have noticed them). However, I was truly surprised when I discovered that this was not the author's first book. It felt like a first book. It felt like the author was trying to give you every minute detail (just how many times did Meralda go to the ‘wash closet' anyway?) of Meralda's life. (Except that scene between Mug and the twins that I desperately wanted to see.)

And I think that is the danger of self-publishing. That the author's craft never grows, they never develop past where they start. Honestly, I think that with tighter writing (and a different main character) this could have been a solid fantasy novel. Ultimately though, thanks to Meralda and the ponderousness of the book, it wasn't for me.