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juushikaTitle: The Shattered Gates (The Rifter Book 1)
Author: Ginn Hale
Published:: Bellingham: Blind Eye Books, 2012
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 341
Total Page Count: 142,969
Text Number: 420
Read Because: reviewed byrachelmanija, borrowed from the Multnomah County Library
Review: The strangest thing in John's life is his tattoo'd, knife-bearing roommate—until he opens his roommate's mail to find a key that unlocks a strange, magical, dangerous world. The world of The Rifter is crafted with love: it's complex, robust, and unromanticized, and while I fail to find it particularly compelling it's undeniably real. But more worldbuilding that plot happens in The Shattered Gates, and though the book never drags the series promises to run a little too long. It's the dual narratives that make it worth reading: the protagonists have distinct characters, the alternating timelines give a broad view of the setting, and there's constant mystery and revelation as the two narratives begin to overlap. The Shattered Gates feels self-published—there's typos, stiff phrasing, and it could stand to lose a few hundred pages—but it's engaging and calling it "finely crafted" is something of an understatement. Whether I recommend it hinges on the rest of the series, but I'm enjoying it so far.
Author: Ginn Hale
Published:: Bellingham: Blind Eye Books, 2012
Rating: 3 of 5
Page Count: 341
Total Page Count: 142,969
Text Number: 420
Read Because: reviewed by
rachelmanija, borrowed from the Multnomah County LibraryReview: The strangest thing in John's life is his tattoo'd, knife-bearing roommate—until he opens his roommate's mail to find a key that unlocks a strange, magical, dangerous world. The world of The Rifter is crafted with love: it's complex, robust, and unromanticized, and while I fail to find it particularly compelling it's undeniably real. But more worldbuilding that plot happens in The Shattered Gates, and though the book never drags the series promises to run a little too long. It's the dual narratives that make it worth reading: the protagonists have distinct characters, the alternating timelines give a broad view of the setting, and there's constant mystery and revelation as the two narratives begin to overlap. The Shattered Gates feels self-published—there's typos, stiff phrasing, and it could stand to lose a few hundred pages—but it's engaging and calling it "finely crafted" is something of an understatement. Whether I recommend it hinges on the rest of the series, but I'm enjoying it so far.
